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WEB JOURNALISM

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INTRODUCTION
The web journalism emphasis integrates web skills and traditional journalism skills
of writing, reporting, and designing to prepare a new generation of journalists.
Aiming to keep up with the cutting-edge online technology and inherit journalism
traditions, the emphasis trains students in all the essential journalistic areas:
reporting, writing, designing and computing. Students of web journalism explore
different news platforms and learn how to produce web-ready news stories and
develop news websites.
With more and more news and non-news organizations committed to online
presence, the demand for trained web journalists keeps rising. Web journalism
graduates have been employed with a wide range of companies and organizations
such as graphic design companies, news organizations, government departments,
web development companies, non-profit organizations and even hospitals.
The web journalism emphasis meets the challenges of the digital era and prepares a
new generation of well-rounded journalists.

Web Journalism in India is a growing field shared between traditional media and
the growing blogging community. Large media companies, traditionally print and
television focused, continue to dominate the journalism environment now online
but a growing group of dedicated bloggers are providing an independent voice

Growth of Web Journalism in India

Although Indian newspapers were using computers for writing and page layout as
early as 1987 they were slow to move to online editions of their papers. By 1998
only forty-eight papers had online editions. Twelve years later, in 2006, the count
had climbed to 116. This despite the fact that in 2007 India had 42 million Internet
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users and was ranked fifth among online populations. The number of online news
editions is seen as especially low because of the multitude of languages spoken in
India. Of the 22 languages officially recognized, only 12 of the non-English
languages were accounted for in a survey of online editions
Current Web Journalism Environment

Web Journalism challenges in India are many. Indias internet penetration is low
only 3.7%. Also, most websites are only available in English, which skews the
viewership to only 10% of the population that is concentrated in urban centers.
Conversely, India ranks third in number of Twitter users.
[2]
LinkedIn offers a group
that targets members that are online journalists in India with content, connections,
and job opportunities unique to that segment. Popular discussions offer members
an opportunity to share opportunities, discuss activities that affect the industry, and
provide peer review for articles before publication on the internet.
[3]
With the
emergence of high speed data and faster mobile data services such as 3G and LTE,
videos from some of Indias best TV journalists have been made available online.
Both NDTV and CNBC, two TV news reporting power houses in India, also have
a strong online presence. The top five journalists in India all come from within the
ranks of these stations.
[4]
Another emerging favorite platform for journalists is
Twitter. Journalists from all walks Business, Political, Sports, and Religion -
have come together to form a list for ease of following the person or topic that one
might find interesting

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Traditional Media Companies

The internet in India was not available to private users until 1995. By 1998 there
were only 48 daily newspapers that operated on the internet. By 2006 the number
has steadily climbed to reach 116 newspapers and is predicted to grow as more
people in India get access to the web. The first newspapers to adopt an online
format were generally English speaking because they had more of a global
audience. However, as more users gained access more Indian language papers
began to surface. A lot of these new websites were generic versions of the daily
paper and were not edited once published. They were operated by minimal staffs.
In some instances a single editor would upload data to a third party pre-formatted
interface which would allow stories to be published under general headings such as
Local News, International, Sports, etc. A large majority of online newspapers in
India dont receive advertisement revenue for their web editions and, with the
exception of the major papers, most websites are being operated at a loss. Most
publications have been slow to incorporate modern web features such as video
clips or imbedded audio. One of the biggest concerns is economic viability due to
lack of ad revenue. India journalism sites have also been slow to adopt the modern
practice of online purchasing. This means that when someone visits the website
they are unable to order the paper directly or purchase products through
advertisements
Criticism
Many online newspapers in India are criticized for being hastily thrown together
with little care from publishers about content. A majority of websites lack simple
features such as about us or feedback. While the major publishers like the Times
Group will list email addresses of its writers and editors many of the small daily
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newspapers only have a simple imbedded box on their website for feedback. This
makes it difficult for readers to communicate with newspaper staff.
[1]

Online media with print products, such as OPEN magazine, have been instrumental
in providing checks and balances on other forms of media. OPEN broke that
Barkha Dutt, widely regarded as Indias top journalist, was involved with the
Radia tapes controversy, which very little of the print media discussed. Radia, a
lobbyist, was involved in corruption regarding the use and sale of 2G wireless
spectrum. Her attempt to rehabilitate her reputation was hampered by the
combative style she tried to do it with
Times of India Group
The Times of India Group is the largest media conglomerate in India. Its flagship
paper is the Times of India which is the largest English publication in the world by
readership with just over 7.65 million daily readers.
[7]
It is also the publisher of the
largest business news paper in India, The Economic Times. The Times of India
opened their web portal in 1999 and in 2003 they published an electronic version
of their newspaper.
[8]
Some Indian journalists, such as luminary M J Akbar, have
made the leap into Web Journalism. Akbar has been working in journalism since
he joined the Times of India in 1971 and currently heads the Sunday Guardian as
the Editorial Director of India Today Group and Headlines Today. The Sunday
Guardian is notable for having made a successful pivot from being a print only
paper to one which includes online content in their media portfolios. Today, M J
Akbar is just one example of a growing number of journalists who have embraced
online media while maintaining a strong presence in the print media market.
Dainik Jagran
Dainik Jagran has been India's most read newspaper for 23 consecutive years with
a daily readership of over 16 million. It's the flagship publication of Jagran
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Prakashan Ltd (JPL), a large media conglomerate in India. JPL launched MMI
online in 2008 to handle all of its digital offerings. Most notable is jagran.com
which has recently aligned with yahoo.com to bring a large range of offerings to its
visitors.
[10]
The website can see up to 50 updates in one day. In 2006, INEXT was
launched along with the website inextlive.com. INEXT is the first bilingual daily
news published in India. It currently publishes content from at least 9 different
major cities. Besides managing content MMI Online is also actively looking for
gaps in the web offerings so that it can bring new content to the country. MMI
online also is working to transition India into web 3.0

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Blogging in India
The largest news and media companies now include blogs in their online offerings.
Sites such as The Times Of India have a blog section
[12]
as does The Economic
Times.
[13]
American online publications are also offering blogs to the Indian
market. The Wall Street Journal blog India Realtime is staffed by journalists
exclusively from New Delhi and Mumbai and focuses on analysis of issues
occurring in India.
[14]
In September 2010, The Wall Street Journal expanded its
offering to include the India Realtime blog in Hindi in addition to the English
language.
[15]
Dainik Jagran, India's most read newspaper, also runs a site dedicated
to blogs.
[16]
The most popular amateur blog topics in India are technology, cricket,
finance, business, and coupons. And among them English is the dominant language
used.
[17]
Indian blog topics include a wide variety including literature, politics,
investing, celebrities, medicine, journalism, travel, environment, web-design,
podcasting,humor, music, and more.
[18]
Full-time bloggers have been reported to
earn as much as Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 with part-time bloggers earning as much
as Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 in a month.
[19]
Some well known amateur blogs receive
as many as 3 million page views per month.
[20]
One notable Indian blogger, Amit
Agarwal, runs the blog tech inspiration at www.labnol.org and maintains
indianbloggers.org. He has been featured in the Wall Street Journal among other
publications for his contributions to the Indian blogging scene



