Manipur: Challenges in media in digital era

Sobhapati Samom *

Initially I thought of not writing this as a presentation at the National Press Day observation at Tamenglong district headquarters on November 16,2018. But after President of Manipur Hill Journalists Union who edits The Cham, a Rongmei vernacular published from Tamenglong, suggested me to share few thoughts on issues of journalistic ethics and digital media, I thought why not.

As we know National Press Day is a symbolic day as this was the day Press Council of India (PCI) started to function as a moral watchdog after it was constituted on July 4, 1966. The PCI was constituted to help the newspaper to maintain independence, to build code of conduct and also to enhance growth of sense of responsibility etc.India is said to be globally the 5th largest media arena and 2nd largest newspaper market with over 100 million copies of newspapers per day, according to reports.

The Bengal Gazette (1780) is said to first newspaper in India while Acta Diumai(Daily event) the first newspaper in the world (in Rome 59 B.C.) More than 1.14 lakh publications including 16,993 newspapers (Ananda Bazar Patrika Kolkata, the circulated daily) are registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India till March 2017.

Unlike rest of the country, the North Eastern states also have a good number of newspapers and periodicals apart from televisions and online media since the first newspaper Arunodoi hit the region in 1846. In my two decades old career in print journalism in the region, I found more than 100 newspapers including few periodicals in the NE states.

In Manipur state alone, there’re around 30 popular English and vernacular newspapers including around 20 major dailies in the valley and 10 in the hill districts. There are also around half a dozen eveningers. Besides we also have around 8 cable TV networks including two popular news networks based in Imphal, one at Kakching and five in Churachandpur apart from online news portals and other social media platforms.

The first journal in Manipur is said to be Meitei Chanu(1922). So in a way the people in Manipur used to consume news in the morning and evening in the form of newspapers while the All India Radio news services division and local cable TV networks air and telecast their hourly news programs from breakfast to dinner time.

The history of media shows that all technologies do not disappear. People thought when camera was invented the painting will disappear. When radio was invented, people thought newspapers will disappear. Similarly when TV was invented people thought radio will disappear. But none of those things has happen. Each of those mediums adapted and it actually got better which shows that technology is bringing new audiences to the news.

With the invention of digital technology, the number of reporters in the newsrooms has been reduced as digital medium is cost effective, no geographical boundary, target audience can be reached instantly besides both audio-visual and text contents can be used simultaneously. After all they are more interactive and entertaining.

Even the job of reporting and analysis of news is done by alternative (social) media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp etc as internet has transformed the media industry across the globe not to speak of the remote region. Subsequently the boundary of news and advertisement are also got blurred.

As a result, the media practitioners in Manipur also started to face new challenges in disseminating information to the masses. Thus issues like fake news begins to create more confusion among the general public as the technologies can be fabricated in different ways.

The verification and authenticity of the news or report which appears like news is need of the hour through the traditional form of media and other journalistic ethics. Thus the media experts and planners are suggesting strategic plan for future journalism as standard and ethical journalism are falling.

Meanwhile people are expecting that the PCI will include news channels, online portals and alternative media under its ambit within shortest possible time while the local bodies/agencies need to frame local regulations to deal it locally.

There is also a need to re-look at the budgets. Even the state government needs to review the budget of state agencies which are handling media affairs while the government at centre should incorporate smaller states like Manipur in awarding relevant assistance in advertisement sector etc.

For generating media fellowships/awards and regular training/orientation programs for the media practitioners, we need to initiate more and more debate so that the traditional form of media could be transformed with necessary evidences, research findings in a transparent manner, in the new formats in this era of ‘show me’ (show me the facts or truth).