Essay On Press: It's Importance For Public Opinion!

Essay on Press: its Importance for Public Opinion!
The press is a very general term. It includes the newspapers- daily, weekly
or semi-weekly, magazines and journals of various kinds, and government
publications. The press is a comparatively recent development. It developed
only after the invention of printing press. Prior to this a large part of what is
now the field of press was a function of other modes of communication, slower
and restricted in range.
In India more than 12,000 newspapers and periodicals are published in
various languages. The largest number of newspapers is printed in Hindi. It is
from Maharashtra that the largest number of newspapers is printed. The
newspapers are privately owned. The press enjoys freedom of expression and
is not controlled by the Government. The Government of India does not
publish any daily newspaper.
The importance of the newspapers lies not so much in the editorial news they
put forward as in being the principal agenda making body for every day
conversation. The newspaper provides the skiff of opinion in so far as it
concerns everyday events and policies. It is the source from which people
draw their facts. Many a decision of many people in different fields of activity
and long-range policies are affected by information available through the
press. From this point of view the prominence given to certain items and the
language used in headlines is of paramount importance.
As an agency of social control the press seeks to influence the tastes and
preferences of the readers through advertisements. It affects their ideology by
giving ideological start to the news. It enforces morality by threat of coercion in
the form of public exposure. It also affords to many people the opportunity to
vent their frustrations through letters to the editor.
In regard to press, an important point to bear in mind is that whereas press is
an important agency of social control, it itself is subject to social controls.
These controls operate from three levels: internal, external and the readers.
They limit its field of operation, help to determine the policies of particular
newspapers and indicate which aims they would pursue.
Among the internal controls are included the unwritten codes, mores and
folkways of journalism. Thus these codes call for strict honesty, impartiality,
decency and public morality. The editorials must not be influenced by interests
of particular business groups. The press must safeguard itself against the
influence of those who contribute to its financial support.
Each publication has its own internal rules also differing from those of other
publication. Thus, a publication may forbid publication of certain types of
material, as say, certain types of crime news. It may specify that the names of
certain persons prominent in the community shall not appear in its news
column.
The external controls over the press include those which are embodied in the
laws of the country, boycotts by organisations and agencies and political
influences. Every country prohibits its newspapers to publish indecent or
libelous matter or such matter as may make the people to overthrow the
government or assassinate public officials.
In times of national emergencies news are censored. The press cannot
publish news which lead to contempt of the court and the legislature. Boycotts
are relatively rare in the history of press, such newspapers which are affiliated
with a political party, are committed to follow the party-line.
The reading public seldom exercises direct control over the newspapers but
unless they cater to the interest of the readers the latter may withhold their
very necessary support and the newspaper in course of time languishes and
dies.
Often, a newspaper without much financial support from the advertisers has
succeeded by amassing wide circulations which the advertisers also cannot
for long ignore. Thus reader-interest takes precedence over advertisers as
controllers of the press.
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