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HISTORY OF WEB JOURNALISM

Ever since Tim Berners Lee in the early 1990s thurst a face to the cold, unfriendly,
geeky Internet in the form of the World Wide Web; this thing called the Web has
been creeping up on us on all aspects of our living lives. It is not bad, not all bad
at least.
In essence, the Web in particular and the Internet in general, has been about access
and interaction. Access in an ever-improving user-friendly manner for
consumption of information and also its production. Interaction in the easiest
manner to potentially anybody who owns a computer, mobile and any other
Internet-enabled device. It was the unfriendly interface to access the Internet that
drove Berners Lee to design the Web. The Web made it possible for ordinary non-
geeky folk to be able to create content, link to content created by others and access
content seamlessly from potentially anywhere in the world.
The first phase of the Internet, that is, when it was opened to the public, it had
some important constituents: the World Wide Web (Web, for short), Usenet,
Internet Relay Chats (IRC), E-mail and Mailing Lists. Even some later-day geeks
might hardly have used Usnet and IRC, thats because the Web in the meanwhile
subsumed all these Internet technologies, every time giving them a cleaner,
friendlier interface. So the first dot-com boom in the late 1990s had people
accessing their e-mails from the comfort of a browser. The browser is the
applications that has been the window through which people have traversed the
Web. The example of the emails being accessible via the Web was indeed a very
significant technological leap, which has a local flavour in the form of Sabeer
Bhatia. Bhatia, a young man from Bangalore who was studying in the US, made
that happen when he launched the erstwhile hotmail.com service. Hotmail.com
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gave out free e-mails that could be accessed from anywhere via a Web browser.
The company was quickly bought over by the software giant Microsoft that left
Bhatia a millionaire many times over. Microsoft recently announced that it was
moving hotmail to Outlook mail, in a sense, bringing to a rather unusually slow
end to a chapter in Internet history. As to be expected, there were many clones of
the service. Even big portals like Yahoo and AOL have viewed doling out free
email services to increase eyeballs to their portals. While the big fish have
survived, many more have not been so lucky, especially after the ascendence of
Gmail, Googles free e-mail service. One probably does not need to elaborate on
the search engine giant, Google.
Google, in essense, was a need. Its success and continuing relevance as a critical
destination on the web is proof not only of the fact that people had a lot to say with
the filters that old media had imposed on them, but also that they want to get to
the best content and link to that content. The crux of Googles search algorithm is
its attempt to ferret out from millions of web pages the best content that you are
looking for.
Usenet is a discussion system that allows people to subscribe and participate in
discussions on any topic you can think of. Say, you want to discuss how to take
care of your pet poodle to your thoughts on astrophysics. So discussions, sharing of
information or even just eavesdropping on smart talk among themselves has
been part of the net culture. The possibilities that it offers is immense. Way back
in 2000, a Russian nuclear submarine sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea in icy
cold Arctic Ocean. It took down with it the lives of 118 sailors. It is a tragic tale
that became personal for me because of the possibility the Internet offered me like
no other medium can. The big question troubling the world was whether the
submarine went down because of a nuclear explosion inside it. I was scanning
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through newsgroups if there was any additional news I could find on the disaster.
I was sure academics would be talking about it. Lo and behold I had a little post by
a then Post-doctoral Research Associate from University of Arizona saying that the
submarine could not have sunk because of a nuclear accident on board. He had
proof of it based on the seismic activity around the time of the disaster. The
researcher provided a link to his homepage in the university website. That was
great news for the world and for me. While the world could heave a sigh of relief
that the explosion wasnt nuclear, I could get a story out on this sitting in
Bangalore about an accident in the Barents Sea with proof from a scientist in the
US. This, nevertheless, is still Web 1.0.
Another high in my life was when I got to know that Columbia Universitys new
media department had a class newsgroup. The group was meant to keep the
professor and the students connected even after class. So the professor used to post
his thoughts and articles on new media, while students would discuss things till the
class met again. I thought it wouldnt be a bad idea to ask them if I could be part of
that class. This again is from way back in the year 2000. I wrote to the good Prof.
John V. Pavlik, who was then in Columbia University and had started the
newsgroup. He promptly wrote back to this unknown journalist from Bangalore,
India. Pavlik wanted me to contact the student who was in-charge of the group and
said he didnt have a problem with me joining in. The students of the class agreed.
And here I was, sitting in Bangalore and devouring things that were happening in
the new media courses NewsLab in Columbia University. This too, nevertheless,
is still Web 1.0.
So newsgroups or Usenet was where a lot of information was being shared and
heated debates conducted. With the rise and the rise of the Web, Usenets
momentum was slowing down. It was left to the corporate capacity of Google to
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take on the responsibility of saving these decades-old conversations and making it
accessible to the world. With chat coming too to the Web, as an add-on to your
free e-mail address, the use of IRC too has declined to oblivion. So the Web
subsumed them and in the process transformed itself to become Web 2.0 the
second phase.
My stories above might sound passe now, given the march of modes of
communication that are all bundled under Web 2.0. It is no more a question to be
asked, every big incident, take the tsunamis or other natural disasters or take the
so-called Arab Spring or other political upheavals, the stamp of new media is writ
large.
One can, without much difficulty, download courseware from some of the web
universities in the world. One can, without much difficulty, be a part of online
course and seminars that go on around the world. It has become important for news
organisations to solicit and display reactions from readers and viewers via Twitter
or Facebook. The Web, especially in its latest avatar as a social media has made
it imperative for exclusive citadels like universities and media to open up or at
least be seen to be doing so. So do you think the Massachussetts Institute of
Technology is a great place to be? All you need to have is access to the ItunesU
app, through which you can subscribe to the course of your choice and make sure
for yourself what you think of MITs courses.
So you think Syrias Assad is not pounding his foes with bombs or you think that
the anti-government forces are unarmed fighters? All you have to do is follow a
few twitter hashtags. Hashtags are words that users create and spread around to
string together tweets on the topic. As I write this, a hashtag, Girisha Hosanagara
Nagarajegowda is trending in India, which means it is popular among twitter
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users. Obviously, Nagarajegowdas paralympic feat has caught the imagination of
people. You could be rest assured that Nagarajegowda will get a good share of
broadcast and print media attention, Id dare say it is because his name is trending
in Twitter.
Thats the decisive change that has happened in the world of social media. It is no
more an echo-chamber. It has a tangible impact on the real world. One has only to
follow twitter accounts of journalists. One, you can get a sense of what is going to
be uppermost in the nightly news and two that you can actually have conversations
with editors and reporters. Social media gives you a sense of the news trends and it
has brought ivory-tower editors to your mobile/computer screens.
Today a journalist is judged by how responsive she or he is to the issues raised by
users. That should not come as too much of a surprise. In the west, especially in the
US, politicians too have had the uneasy responsibility of being accessible via social
media. They are being ranked on their social media provis, but whats also being
judged is how chatty are corporate honchos.
That should sound like music. With more technological footfall, more and more
fortresses will become accountable, politicians, media, corporate bigwigs and you
can add anybody else to this list.
Yes, there always is a flip side. Look at allegedly how the Obama campaigns new
media strategy has been worked out. In a sense, it exposes how much one has
become vulnerable to social media profiling.
It is assumed that from your Friends list, your public postings and your profile that
you are a supporter of the Democratic party, your friends too should be so. So,
with something called data mining, one is able to peruse through tonnes of data
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that people have willingly put out in social media sites, to figure out ones political
affiliation, interest in the kind of commercial products and so on.
So be it political campaigns or corporate ones, the average citizen is now an
average consumer. The consumer then can be fed with the right kind of message. It
is efficient for the campaigner and almost hypnotically acceptable to the profile.
There was a promise of the Internet. A promise that was built on a lot of
voluntarism. I believe for instance, the first spam was sent out on May 3, 1978. It
advertised the release of a new set of System-20 minicomputers from the now
defunct company DEC. It reached a paltry 600 people, but it was generally
frowned up on by the geeky recipients too. The perpetrator was easily identified,
his boss got a dressing down and the system was purged off the offending message.
With increasing access, spam now is a billion-dollar problem. The perpetrators
cannot be identified and we have a thriving industry that provides anti-spam
software. It would, therefore, be naive to want to go back to those days when the
Internet was a effort of volunteers, colleges and government agencies. It today has
very many stakeholders. While we should recognise the ability of organisations
to get hold of information that is personal, we should understand that the promise
of this media is still very much in our best interest.
There are of course less complicated technologies that have found greater
acceptance amongst the general population. SMS, for instance, is one such form of
communication. But even that is prone to gaffes. Recently a family friend ended up
in an embarrassing situation. He is ruing the moment he decided to forward an
SMS he received from an ex-colleague of his. The ex-colleagues message read
something like My wife passed away. Funeral today. The saddened friend
thought it best to spread the word around by forwarding the SMS to people in his
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contact list, little realising that the forwarded message now erroneously announced
the death of his own wife, as the message went out in his name and not of his ex-
colleague. Such embarrassments are of course redeemable. There are other recent
instances of the use of new media that have resulted in a lot of hardship. For
every episode of illegitimate use of communication media there are equal, if not
more, number of examples to cite about the boon that new forms of
communication have ushered in. The press is full of such stories, especially
highlighting the seamier side of it.
Allow me; nevertheless, to step back a little and dwell on something that borders
on the boundaries of new global media communication. Not long ago there was a
furore in the social media world when a group of people belonging to the North
East of India were not able to create accounts in a social networking site,
ostensibly because their surname, chutiya was an objectionable word as decided by
the inputs of Indians themselves. So in its efficient wisdom, the social networking
site deemed it fit to remove a group created by people belonging to
the chutiya brethren. Calling any other Indian chutiya might result in a stern
rebuke, to put it mildly, but this was a different kind of denial of service, it is a
misunderstanding, of course, but also a logistical nightmare. For designers of
websites the instructions are that colour has different cultural connotations and
being sensitive to it is important. It is a difficult yet easier task. A website typically
is designed for a particular milieu, but in the case of social networking sites that
boast of a total subscriber base far exceeding the populations of many countries put
together, the nuances of what is culturally correct, where to draw the line, how
much to bend are concerns that can fall foul with liberal thought. There are no
easy answers for this, but all answers might not be found in the technology of the
day.
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Take for instance the exodus that followed the SMSs that many people from the
North East residing in many cities in South India got. Social media too was used to
cause an exodus seen most dramatically in the railway station in Bangalore. The
government too countered the rumours being spread by using the same
technologies and media, to little effect. People were willing to listen to unknown
rumour-mongers than people in authority.
The bias, prejudices and divisions in society often get reflected in social media,
more obviously than in traditional media. For those who choose to critique media
would be better off understanding that the new digital mirror that is reflecting on
society might be looking deeper into the crevices than past media have managed to
do. The solution therefore must lie in society not in new media.
But let us be objective, these incidents expose that like all earlier media, new
media too is discriminatory. They invariably leave large swats of the population
disenfranchised. The exclusion comes in the form of economic barriers, of course,
but what is often less obvious is the technological limitation that masquerade as
inevitabilities.
But a book, if it is missing from the shelves of homes, is quintessentially because
of socio-economic reasons. In an interesting report on The Magic of Reading for
Microsoft Corporations research on the psychology of reading, the author Bill Hill
writes: The book is a complex and sophisticated technology for holding and
capturing human attention. It is hard to convince people of its sophistication; there
are no flashing lights, no knobs or levers, no lines of programming code (there
really is programming going on, but not in any sense wed recognise today) He
reminds us that, The book as we know it today did not happen by chance. It
evolved over thousands (arguably millions) of years, as a result of human
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physiology and the way in which we perceive the world. Such luxuries of time and
space over which the book as a technology has evolved is inconceivable for digital
technologies. And it shows.
So what you do end up with is a device and means by which communication,
interaction, publishing, and so on becomes easier. It is possible for a mother to
click a few buttons and talk to her daughter across oceans. It is quite in the realm
of the possible that those clicks of buttons will not be required. In the meanwhile, it
will take a little of getting used to. Given what we gain out of it, there seems to be
an eagerness to put up with such technology-related irritations. Lets hope that new
communication technologies get to be as sophisticated as the unobtrusive book,
sooner.
Present Scenario of Web Journalism
Journalism is having an existential crisis. It is the kind that arises when your
foundations crumble from beneath and outside forces push and pull at your roles
and expectations in this world. On the one hand, journalism has been totally
transformed in the last decade through digitisation and other technological
developments, and on the other, socio-cultural change has transformed the top-
down one-way stream of journalism. Where, in light of these circumstances, can
journalism go from here?
The push of technological advances in intelligent computing is leading to the
inevitable automation of basic tasks. In journalism, these tasks range from data
gathering to more complex ones like narrative intelligence. Even today, robot
journalists are producing articles and report on earthquakes, sports and
finance, using algorithms that can mimic styles of human rhetoric and construct
articles from expansive pools of data.
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Computers can also greatly facilitate journalists in their rapid analysis of data,
picking up on patterns, and mapping information, saving time and money in all
aspects of news production. Consider the exponential rate of content that is
uploaded online every day and the release of public documents and archives that
can be understood, questioned and reasoned with high competency, like the
estimated 1.7 million documents liberated by Edward Snowden documents that
a human journalist would need years to analyse for newsworthy details. Then
consider IBMs Jeopardy-winning computer Watson, which in three seconds can
analyse the data of 200 million document pages written in natural language.
Applied to news, such a computer could herald a new age of journalism, with
most of the work now being done by people research, analysis, even writing
being taken up by computers. The company Narrative Science, which produces
journalist software, thinks 90 pro cent of the news could be written by computers
by 2030.
Indian languages and Web Journalism
India joined cyber world in 1995, quite late compared to the West, although
Internet was available to researchers earlier also. In the initial period, net access
was limited to only four metros. It was very slow. Computer penetration was very
low. However, the penetration improved as prices of computers began falling and
net connectivity spread to small towns when private service providers came on the
scene.

