It’s our rocking 8th year of success. This year I am proud to announce that “Afternoon Voice” is going DIGITAL.
Press baron Rupert Murdoch once described the profits flowing from his stable of newspapers as “Rivers of gold”, but several years later said, “Sometimes rivers dry up”.
Supporting Modiji’s Digital India concept, we are planning to go online full-fledged. The newspaper industry has always been recurring, and the industry has weathered previous troughs. Television’s news popularity in the recent past began the decline of newspapers as most people’s source of daily news. But the explosion of the Internet has increased the range of media choices available to the average reader while further cutting into newspaper’s dominance as the source of news. Both television and the Internet deliver news to the consumer faster with enhanced visual style and presentation than newspapers, which are constrained by their physical format and their physical manufacturing and distribution. Competing mediums also offer advertisers moving images and sound to add to the appeal. The Internet search function further streamlines content and allows advertisers to tailor their pitch to readers who have revealed what they are seeking—an enormous advantage.
As I have already mentioned, for eight long years, I tried my level best to keep parallel media alive by fighting against all odds of this industry. We are committed to uphold fair journalism and live with its integrity. World is going digital and the existence of print medium for small organization like us doesn’t make much sense. We are widely read by readers online and we have established good existence through this medium. Though, the decline of newspapers has been widely argued as the industry has faced increasing newsprint prices, falling advertisement sales, the loss of much classified advertising and swift drops in circulation. In recent years, the number of newspapers slated for closure, bankruptcy or severe cutbacks has risen. Revenue has lurched while competition from internet media has squeezed older print publishers also. This has strictly affected media houses like us. We are small newspaper and could not fetch much readership through print, but have created our strong existence. People have started noticing us.
Sometimes, I get scared of getting vanished due to prevalence of rat race competition in media. Therefore to strengthen our roots and remain here forever as the voice of the people, we are proudly making one more step ahead by Digitalization of Afternoon Voice.
However the primary concern of journalism, which is news and features on current affairs, is presented solely or in combination as text, audio, video and some interactive forms, and disseminated through various digital media platforms. On internet, we have a huge scope to expand our vision, we can reach out globally, and moreover we are not here to make money or fame. We are here to serve news and content. We are marking our presence to make difference in fourth estate and progress towards higher levels of existence and expression.
We are here to bring revolution in media.
Off late, media has been called as ‘prostitute’ or presstitute, paid, bazaru and what not. Somewhere, people have lost faith in mainstream journalism. Media has become tools in the hands of power or rulers. I refused to be an intellectual slave or labour. I want to have all that freedom of expression, to speak my mind and call a spade a spade.
Print has its own challenges and limits when it comes to survival and truthful journalism really becomes a task. Despite these problems, newspaper companies with significant brand value, which have published their work online, have a significant rise in viewership.
There are many media houses like Tehelka, Cobra Post, Gulail, One Media and others who came into limelight with digital media and then entered into print media. It has democratized the flow of information that was previously controlled by traditional media including newspapers, magazines, radio and television. Some have asserted that greater degree of creativity can be exercised with digital journalism when compared to traditional journalism and traditional media.
Numbers of young people are increasing who don’t use newspapers or television any more as their primary source of information and entertainment. They logon to net through all modern devices and smart phones. They prefer reading everything at their convenience online. In India, the repercussions are likely to be even more aggressive. This new generations connect to social media has greatly democratized content.
Nowadays, social media is giving tough competition to mainstream media. You will find most of the Indian population is active on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and blogs. Now, everyone has a voice and they are expressing themselves as being part of every issue of this country. Youngsters are making and breaking the politicians and their political parties. Consumers of content can today themselves produce content at no cost – except their time. This has changed the connection between Traditional Media – Print and TV – and its audience.
Social media prevents media houses to be biased and follow double standards. In the recent time, we can see really intense variation is the manner in which social and online media have made traditional media more accountable. Editors and TV anchors are regularly named and shamed if they wander off the straight and narrow. Prejudices are ruthlessly exposed, political affiliations closely analysed and one-sided articles winch on their own petard – in real-time. Twitter and Facebook together have over 150 million users in India.
The digital world is harsh and bold; it has its own challenges. Traditional media has no option but to adjust to the new virtual reality. The really important development in India though is that social media now acts as an informal regulator of mainstream media. Over the past few years, mainstream media has been hit by an integrity crisis. The line between journalism and public relations (PR) is blurring. Corruption in mainstream media occurs in two ways: one, individual journalists are paid in cash or kind; two, media owners are compromised by political parties or business houses. In such crises, if we; the young team media have to stand strong, then existence in digital space is very crucial and with time ahead we may go aggressively online by limiting ourselves from restricted print medium.
(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)
