Corona has suppressed the relationship called society, what is the consequence of the printed newspaper! There are two kinds of words in this regard. After all, in Bangladesh, in many countries of the world, many readers have become subscribers of printed dailies. That is the real touch for them under house arrest. Magazines can also be read online from Mars, but taking a printed magazine means I am in the country, I am among the local people. On the other hand, many have left the print media and enjoyed reading the news online. I asked, entered the website of a newspaper, read or saw something — came out. It is a road that does not touch the ground, does not touch. Experience like taking a bath without water.
Concerns about the future of the print media are no longer a matter of the future, it is the present happening. Many magazines are shutting down, many just want to make a living online. In addition to this economic woes, there are other reasons to grieve for the print media.
There is no democracy without printed newspapers. People who are aware of the reality through newspapers can consciously choose their own leader, keep an eye on the activities of the government and criticize or support as needed. An independent print newspaper is like another representative assembly of democracy, another parliament — where the national situation of the country comes up, the details of the problem and the discussion on the solution come up.
A country's newspaper is the daily national biography of that country. Each page of the nation's biography is the printed pages of a daily newspaper. When there was no online-internet, one of the two main tools to create national unity and solidarity was the newspaper, the other was the railway. Lenin used to call the newspaper the joint organizer. In fact, it is impossible for anyone to know all the people of the country or to search all the areas. When newspapers cover the whole country, unfamiliar people, unfamiliar areas and life outside of experience become familiar. Thus day by day the newspaper forms in the minds of its readers an idea about the country, the way of life of the country and the reality.
One of the most famous books by sociologist Benedict Anderson is 'Imagined Communities'. In this book, he compares newspapers and printing press with the midwife in the development of race, nationalism and nation-state. He gave this achievement to the newspaper to inspire the imagination of a single country in the minds of isolated people in different parts of the country. Really, without the newspaper, our freedom struggle could have accelerated? If the current state of affairs of the nation had not been known through the newspapers, would most of the people of the country have been overwhelmed with the same joys and sorrows and hopes and aspirations? One of the driving forces behind the success of the anti-British and anti-Pakistan movements was the popular newspapers of the time.
Newspaper headlines and big pictures tell the reader what the main events of today are. Online media is not supposed to have this ability to bring people's attention to a single point. Because, it is not permanent. No news online stays in front for long, only the headline changes, only the scene changes. As the main content of the day gets lost in this constant change, what I am looking for as a reader slips away. In an endless scrolling, the reader is no longer there, the viewer. When he saw the news, he read it vaguely. While reading an article, the eyes go to another news link or Facebook post - that attention is distracted. If you look at the online screen for a long time, you feel tired and your eyes get irritated.
This difficulty is less in printed newspapers. Because, the better the magazine, the more organized its organization is, i.e. page splitting. The more organized each section of the newspaper, the more easily the reader reaches the page of choice. Newspapers are also family. Page-to-page sharing is also comfortable for multiple family readers. Maybe the father took the first page of the political news head, the mother took the favorite feature section, the siblings some read the international page, some the play page and started reading together.
Imagine the scene. In the morning, as soon as the newspaper was at home, Dad sat down with the paper, the smoked tea or coffee beside him. Surrounding him, the rest of the family is squabbling over the pages one by one, sitting on the floor or in a chair, squatting down the page of their choice. It looks like a great family, a great readership. In such a family, children and teenagers are more likely to be educated and prudent. In contrast, online magazines are personal, the loneliness of scrolling alone on one's screen.
Newspapers were more of the middle class. Having one or two magazines at home is also a matter of culture and class.