By 2007, India had an estimated base of 42 million Internet users, which was 3.6
per cent of the world users. Although this base was far below the Internet users of
USA (which was 210,575,287), China (162,000,000), Japan (86,300,000) or
Germany (50,426,117), India ranked fifth in the list of top twenty countries using
Internet.

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In case of India, this was noteworthy because she is still considered a developing
country. Advanced countries have better infrastructure and resources for rapid
development in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) area. India
lacked even in availability of power in cities and villages in every state without any
exception. It was therefore no surprise that India would lag behind in terms of
computer penetration, Internet connectivity and its usage during the initial phase of
ICT.

Against this background, publishers of Indian dailies were hesitant initially to
launch web editions. Even later, except for a few English and 'language' dailies,
majority of the newspapers put up their websites as a 'me-too' syndrome.

Research was undertaken to document status of online journalism in the initial
phase (1995-98) as doctoral dissertation by the author of this paper. Subsequently,
another project was undertaken with support from University Grants Commission
and was titled Changing Profile of Readership of Indian Newspapers on Internet: A
Status Report on Online Journalism in India. With co-investigator Dr Ms Ujjwala
Barve, it was carried out at Department of Communication and Journalism,
University of Pune, in the city of Pune.


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LIST OF HINDI NEWSPAPERS ON INTERNET
Newspaper Language City Daily
Readership,
IRS 2013
(in million)
Daily
Readership,
IRS 2012
[3]

(in million)
Owner
1 Dainik Jagran
( )
Hindi Various cities and
states
15.526 16.370 Owned by
Jagran
Prakashan
Ltd.
2 Hindustan
(

)
Hindi Various cities and
states
14.245 12.246 Owned by
Hindustan
Media
Ventures Ltd.
which is
owned by HT
Media Ltd
3 Dainik Bhaskar
( )
Hindi Various cities and
states
12.855 14.416 Owned by D
B Corp Ltd.
4 Malayala
Manorama
(
)
Malayalam 10 cities
in Kerala, Bangalore,
Mangalore,Chennai, M
umbai, Delhi, Dubai,
and Bahrain
8.565 9.760 Owned by
Malayala
Manorama
Company
Ltd.
5 Daily Thanthi
()
Tamil Various cities in Tamil
Nadu, Bangalore,
Pondicherry and
Mumbai.
8.156 7.334 Founded
by S. P.
Adithanar
6 Rajasthan
Patrika
Hindi Various cities and
states
7.665 6.837 Owned by
Rajasthan
Patrika Pvt.
Ltd.
7 Times of India English Various cities and
states
7.253 7.615 Owned
by Bennett,
Coleman and
Co. Ltd.
8 Amar Ujala Hindi Various cities and
states
7.071 8.434
9 Mathrubhumi
()
Malayalam 10 Cities in
Kerala, Chennai, Bang
alore,Mumbai,
and New Delhi
6.136 6.334 Owned by
The
Mathrubhumi
Group

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Journalists can assume several roles in democracies. The concept of role lends
itself to two dimensions: the tasks involved in fulfilling the role and of the purpose
of doing so (Christians et al., 2009, p. 119).
Christians et al. (2009, p. 125) classified journalists possible democratic roles into
four types: monitorial, which encompasses reporting on information of all kinds
about current and recent events (p. 125); facilitative, in which media [help] to
develop a shared moral framework for community and society (p. 126; on media
and shared frameworks in general, see Schudson, 2003, pp. 2425); radical,
where media expose and inspire action against corruption and inequality; and
collaborative, which guides the press when collisions between it and social
events, particularly in new nations, is unavoidable (p. 127). Exactly which roles
of journalism are more prominent than others in a location depends to an extent on
the kind of democracy found there (for a review, see Cunningham, 2002).
Christians et al. (2009) said the prominence of the different roles depended on the
strength of ties among community members, the power relationships among the
press, business, and government, and who in society can hold media accountable
(pp. 127133).
Norris (2000) was more specific. Following the theories of Joseph Schumpeter and
Robert Dahl, she divided democracy into three dimensions: pluralistic
competition for official power; citizen participation in elections, and the liberty to
speak, publish and organize (pp. 2223). Journalism, correspondingly, has three
primary functions in a democracy. It is a civic forum for pluralistic debate, as
a watchdog for civil and political liberties, [and] a mobilizing agent for public
participation (p. 23, her emphasis).
This paper will focus on only one of these roles: that which Christians et al. (2009)
call the monitorial role and Norris calls the civic-forum role. Journalism under this
role should provide information that helps answer: Given that we can choose,
what should we do?
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The monitorial role is perhaps the most important possible set of tasks and goals
that journalists could adopt. Christians et al. (2009) said the monitorial role is
probably the most widely recognized and least controversial in terms of
conventional ideas about what the press should be doing (p. 125). The monitorial
role is required in each of the four models of democracy their book proposed (p.
133). Norris (2000) emphasized the importance of information in democratic
decisions: What voters need for effective citizenship, and therefore what news
media should provide, is practical knowledge about the probable consequences of
their political actions (p. 30, her emphasis).
Gans (2003) has referred to journalists own overriding concern for providing
information as Journalisms Theory of Democracy (p. 55). The theory
provides journalists with a role, and therefore with tasks and purposes, in a
democracy.
The task is informing citizens, although the topics in need of reportage are
unclear: The theory does not specify what news is and is not essential to
advance or maintain democracy (Gans, 2003, p. 56; similarly, Christians et al.
(2009) referred blandly to information of all kinds (p. 125)).
The purpose is a straight line from information to an improved nation. Following
the new leads citizens to be more likely to participate more in politics. Increased
political participation ipso facto makes America more democratic (p. 56).
The strength of the perceived connection between journalists providing
information and a successful democracy is exemplified by how the connection
remains a part of justifications for journalism, even when those justifications
simultaneously critique its mainstream practice.
For example, the public journalism movement of the 1990s advocated for an
expanded presence for journalists in public life. Its proponents said journalists
should not only report facts but also ensure the public can carry out its
preferences (Charity, 1995, p. 2). By the Christians et al. and Norris typologies,
24

