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Kerala Kaumudi Online
Sunday, 13 July 2025 8.19 PM IST

'Pay up or no news''; Indian govt mulls new plan to rejuvenate traditional media

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The reading habits among people have changed. Nowadays, most people are running bereft of time to couch in comfort, unfold the traditional newspaper that comes redolent of a faint vanilla aroma. Those days of people relying on newspapers are long gone. Traditional media is facing a crisis.

However, the sheen is not lost after all. The flurry of news raining on social media is contested and mostly rides on surmises. The authenticity is missing. Such is the condition that people have to buy a traditional newspaper to get a grip on any news. There are more than 30,000 daily newspapers in India, large and small, in various languages. The credibility of newspapers still towers higher than all other forms of news media.

With the advent of the digital world, the media sector has penetrated all kinds of people. The fake news and false propaganda have already wreaked havoc trying to create a rift in society. Digital platforms often publish news without checking its authenticity. This has now given birth to a new form of journalism: 'Irresponsible journalism'.

With YouTube turning into a revenue-making machine, people of all ages are queued up on the platform with their share of glittery reels. It's also a time when running traditional media has become a major crisis due to rising costs of newsprint and declining advertising revenue. In this context, more attention should be given to Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw's latest request for a digital platform in India.

The minister has stated that large technology companies and digital platforms that use traditional media content should pay a share of revenue to traditional media. He put forward this demand in a virtual lecture on National Press Day.

Creating quality content is expensive. Traditional media invest heavily in salaries, training and editorial systems for journalists. Considering this, the minister pointed out that those who use their content are liable to pay the share. It has turned normal for digital platforms to crib news from traditional media and sell it on their platform showing no ounces of respect.

There are some foreign countries where the law requires users of such content to pay a certain amount. The same law is a welcome change in India. Investments in digital infrastructure have put India at the forefront of countries using 4G and 5G network services. But this doesn't give away the pertinent need for traditional media in the country.

The interventions made by traditional media during the freedom struggle remain an epoch and are not lost on time. The same traditional media toiled hard over the years with their pen to make India the biggest democracy in the world. In this context, it is the need of the hour for such a credible form of journalism to exist and continue with their work unfettered. Newspapers are not redundant yet.

TAGS: TRADITIONAL MEDIA, NEWSPAPAER, WORLD, INDIA, GOVT, PLANS, YOUTUBE
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