Value of journalism remains there provided it is authentic and credible: Dr Dwivedi

Bilaspur

There is a sudden rise in the in the number of portals, news channels and YouTubers in India, but it is seen that only those people who are already associated with journalism have been able to maintain their credibility. The news given without authenticity and credibility has no value. The value of journalism was there and will remain intact provided it is credible and authentic, said senior journalist, litterateur, thinker and Director General of Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) Dr Sanjay Dwivedi during discussion with journalists. 

Dr Dwivedi, who was in Bilaspur to participate in the Press Club’s Pahuna programme, said that there has been a lot of difference between journalism before and now. Earlier only journalists used to give information, but now everyone is giving information, making the work of journalists more difficult and complicated. Process and responsibility are associated with news, so when a journalist writes news, he or she has to write news with facts, in such a situation, the value of journalism has never ended. 

He said that in 2008 a book titled Print is Dead i.e. Journalism is Over came out, in which it was mentioned that journalism or print would end in America, Europe. 

On the basis of this, another writer had said that in America the last copy of print media will be printed in 2040, which will not have any newspaper to print, but this situation is not for India. The study found that India, Japan and China are the countries where the circulation of newspapers is increasing continuously, last year also 13 percent growth of newspapers happened in India. At the same time, there has been a growth of 39 percent in digital. 13 per cent growth is a big figure in itself.

Dwivedi said that media conversions have happened in a very smart way in India as compared to other countries, due to which our journalism has survived. Now media houses have diversified and they are doing 4 types of work which include print, digital, radio, on ground invites. Smart mobile has made complete media conversions possible, in such a situation, one has to keep his/her content according to mobile. He said that three Vs are important to keep journalism alive in India. In which the first is V-Vice, the second is Vernacular i.e. mother tongue and the third is Videos.

According to a report by global consultancy firm PWDC, the Indian media and entertainment industry will be worth Rs 4.30 lakh crore by the year 2026. Whereas, the TV advertising industry will be worth Rs 43,000 crore. India will be the fifth largest TV advertising market in the world after the US, Japan, China and the UK. OTT has arrived in India during Corona, a turnover of Rs 21,031 crore is also expected in the OTT video service sector of India during the next four years. During this, the country’s internet advertising market can reach up to Rs 28,234 crore. Along with this, the music, radio and podcast sector will be worth Rs 11,536 crore.

According to the report of Ernst & Young India and FICCI, in the year 2022, the revenue of print media in India has increased by just 7 percent, whereas in digital media this figure is 42 percent. While the readership of print media increased by 13 per cent, digital subscriptions on the other hand saw a growth of 71 percent. In a day, more than 3.2 billion i.e. 320 crore photos are shared by social media users. 

More than 8 billion i.e. 800 crore videos are watched on Facebook in a day. The user has about 9 social media accounts. In the initial days, 18 to 29-year-old used to adopt social media platforms, but now people aged 50 to 64 are using Facebook more. A person spends about 145 minutes on social media in a day. 

In this way, the number of social media users worldwide has increased to 3.99 billion, which is 51 percent of the world’s population. He said that if the time spent on social media is added, then every day the time equal to one million years is spent only on social media. Before the discussion, Press Club President VirendraGahwai welcomed Dr Dwivedi. Secretary IrshadAli expressed vote of thanks. Former Press Club President Tilak Raj Saluja and other office bearers were present on the occasion.