public journalism sought to increase the force of journalists as facilitators and
mobilizing agents.
Yet Charity (1995) reported that the journalists who introduced the movement
thought journalism ought to make it as easy as possible for citizens to make
intelligent decisions about public affairs (p. 2). Charitys book, itself a quasi-
textbook on public journalism, spent many pages on how journalism can give
citizens the information they need to act. Even in advocating for a change in
journalists role, then, public journalism kept a place for monitoring public affairs
and providing useful information about the state of the world.
So did Christians, Ferre, and Fackler (1993), who proposed, more radically, that
journalism shift its ethical grounding from mainstream values of efficiency and
individual autonomy to values at the core of communitarian thought, such as
mutuality and justice. But the characteristics of communitarian journalism still
include claims about the way the world is the sorts of claims required of the
monitorial role. What is different under Christians, Ferre, and Facklers view is
merely what part of the world to monitor. They advocate for making claims that
justice requires, not claims that glamorize rewards of wealth and power (p. 93).
Communitarian journalism thus jettisons the Enlightenment view that individuals
build knowledge brick by brick, but it does not jettison the view that claims
about the world are integral to journalism even when the journalism explicitly
focuses on justice (p. 90). In fact, the authors highlighted investigative journalism
the concern of the present study as a running record of the strategic
potential of framing the news narrative in terms of justice (p. 97).[1]
The work cited thus far has, however, come from before the movement of
journalism to the Internet, or from the movements early stages. Have more recent
developments in online journalism changed the importance of journalists as
monitors as making claims about the world in a democracy?
25

No, says Singer (2010). She described journalists as operating on principles related
to their part in a democratic process that survives only through public access to
reliable accounts of what is going on in the world (p. 118). In moving to the
network of the Web, as Singer calls it, the rationale for the ethical stances
changes: Online, journalists enter new relationships with their audiences that
demand fairness and truth-telling because these qualities are appropriate for any
human relationship (pp. 118119).
But despite these developments in journalism ethics, the importance of the
monitorial role remains. Reliable claims about the world as made by journalists,
professional or otherwise, remain important. Singers approach suggests that the
potential for journalists to act in a facilitative role increases online. But the Web
enhances the potential for fulfilling the monitorial role as well.
Rosen (2010), for example, proposed a 100 percent solution for covering a topic
of importance to a community, such as a mayors race. Mainstream and alternative
media, old and new, would combine to cover every event, big and small,
involving every candidate but also all the events where the candidates
themselves may be missing but the campaign is somehow alive and present (para.
5, emphasis his). Rosen proposed that cooperation in pursuit of a difficult, even
undefinable goal such as covering 100% of anything can, in turn, inspire
innovation in online news.
So for both Singer and Rosen, even as they illustrate the need and potential for
journalism to rethink its practice, the need for journalisms monitorial role online is
clear.

26

Before identifying different kinds of journalism online, one has to explicitly note
that the Internet as it can be considered to be affecting journalism can be discussed
here in two ways: the inroads it has made into newsrooms and on desktops of
journalists working for all media types in terms of Computer-Assisted Reporting
(CAR); and how it has created its own professional type of newswork: online
journalism (Deuze, 1999). Using the Internet as a reporting tool for 'traditional'
media - all media except the Internet - can be typified as the use and availability of
searchable archives, databases and news sources on the Internet by journalists. This
reporting practice is still in its infancy in many countries as compared to for
example the U.S. (Verwey, 2000). Several scholars have studied the effects of
CAR on journalists and newswork, concluding that beyond obvious benefits (more
information, more sources, more checks and balances freely available), many
reporters and editors felt nervous and concerned about the 'omnipresence' of the
Internet in their work (Singer, 1997a and 1997b). Research at the BBC in Great
Britain also revealed the unrest new media technologies have created in the
newsroom; journalists reported lack of time to adequately use and master the
technology, feeling stressed because of the 'immediate' nature of the Internet
(Cottle, 1999). Another aspect related to CAR which affects all journalists is how
to deal with e-mail, newsgroups and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) in an environment
where the verification of information is extremely difficult due to the often
anonymous, fast-paced communication involved (Garrison, 2000).
In this paper however, the focus is exclusively on online journalism: the 'fourth'
kind of journalism that differs in its characteristics from traditional types of
journalism. Online journalism can be functionally differentiated from other kinds
of journalism by using its technological component as a determining factor in
terms of (operational) definition. The online journalist has to make decisions on
27

which media formats best tell a certain story (multimediality), has to allow room
for options for the public to respond, interact or even customize certain stories
(interactivity) and must consider ways to connect the story to other stories,
archives, resources and so on through hyperlinks (hypertextuality). This is the
'ideal-typical' form of online journalism, as professed by an increasing number of
professionals and academics worldwide (in the U.S. see Reddick and King, 2001;
in Germany see Friedrichsen et al., 1999: pp. 139-143; in The Netherlands see
Stielstra, 1999). The consensus among the online media professionals
internationally, such as it is voiced at gatherings like the NetMedia Conference in
Great Britain or the Editor & Publisher Interactive Conference in the U.S., is that
online journalism is definitely"a breed apart" (Meek, 2000). This 'breed' of
newspeople, who produce content primarily for the Internet (and specifically for
the World Wide Web) can be seen as working for one or more of four distinct
kinds of journalism online. These journalisms can be located on a continuum
ranging from purely editorial content to public connectivity-based Web sites (see
Model I, which is partly based on Sparks, 1999: p. 14):
Closed Participatory Communication

Open Participatory Communication
Model 1: Online Journalisms
28

The content-connectivity domain intersects with (vertical axis) the participatory
communication domain, where the news site indeed consists of a range of options
for users and producers to interact, discuss, up- or download, to communicate in a
participatory way (see the discussion on various forms of interactivity below). A
brief note has to made regarding the notion of 'content', as - in Web designer terms
- everything is content online, including banner ads, chatrooms, research papers
and what not. Editorial content is defined here as texts (including written and
spoken word, moving and still images), produced and/or edited by journalists.
Public connectivity can be seen as what Odlyzko (2001: p. 6) calls 'standard point-
to-point' communication, to which one might add the notion of 'public'
communication without a formal barrier of entry (such as an editing or moderation
process). The vertical axis represents the level of participatory communication
offered through a news site: a site can be considered to be 'open' when it allows
users to share comments, posts, files (i.e. content) without moderating or filtering
intervention. On the other end, 'closed' participatory communication can be defined
as a site where users may participate but their communicative acts are subject to
strict editorial control. Online journalism in its different types can predominantly
be located within these two domains.


29



Dainik Jagran is the flagship brand of the company. In todays dynamic media
world , where consumers have an unprecedented array of choices, Dainik Jagran
stands out as a brand that is the choice of millions of Indians as they start their day.
With a readership of 5.59 cr, it has been the largest read daily of India for the last
consecutive 21 rounds of the Indian Readership Survey (IRS). With 37 editions,
Dainik Jagran covers 11 states of India. It has also been declared by the World
Association of Newspapers (WAN) as the Largest read daily in the world. Not just
the largest read, Dainik Jagran has also been voted as the Most Credible Source of
News in a BBC-Reuters survey.
The genesis for Dainik Jagran was in the year 1942. The year when the freedom
struggle of India reached its crescendo and found expression in the Quit India
movement. Dainik Jagran was launched during this time with the vision of our
founder Shri Puran Chandra Gupta, to Create a newspaper that would reflect the
free voice of the people . This vision was as much a reflection of the time when it
was propounded as much as it is relevant to us today. Even as on today, when
Dainik Jagran markets control the political destiny of the largest democracy in the
world, the vision continues to guide us


i-next, Indias fastest growing compact daily in bilingual format, has caught on to
the pulse of the Young at Heart. In a very short span of time, it has captured the
imagination of people who look out for newer opportunities and seek deeper
probes into the more relevant issues of changing India of today. It now covers 12
prominent cities in 4 states of India through its various editions and infrastructure.
30

The readership of I Next is an impressive 22 Lakhs as per Latest IRS. It distinctly
stands apart from its competitors due to its beautiful packaging of news, attractive
layout design and the versatility of news and features. These accomplishments
have made I next the pulse of todays Youthful India wherever its present

'D.B. Corp Ltd.' is the largest Print Media Company of India with 19.8mn
readership. It is a publisher of Indian Hindi-language daily newspaper Dainik
Bhaskar (Hindi: ), Gujarati-language daily newspaper Divya
Bhaskar,Marathi-language daily newspaper Divya Marathi, Saurashtra Samachar,
DB Star & DNA. It was started in year 1958 from Bhopal, the capital city
of Madhya Pradesh. In 1983,it commenced its ambitious journey of expansion with
the launch of Dainik Bhaskar's Indore edition. It expanded its presence to 14 states
in 4 different languages namely Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi and English. Currently, in
Hindi markets under flagship newspaper "Dainik Bhaskar" it is present in 12 states
with 37 editions. Beside this it is also present in Gujarat as "Divya Bhaskar"in
Gujarati language with 7 editions and in Maharashtra as "Divya Marathi" in
Marathi language with 7 editions. As of 2014, its National Editor is Kalpesh
Yagnik who operates from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
31



