According to a survey, today, India is one of the leading markets in the mobile and communication technology industry. By using technology, information can be shared easily as compared to print media or press. Broadcasting, live events etc. are easiin electronic media rather than press. Also we have social media which update us with the event very fastly. But the interest of news paper has not decreased. It has less demand but it works as an impactful weapon of the society. Since press is the forth pillar of Indian democracy.
The printing press has a history behind its invention, like in ancient India the kings and rulers are known to have propagated their ideas through edicts. Their messages were inscribed on walls and edicts erected at strategic point for people to read.
Emperor Ashoka's pillar inscriptions and rock edicts in different parts of the Mauryan Empire during the 3rd century BC are considered examples of emperial social-political communication to the informed and literate section of the population. Ashoka used the Prakrit language in his communication on ethics and morals as evidence by his inscriptions.
Writing was done on palm leaves was another feature of communication in ancient India.
The first printing press in India arrived and was installed at the college of St. Paul in Goa as 'a happy accident' in 1556. The first literature ever printed in India was released on November 6, 1556. It took two hundred years more for the first newspaper to appear in India.
It was on January 29, 1780 that the first printed newspaper of the Indian subcontinent was published in England from Calcutta. The newspaper was edited and published by James Augustus Hickey, a former employee of East India Company. It was named Bengal Gazette. It declared itself as a "weekly political and commercial paper open to all parties but influenced by none". The paper was forced to shut down after just two years. Hickey was deported.
However, with Hickey's Bengal Gazette began the long and eventful journey of Indian journalism. Gradually newspapers were published from all over the country. Within six years of publication of Bengal Gazette, there were4 weeklies and a monthly. In Madras, Madras courier came out in 1785. In Bombay, Bombay Herald was stated in 1789.
Some general conclusions that can be drawn of the press at that time are:
No news papers were published until 1780 because the company's establishments in India were a closed preserved. The first newspapers were started by disgruntled ex-employees of the company.
They were aided and guided by servants of the company who used these newspapers for furtheraness of their personal rivalries and jealousies.
The apprehension was that these newspapers might reach London rather than that they might have any adverse effect in Bengal. The circulation of papers never expected a hundred or two hundred and there was no danger of public opinion being subverted. Only spare copies of newspapers published in the territory of one establishment reached other establishments and that too occasionally.
While some editors incurred the displeasure of important officials from the very beginning at all. And it was for this reason that other editors were encouraged, financed and provided with material and other aid by influential senior officials of the company.
Initially the growth of newspapers was slow, but with time it picked up momentum. The agenda of newspapers in the early to mid 19th century was primarily 'social reform'. Social reforms like Raja Rammohan Roy, Dwarkanath Tagore, Mahadev Govind Ranade, Gopalrao Hari Deshmukh, Dadabhai Naoraji published newspapers and perused the agenda. Mention must be made of James Silk Buckingham, who came to India as editor of Calcutta Chronicle in 1818. It was Buckingham, who brought 'journalism', in the sense we understand it now. He was a champion of freedom of press and wanted social reform.
Now Indian printers have computerized. All the printing technology has been done electronically. Within hours hundreds of books were produced with the backup facility.
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