NDTV
New Delhi Television is, and has been for a quarter century, a pioneer in Indias news television.
Founded in 1988 by Radhika Roy and Prannoy Roy, NDTV is today the most watched and the
most respected news and lifestyle network in India. From the path-breaking The World This
Week (nominated as one of Indias 5 best television programs since Independence), the first
private news on Doordarshan The News Tonight, producing Indias first 24-hour news channel
Star News and the countrys first ever 2-in-1 channel NDTV has been in the forefront of every
single news revolution. NDTV is most proud of how its work impacts the real world and how it
is using its powerful reach to campaign for and with the people of India. 25 years of dedicated
and innovative programming has brought into focus a number of social issues ranging from the 7
Wonders of India, Save Our Tigers, the Greenathon and Jeeena ki Asha to Marks for Sports,
Support My School and the most recent University Sports Championships. Seen as an honest,
unbiased and fearless crusader, NDTVs sustained campaigns against injustice and human rights
violations has forced apathetic governments to act, legislation to be changed and made the nation
aware of the power of the people.

32

Its channels NDTV 24x7 (English), NDTV India (Hindi) and Indias first ever 2-in-1 channel
NDTV Profit-NDTV Prime (Business and Infotainment) continue to raise the standards of
journalism with innovative programming and uncompromising integrity.

Incisive and creative, the channels target the global Indian with news that is credible, true and
fast. NDTV 24x7 is the only English News Channel from India which is beamed in the UK,
USA, Canada, South Africa, Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, Mauritius and most of the
SAARC Countries to reach out to the Indian Diaspora.

Over the years, NDTV has expanded its brand portfolio to seize opportunities in the beyond
news space and has step-down subsidiaries: NDTV Lifestyle, NDTV Convergence (triple play;
to exploit the synergies between television, Internet and mobile and owns the website ndtv.com)
and NDTV Worldwide offering high end consultancy for setting up of local television news
channels in emerging markets across the world.

In 2007 the company launched NDTV Good Times, an up-market lifestyle channel for the global
urban Indian; and used its expertise to launch global channels, Astro Awani, a channel in
Malaysia and Independent Television with Beximco Group in Bangladesh.

NDTV has offices and studios across the country which house India's most modern and
sophisticated production, newsgathering and archiving facilities with award winning production
and creative teams.

33


Aaj Tak is a 24-hour Hindi news television channel owned by TV Today Network Ltd..
Aaj Tak loosely translates as "Till Today" or "Up to the Minute". In India, Aaj Tak is
a free-to-air channel. In 2006 it began offering a pay channel to international markets. Its
also known for Controversial Anti Maharashtra articles
Launched December 31, 1998
Network Broadcast television and online
Owned by Living Media
Picture format 4:3 (576i, SDTV)
Slogan "Sabse Tez" (English: 'The Fastest')
Country India
Language Hindi
Broadcast area India & Worldwide
Headquarters New Delhi, India
Sister channel(s) Headlines Today
Website www.aajtak.in
Availability
Satellite
Tata Sky (India) Channel 457
Sky (UK and Ireland) Channel 818
Eutelsat 28A(Europe) 11344 V 27500 2/3
Videocon D2H Channel 303
Airtel digital TV Channel 277
Dish Network(USA) Channel 706
[1]



34


India TV is a Hindi news channel based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. The channel was
launched on May 20, 2004 just 2 days before BJP's tenure in government was ending (On 22nd
May 2004) by Rajat Sharma and wife Ritu Dhawan. The channel is the flagship service of
Independent News Service, which was co-founded by Sharma and Dhawan in 1998.

Prior to launching India TV, Rajat Sharma was a known face on Indian television since 1992,
having previously been the anchor of Aap Ki Adalat on Zee TV and Janata Ki Adalat on Star
TV. Independent News Service received investment from Fuse+ Media, an entity of
ComVentures, a venture capital firm based in Palo Alto, California, United States with over $1.5
billion of assets under management. Further investments have valued Independent News Service
at Rs. 800 crores

35



IBN18 Broadcast Ltd is an Indian based company, which is in the business of
broadcasting, telecasting, relaying and transmitting general news programs. The
company owns and operates 24-hour news channel CNN IBN and IBN 7. The
principal operation of the company is in media and entertainment industry, and to
explore business opportunities in the media and entertainment industry. The
internet news portal, www.ibnlive.com, serves as the online platform for the
company. News broadcast on CNN IBN is put up in text and other interactive
formats on the site. ibnlive provides streaming video feeds, downloadable tickers
and breaking news alerts on cell phones ensuring that viewers have access to CNN
IBN's news even when they aren't near their TV sets. The ibnkhabar.com is the
Hindi online platform for IBN7, and has a role similar to what ibnlive.com plays
for CNN IBN. IBN18 Broadcast Ltd was incorporated on June 6, 2005 as Global
Broadcast News Pvt Ltd. Subsequently, the company became a public limited
company on December 12, 2005 and the name of the company was changed to
Global Broadcast News Ltd. Further, the name was changed to IBN18 Broadcast
Ltd with effect form May 15, 2008. In June 2005, the company received
permission from the MIB to uplink an English news television channel. In October
2005, they executed brand license agreement with CNN and news services
agreement with Turner and in December 2005, they launched the 24-hour English
news channel, CNN-IBN. In July 18, 2008 the company entered into a share
subscription agreement with Web 18 Holdings Ltd in which the company agreed to
subscribe to 3,861,250 equity shares constituting 15% of the issued and paid up
capital of Web 18 Holdings Ltd. In July 31, 2006 the company entered into a
36

business transfer agreement with Web 18 Software Services Ltd in which the
company sold, transferred, assigned and conveyed the news portal business
including the brand, domain, goodwill, assets, contracts, employees and permits
and licenses as a going concern. Also they entered into a share purchase agreement
with Tadcaster Holdings Ltd in which the company transferred 169,100 equity
shares of Web 18 Software Services Ltd to Tadcaster Holdings Ltd, which is a
wholly owned subsidiary of Web 18 Holdings Ltd. During the year 2006-07, the
company entered the Hindi news space by acquiring a strategic stake in the holding
company of the erstwhile Channel 7, Hindi language news and current affairs
channel. The channel was re-branded as IBN7 and re-launched with improved
programming, visuals and graphics. Post re-branding. Also the company raised Rs
105 crore through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) using the book - building route.
The issue received an overwhelming response from investors and was
oversubscribed nearly 50 times. During the year 2007-08, the company forayed in
the regional news space through the joint venture with Lokmat Group and launch
IBN Lokmat, a 24 hour Marathi language news channel. Also they entered the
Entertainment space through Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd, a joint venture with the US
media & entertainment conglomerate Viacom Inc. Viacom18 launched a Hindi
General Entertainment Channel called 'Colors' in July 2008 to tap the immense
potential of the genre. In December 2007, the company acquired 10.01% stake in
Jagran TV Pvt Ltd from New Vernon Private Equity Ltd. Also, they acquired
100% equity stake in RVT Media Pvt Ltd and thus the company became the
wholly owned subsidiary with effect from January 1, 2008. The company entered
into a scheme of arrangement with BK Fincap Pvt Ltd and Jagran TV Pvt Ltd for
consolidation of IBN-7 Channel with the company. They also announced the
merger of IBN7 within themselves by acquiring the stake held by their partners in
the joint venture.
37


Amar Ujala is India's fourth largest Hindi-language daily newspaper with 19
editions in seven states and one union territory covering 167 districts. It has a
readership of over 30 million and a circulation of around 2.2 million copies.
Amar Ujala was founded in Agra on 18 April 1948 as a four-page newspaper that
sold 2576 copies. By 1968 it had a circulation of 20,000 and by the turn of the
century had become one of the top 10 daily newspapers in India, having spread its
coverage beyond western Uttar Pradesh to encompass the entire state and its
neighbors.
Currently, Amar Ujala publishes a 16 to 18-page issue daily and also supplements
focusing on matters such as careers, lifestyle, entertainment and women

38






39

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

MEANING OF RESEARCH
Research in common parlance refers to a search for knowledge. One can also
define research as a scientific and systematic search for pertinent information on a
specific topic. In fact, research is an art of scientific investigation. The Advanced
Learners Dictionary of Current English lays down the meaning of research as a
careful investigation or inquiry, specially through search for new facts in any
branch of knowledge. Some people consider research as a movement, a
movement from the known to the unknown. It is actually a voyage of discovery.
We all possess the vital instinct of inquisitiveness for, when the unknown confronts
us, we wonder and our inquisitiveness makes us probe and attain full and fuller
understanding of the unknown. This inquisitiveness is the mother of all knowledge
and the method, which man employs for obtaining the knowledge of whatever the
unknown, can be termed as research.
Research is an academic activity and as such the term should be used in a technical
sense. According to Clifford Woody research comprises defining and redefining
problems, formulating hypothesis or suggested solutions; collecting, organising
and evaluating data; making deductions and reaching conclusions; and at last
carefully testing the conclusions to determine whether they fit the formulating
hypothesis. D. Slesinger and M. Stephenson in the Encyclopaedia of Social
Sciences define research as the manipulation of things, concepts or symbols for
the purpose of generalising to extend, correct or verify knowledge, whether that
knowledge aids in construction of theory or in the practice of an art. Research is,
thus, an original contribution to the existing stock of knowledge making for its
advancement.
40

Research and experimental development is formal work undertaken systematically
to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of humanity, culture and
society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications. A
research project may also be an expansion on past work in the field. To test the
validity of instruments, procedures, or experiments, research may replicate
elements of prior projects, or the project as a whole. The primary purposes of basic
research (as opposed to applied research) are documentation, discovery,
interpretation, or the research and development of methods and systems for the
advancement of human knowledge. Approaches to research depend on
epistemologies, which vary considerably both within and between humanities and
sciences.
DEFINITIONS OF RESEARCH
Research has been defined in a number of different ways.
A broad definition of research is given by Martyn Shuttleworth In the broadest
sense of the word, the definition of research includes any gathering of data,
information and facts for the advancement of knowledge.
Another definition of research is given by Creswell who states Research is a
process of steps used to collect and analyse information to increase our
understanding of a topic or issue. It consists of three steps: pose a question,
collect data to answer the question, and present an answer to the question.
The Merriam Webster Online Dictionary defines research in more detail as a
studious inquiry or examination; especially : investigation or experimentation
aimed at the discovery and interpretation of facts, revision of accepted theories or
laws in the light of new facts, or practical application of such new or revised
theories.

3.1.2 OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH
41

The purpose of research is to discover answers to questions through the application
of scientific procedures. The main aim of research is to find out the truth which is
hidden and which has not been discovered as yet. Though each research study has
its own specific purpose, we may think of research objectives as falling into a
number of following broad groupings:
To study the Indian Hindi-language newspapers to identify, the online
versions are currently being run.
To study the Documentation of the present state of Hindi newspapers on the
Internet.
To study the present readership of Hindi newspaper being shift
demographically on the internet.
To study the present newspaper changes in institutional way on the internet.
To study the present changes in production of Internet.

3.1.3 HYPOTHESIS OF RESEARCH
The rise of Hindi Web Journalism is consistent with current technologies in
society.
Affordability and availability of information is crucial in reaching its
democratization.
Hindi newspapers are changing the trends and interests of readers.
Limitations of language in the development of web journalism is holding Regional
technological and economic.

3.1.3 TYPES OF RESEARCH
The basic types of research are as follows:
42

Descriptive vs. Analytical: Descriptive research includes surveys and fact-
finding enquiries of different kinds. The major purpose of descriptive research is
description of the state of affairs as it exists at present. In social science and
business research we quite often use the term Ex Post Facto research for
descriptive research studies. The main characteristic of this method is that the
researcher has no control over the variables; he can only report what has happened
or what is happening. Most ex post facto research projects are used for descriptive
studies in which the researcher seeks to measure such items as, for example,
frequency of shopping, preferences of people, or similar data. Ex post facto studies
also include attempts by researchers to discover causes even when they cannot
control the variables. The methods of research utilized in descriptive research are
survey methods of all kinds, including comparative and co relational methods. In
analytical research, on the other hand, the researcher has to use facts or information
already available, and analyse these to make a critical evaluation of the material.
Applied vs. Fundamental: Research can either be applied (or action)
research or fundamental (to basic or pure) research. Applied research aims at
finding a solution for an immediate problem facing a society or an
industrial/business organization, whereas fundamental research is mainly
concerned with generalizations and with the formulation of a theory. Gathering
knowledge for knowledges sake is termed pure or basic research. Research
concerning some natural phenomenon or relating to pure mathematics are
examples of fundamental research. Similarly, research studies, concerning human
behaviour carried on with a view to make generalization about human behaviour,
are also examples of fundamental research, but research aimed at certain
conclusions (say, a solution) facing a concrete social or business problem is an
example of applied research. Research to identify social, economic or political
trends that may affect a particular institution or the copy research (research to find
43

out whether certain communications will be read and understood) or the marketing
research or evaluation research are examples of applied research. Thus, the central
aim of applied research is to discover a solution for some pressing practical
problem, whereas basic research is directed towards finding information that has a
broad base of applications and thus, adds to the already existing organized body of
scientific knowledge.
Quantitative vs. Qualitative: Quantitative research is based on the
measurement of quantity or amount. It is applicable to the phenomena that can be
expressed in terms of quantity. Qualitative research, on the other hand, is
concerned with qualitative phenomenon, that is, phenomena relating to or
involving quality or kind. For instance, when we are interested in investigating the
reasons for human behaviour (that is, why people think or do certain things), we
quite often talk of Motivation Research, an important type of qualitative research.
This type of research aims at discovering the underlying motives and desires, using
in depth interviews for the purpose. Other techniques of such research are word
association tests, sentence completion tests, story completion tests and similar
other projective techniques. Attitude or opinion research, that is, research designed
to find out how people feel or what they think about a particular subject or
institution is also qualitative research. Qualitative research is specially important in
the behavioural sciences where the aim is to discover the underlying motives of
human behaviour. Through such research we can analyse the various factors which
motivate people to behave in a particular manner or which make people like or
dislike a particular thing. It may be stated, that to apply qualitative research in
practice is relatively a difficult job and therefore, while doing such research, one
should seek guidance from experimental psychologists.
Conceptual vs. Empirical: Conceptual research is that related to some
abstract idea(s) or theory. It is generally used by philosophers and thinkers to
44

develop new concepts or to reinterpret existing ones. On the other hand, empirical
research relies on experience or observation alone, often without due regard for
system and theory. It is data-based research, coming up with conclusions which are
capable of being verified by observation or experiment. We can also call it as
experimental type of research. In such a research it is necessary to get at facts
firsthand, at their source, and actively to go about doing certain things to stimulate
the production of desired information. In such a research, the researcher must first
provide himself with a working hypothesis or guess as to the probable results. He
then sets up experimental designs which he thinks will manipulate the persons or
the materials concerned so as to bring forth the desired information. Such research
is thus characterised by the experimenters control over the variables under study
and his deliberate manipulation of one of them to study its effects. Empirical
research is appropriate when proof is sought that certain variables affect other
variables in some way. Evidence gathered through experiments or empirical
studies is today considered to be the most powerful support possible for a given
hypothesis.
Some Other Types of Research: All other types of research are variations
of one or more of the above stated approaches, based on either the purpose of
research, or the time required to accomplish research, on the environment in which
research is done, or on the basis of some other similar factor. From the point of
view of time, we can think of research either as one-time research or longitudinal
research. In the former case the research is confined to a single time-period,
whereas in the latter case the research is carried on over several time-periods.
Research can be field-setting research or laboratory research or simulation
research, depending on the environment in which it is to be carried out. Research
can as well be understood as clinical or diagnostic research. Such research follow
case-study methods or in depth approaches to reach the basic casual relations. Such
45

studies usually go deep into the causes of things or events that interest us, using
very small samples and very deep probing data gathering devices. The research
may be exploratory or it may be formalized. The objective of exploratory research
is the development of hypothesis rather than their testing, whereas formalised
research studies are those with substantial structure and with specific hypothesis to
be tested. Historical research is that which utilizes historical sources like
documents, remains, etc. to study events or ideas of the past, including the
philosophy of persons and groups at any remote point of time. Research can also
be classified as conclusion-oriented and decision-oriented. While doing
conclusion-oriented research, a researcher is free to pick up a problem, redesign
the enquiry as he proceeds and is prepared to conceptualize as he wishes. Decision-
oriented research is always for the need of a decision maker and the researcher in
this case is not free to embark upon research according to his own inclination.
Operations research is an example of decision-oriented research since it is a
scientific method of providing executive departments with a quantitative basis for
decisions regarding operations under their control.
3.1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF RESEARCH
All progress is born of inquiry. Doubt is often better than overconfidence, for it
leads to inquiry, and inquiry leads to invention is a famous Hudson Maxim in
context of which the significance of research can well be understood. Increased
amounts of research make progress possible. Research inculcates scientific and
inductive thinking and it promotes the development of logical habits of thinking
and organization.
The role of research in several fields of applied economics, whether related to
business or to the economy as a whole, has greatly increased in modern times. The
increasingly complex nature of business and government has focussed attention on
46

the use of research in solving operational problems. Research, as an aid to
economic policy, has gained added importance, both for government and business.
Research provides the basis for nearly all government policies in our economic
system. For instance, governments budgets rest in part on analysis of the needs
and desires of the people and on the availability of revenues to meet these needs.
The cost of needs has to be equated to probable revenues and this is a field where
research is most needed. Through research we can devise alternative policies and
can as well examine the consequences of each of these alternatives. Decision-
making may not be a part of research, but research certainly facilitates the
decisions of the policy maker. Government has also to chalk out programmes for
dealing with all facets of the countrys existence and most of these will be related
directly or indirectly to economic conditions. The plight of cultivators, the
problems of big and small business and industry, working conditions, trade union
activities, the problems of distribution, even the size and nature of defence services
are matters requiring research. Thus, research is considered necessary with regard
to the allocation of nations resources. Another area in government, where research
is necessary, is collecting information on the economic and social structure of the
nation. Such information indicates what is happening in the economy and what
changes are taking place. Collecting such statistical information is by no means a
routine task, but it involves a variety of research problems. These days nearly all
governments maintain large staff to research technicians or experts to carry on this
work. Thus, in the context of government, research as a tool to economic policy
has three distinct phases of operation. viz., (i) investigation of economic structure
through continual compilation of facts; (ii) diagnosis of events that are taking place
and the analysis of the forces underlying them; and (iii) the prognosis, that is, the
prediction of future developments.
47

Research has its special significance in solving various operational and planning
problems of business and industry. Operations research and market research, along
with motivational research, are considered crucial and their results assist, in more
than one way, in taking business decisions. Market research is the investigation of
the structure and development of a market for the purpose of formulating efficient
policies for purchasing, production and sales. Operations research refers to the
application of mathematical, logical and analytical techniques to the solution of
business problems of cost minimisation or of profit maximization or what can be
termed as optimisation problems. Motivational research of determining why people
behave as they do is mainly concerned with market characteristics. In other words,
it is concerned with the determination of motivations underlying the consumer
(market) behaviour. All these are of great help to people in business and industry
who are responsible for taking business decisions. Research with regard to demand
and market factors has great utility in business. Given knowledge of future
demand, it is generally not difficult for a firm, or for an industry to adjust its
supply schedule within the limits of its projected capacity. Market analysis has
become an integral tool of business policy these days. Business budgeting, which
ultimately results in a project profit and loss account, is based mainly on sales
estimates which in turn depend on business research. Once sales forecasting is
done, efficient production and investment programmes can be set up around which
are grouped the purchasing and financing plans. Research, thus, replaces intuitive
business decisions by more logical and scientific decisions.
Research is equally important for social scientists in studying social relationships
and in seeking answers to various social problems. It provides the intellectual
satisfaction of knowing a few things just for the sake of knowledge and also has
practical utility for the social scientist to know for the sake of being able to do
something better or in a more efficient manner. Research in social sciences is
48

concerned both with knowledge for its own sake and with knowledge for what it
can contribute to practical concerns. This double emphasis is perhaps especially
appropriate in the case of social science. On the one hand, its responsibility as a
science is to develop a body of principles that make possible the understanding and
prediction of the whole range of human interactions. On the other hand, because of
its social orientation, it is increasingly being looked to for practical guidance in
solving immediate problems of human relations.
In addition to what has been stated above, the significance of research can also be
understood keeping in view the following points:
To those students who are to write a masters or Ph.D. thesis, research may
mean a careerism or a way to attain a high position in the social structure;
To professionals in research methodology, research may mean a source of
livelihood;
To philosophers and thinkers, research may mean the outlet for new ideas
and insights;
To literary men and women, research may mean the development of new
styles and creative work;
To analysts and intellectuals, research may mean the generalisations of new
theories.
Thus, research is the foundation of knowledge for the sake of knowledge and an
important source of providing guidelines for solving different business,
government and social problems. It is a sort of formal training which enables one
to understand the new developments in ones field in a better way.
3.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
49

With the magic of the web, now anyone with an opinion can be a writer. The
authority that newspaper journalists had and the power governments wielded on
the media, in part, have been subverted. As often as not, non-professional writers
are getting more attention than the professional ones on the internet. The range of
people who write have enormously widened, and so did the range of people who
read. The web connects people all around the globe, allowing them to access an
interminable stream of information. This mutual relationship between writers and
viewers makes it possible for blogging, one of the most inventive and resourceful
online communication methods, to survive.
A blog is a website where individuals or groups can publish a running log of
events, personal insights or other content which appears in reverse date order on
the site. Justin Hall, an intern at Wired magazine and a student at Swarthmore
College, did what we now call blogging for the first time in 1994, and Jorn
Barger later coined the term weblog on 17 December 1997. On a blog, the main
authors article or post is given priority weighting through layout, design and text
formatting others may add their comments to the main post but those comments
will be seen as subsidiary to the main item. In 2007, a survey by Universal
McCann reported 170 million blogs worldwide with a global readership of 340
million people.
For the past years, blog has played the leading role in the history of online
journalism. Blog is like a local cafeteria where people gather and talk about their
lives with their friends, giving and receiving knowledge on travel, cosmetics,
restaurants, fashion, music, etc. It is very accessible and inexpensive, but you get
tons of information on every aspect of our lives. As an online communication
method, blog extends the scope of people we can share information with, from our
close friends to people around the world. Now, with just one mouse click, we can
find people who have things in common with us, who have the information we
50

have been looking for, or to whom we can talk about our interests as many as
possible.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM :
WEB JOURNALISM : A STUDY OF PATTERN, OPPORTUNITIES AND
CHALLENGES.


Population:
The population for the study are the users of internet, newspapers and mobiles.

Sample Size:
Approximate Sample Size for proposed study will be around 50.


Sampling Technique:
Purposive Sampling Technique will be used to select the samples for the study.
Sampling criteria:
(i) Inclusive criteria:
* who are coming to selected Centers in Lucknow.
* who are willing to participate in the study.
* who can read and write Hindi and English
* who are available during data collection.
(ii)Exclusive criteria:
Internet Users :
who are not coming under selected Online news Centre.
who are not willing to participate in the study.
Who cannot read and write Hindi and English.
51

Who are not available during data collection period.

52


TOOLS OF DATA COLLECTION:
(A) Structured close ended questionnaire will be used for the data collection.
(B) Structured teaching programme on Web Journalism.

PERIOD OF DATA COLLECTION:
The data will be collected in the month of March/April 2014.

DATA ANALYSIS METHOD:
- Appropriate descriptive and inferential statistics will be used for data analysis and
presented in the form of tables, graphs and figures etc.,



53







54

DATA ANALYSIS AND ITS INTERPRETATION

1. Do you use the Internet for reading news ?

S.No. Topic Percentage (%)
1 Yes 80
2 No 10
3 Some times 10




Interpretation :
80% respondents said yes, 10% are not and 10% are sometimes use of Internet for
reading news.
80%
10%
10%
Yes No Some times
55

2. In which language do you want to like read news on Internet ?

S.No. Topic Percentage (%)
1 Hindi 70
2 English 20
3 Others 10



Interpretation :
70% respondents said that hindi, 20% in english and 10% in other language to like
read news on Internet.
70%
20%
10%
Hindi English Others
56

3. Which medium use for reading news on Internet?

S.No. Topic Percentage (%)
1 Mobile 15
2 Computer 35
3 Tablet 40
4 Others 10



Interpretation :
35% respondents use computer, 15% respondents use Mobile, 40% respondents
use Tablet and 10% others uses for reading news on Internet.

15%
35%
40%
10%
Mobile Computer Tablet Others
57

4. Why do you like reading news on Web ?

S.No. Topic Percentage (%)
1 Saving time 10
2 Easy to Reach 20
3 Updates 70



Interpretation :
70% respondents reading news on web for updates, 20% are easy to reach and 10%
to save the time.



10%
20%
70%
Saving time Easy to Reach Updates
58


5. Do you seen Hindi Newspaper Portal : Hindi Web Portal or News Channel
Portal ?

S.No. Topic Percentage (%)
1 Newspaper 15
2 Web Portal 70
3 News Channel Portal 10
4 Above three 5



Interpretation
15% respondents Newspaper, 70% respondents Web Portal, 10% News Channel
Portal and 5% are above all seen Hindi Newspaper Portal : Hindi Web Portal or
News Channel Portal.

15%
70%
10%
5%
Newspaper Web Portal News Channel Portal Above three
59


6. Which medium do you considered the most reliable ?

S.No. Topic Percentage (%)
1 Newspaper 60
2 T.V. 15
3 Internet 20
4 Other 5




Interpretation :
60% respondents Newspaper, 15% respondents T.V., 20% respondents Internet,
and 5% are other medium considered the most reliable.


60%
15%
20%
5%
Newspaper T.V. Internet Other
60

7. Which Newspaper Portal is most reliable ?

S.No. Topic Percentage (%)
1 Dainik Jagran 40
2 Amar Ujala 20
3 Hindustan 20
4 Dainik Bhaskar 15
5 Other 5



Interpretation:
40% respondents like Dainik Jagran, 20% respondents like Amar Ujala, 20% like
Hindustan, 15% like Hindustan Newspaper Portal is most reliable.
40%
20%
20%
15%
5%
Dainik Jagran Amar Ujala Hindustan Dainik Bhaskar Other
61

8. Which Web news portal sites do you like most ?

S.No. Topic Percentage (%)
1 Web World 10
2 Web India 40
3 Media Munch 20
4 Date Line 20
5 Others 10



Interpretation:
Mostly Web India portal sites like most.


10%
40%
20%
20%
10%
Web World Web India Media Munch Date Line Others
62

9. Which news channel highlights on Web ?

S.No. Topic Percentage (%)
1 NDTV 35
2 Aaj Tak 20
3 India T.V. 10
4 Zee News 20
5 IBN-7 10
6 Others 5




Interpretation :
35% respondents are NDTV Channel highlights, 20% Aajtak highlights, 10% India
T.V., 20% Zee News channel and 10% IBN-7 news channel highlights on Web.

35%
20%
10%
20%
10%
5%
NDTV Aaj Tak India T.V. Zee News IBN-7 Others
63


10. Do you read news on portal of News Agency ?

S.No. Topic Percentage (%)
1 Yes 20
2 No 80



Interpretation :
80% readers read the news on portal of News Agency.


20%
80%
Yes No
64


11. If Yes, which agency news click more ?

S.No. Topic Percentage (%)
1 Talking 30
2 Language 20
3 PTI 10
4 PIB 20
5 ANI 5
6 Other 5



Interpretation :
30% respondents said talking, 20% said language, 10% said PTI, 20% said PIB,
5% said ANI and 5% said others agency news click more.


33%
22%
11%
22%
6%
6%
Talking Language PTI PIB ANI Other
65

12. Which type of news reading more likes on Sites ?

S.No. Topic Percentage (%)
1 Political 40
2 Sports 15
3 Entertainment 5
4 Cultural 10
5 Crime 20
6 Business 20




Interpretation:
40% respondents said political, 15% said Sports, 5% said Entertainment, 10% said
cultural, 20% said crime and 20% said Business type of news reading more likes
on Sites.

36%
14%
5%
9%
18%
18%
Political Sports Entertainment Cultural Crime Business
66



13. With news reading do you like advertisement on Web ?

S.No. Topic Percentage (%)
1 Yes 25
2 No 75




Interpretation:
75% respondents said news reading doesn't like advertisement on Web.


25%
75%
Yes No
67



14. Is news from Internet share on social media ?

S.No. Topic Percentage (%)
1 Yes 20
2 No 80




Interpretation:
80% respondents said news from Internet share on social media.

20%
80%
Yes No
68


15. By whom medium the fastest way to spread the news ?

S.No. Topic Percentage (%)
1 Internet 20
2 Newspaper 35
3 T.V. 60
4 Others 10



Interpretation :
60% respondents said T.V., 35% respondents said Newspaper, 20% said Internet
16%
28%
48%
8%
Internet Newspaper T.V. Others
69


16. Social sites is the medium of news ?

S.No. Topic Percentage (%)
1 Yes 30
2 No 70



Interpretation:
70% respondents are not satisfied with the social sites are medium of news.


30%
70%
Yes No
70






71

FINDINGS
Following are the findings which are given below :
80% respondents said yes, 10% are not and 10% are sometimes use of
Internet for reading news.
70% respondents said that hindi, 20% in english and 10% in other language
to like read news on Internet.
35% respondents use computer, 15% respondents use Mobile, 40%
respondents use Tablet and 10% others uses for reading news on Internet.
70% respondents reading news on web for updates, 20% are easy to reach
and 10% to save the time.
15% respondents Newspaper, 70% respondents Web Portal, 10% News
Channel Portal and 5% are above all seen Hindi Newspaper Portal : Hindi
Web Portal or News Channel Portal.
60% respondents Newspaper, 15% respondents T.V., 20% respondents
Internet, and 5% are other medium considered the most reliable.
40% respondents like Dainik Jagran, 20% respondents like Amar Ujala, 20%
like Hindustan, 15% like Hindustan Newspaper Portal is most reliable.
Mostly Web India portal sites like most.
35% respondents are NDTV Channel highlights, 20% Aajtak highlights,
10% India T.V., 20% Zee News channel and 10% IBN-7 news channel
highlights on Web.
80% readers read the news on portal of News Agency.
30% respondents said talking, 20% said language, 10% said PTI, 20% said
PIB, 5% said ANI and 5% said others agency news click more.
72

40% respondents said political, 15% said Sports, 5% said Entertainment,
10% said cultural, 20% said crime and 20% said Business type of news
reading more likes on Sites.
75% respondents said news reading doesn't like advertisement on Web.
80% respondents said news from Internet share on social media.
60% respondents said T.V., 35% respondents said Newspaper, 20% said
Internet
70% respondents are not satisfied with the social sites are medium of news.
73

SUGGESTIONS


The web journalism sites need to implement gate-keeping for the web
journalism content. This will help ensure the news updates by web
journalists are in conformity with journalistic ethics.
The web journalists, in their personal interest, should acquaint themselves
with the art of journalistic writings. No matter how great ideas an individual
may possess, it may serve no purpose unless communicated properly.
Therefore, web journalists should strive to improve their news writing skills.
Infact, nowadays online courses and tutorials are available for web
journalists, whichthey should make use of for their own benefit.
Web journalism is a platform for ordinary citizens to come forward and raise
the genuine issues confronting them. The citizens should not misuse it for
advertising purpose and public relations exercises so as to separate
journalism from commercial activities. Let only journalism reflect from
updates of web journalists.
74

CONCLUSION

The web journalists in India over the recent years have been exhibiting the
courage to cover hard news and write about the issues deemed serious in the
society. With digital platform available,
nowadays anyone irrespective of their experience or education can write
news for the general masses to read.
The web journalists try and highlight their issues without hiding behind
anonymity. Apart from articulating their opinion on grave social issues like
corruption, moral degradation and gender discrimination, they deal with
sensitive subjects like terrorism and human rights violations as well.
However, most of the citizens use this platform for business and commercial
purposes, which is otherwise meant for raising the genuine issues that
traditional media usually misses to cover. Some also conduct public relations
exercises through this medium.
On most occasions, the web journalism stories lack quality and content. The
language of the stories is usually poor and they lack even the basic grammar.
This indicates that the content goes unedited before the public, even though
news portals like Dainik Jagran, Aaj Tak, NDTV and IBN-7 claim to have
hired a team of editors.
Besides, the web journalism stories are usually devoid of normative qualities
of news that are a must for and basic to journalistic writings. This is
something that goes against the journalistic ethics prescribed by the Press
Council of India.
The stories also lack on clarity of expression and brevity that are necessary
to put the ideas across.
75

Most of the news stories comprise of long and over-crowded paragraphs that
only confuse and irritate the readers. Usually numerous details are provided
in a single sentence, which ought to be explained in separate paragraphs.

76

REFERENCES
Bowman, Shayne and Willis, Chris: 2003: We Media: Ho Audiences and happening the Future of
News and Information, A Seminal Report, The Media Center at the American Press Institute

77


ANNEXURE

Web Journalism : A study of pattern, opportunities and challenges


I, Sonam tiwari Dubey, student of Dr. baba Bheemrao Ambedkar Central
university, Lucknow of Journalism Department in M.Phil. I am doing dissertation
on entitled " Web Journalism : A study of pattern, opportunities and challenges".

Personal Details :
1. Name : ______________________________
2. Occupation : ____________________
3. Age : ____________________
4. Address : ____________________

Questionnaire
17. Do you use the Internet for reading news ?
Yes
No
Some times

18. Which medium use for reading news on Internet?
Mobile
Computer
Tablet
Others
19. In which language do you want to like read news on Internet ?
Hindi
English
Others
78


20. Why do you like reading news on Web ?
Saving Time
Easy to Reach
Updates
21. Do you see Hindi Newspaper Portal, Hindi Web Portal or News Channel
Portal ?
Newspaper
Web Portal
News Channel Portal
Above three

22. Which medium do you considered the most reliable ?
Newspaper
T.V.
Internet
Other

23. Which Newspaper Portal is most reliable ?
Dainik Jagran
Amar Ujala
Hindustan
Dainik Bhaskar
Other

24. Which Web news portal sites do you like most ?
79

Web World
Web India
Media Munch
Dateline
Others

25. Which news channel highlights on Web ?
NDTV
Aaj Tak
India T.V.
Zee News
IBN-7
Others

26. Do you read news on portal of News Agency ?
Yes
No

27. If Yes, which agency news click more ?
Talking
Language
PTI
PIB
ANI
Other

80

28. Which type of news reading more likes on Sites ?
Political
Sports
Entertainment
Cultural
Crime
Business

29. With news reading do you like advertisement on Web ?
Yes
No

30. Is news from Internet share on social media ?
Yes
No

31. By whom medium the fastest way to spread the news ?
Internet
Newspaper
T.V.
Others

32. Social sites is the medium of news ?
Yes
No

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