The post-truth era is, expectedly, marked by a discerning erosion of public trust in sources of information. Mass media — both traditional and new-age avatars — has borne the brunt of this mistrust. And for good reasons too. Social media, its most popular platform, is a harbinger of falsity. It is thus encouraging to see that at least the old guard of the media ecosystem — the newspaper — continues to defy this discouraging trend. A pan-India survey of media consumption by Lokniti found that print media remains the most trusted source of information. The finding is consistent with the heartening surge in public endorsement of the credibility of newspapers since the pandemic. An earlier survey, which attempted to examine the impact of the lockdown on ‘reading patterns’, had found that the number of readers who used to spend over an hour on newspapers every day had risen to 38%, up from 16% in the pre-lockdown period. The increased trust in newspapers is because the lockdowns coincided with the dissemination of the crudest kinds of misinformation about the pandemic in India and around the world and newspapers played a pivotal role in exposing these lies.
But that is where the good news ends — for the print media, at least. Among other things, the data collated by the survey found deepening footprints of social media in rural and urban constituencies while television continues to dominate the screen. These developments are consistent with global trends that reveal that the newspaper industry is struggling to contain the migration of readers and revenue to other formats, especially digital media. Ironically, the pandemic, which saw a resurgence in collective trust in newspapers, adversely affected the print media as traditional advertisers, reeling under the economic fallouts of CoVID-19, cut back on advertisements. But the crisis in print precedes the pandemic. Newspapers have been outpaced by speedier, but also spurious, sources of information. The dominance of the image over text as a cultural phenomenon is another formidable challenge. The print media’s hopes of remaining competitive and profitable must, therefore, centre on using this collective trust as a form of capital. Survival strategies, especially the revenue model, must be re-explored and the emphasis shifted to in-depth analyses of news as well as eye-catching layouts now that newspapers are slower to reach news to the audience.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “Good news: Editorial on print media remaining the most trusted source of information”, The Telegraph]
What would be the impact on the readership and revenues of the print media if the image were not dominant over text as a cultural phenomenon?
Correct Answer :
Print media would not suffer as much of a reduction in readership and revenue as readers shifted to other formats.
Solution :
Correct Answer: Print media would not suffer as much of a reduction in readership and revenue as readers shifted to other formats.
Step-by-Step Explanation:
1. Understand the Question:
The question asks us to identify the hypothetical impact on print media's readership and revenue if "the dominance of the image over text as a cultural phenomenon" were not present.
2. Analyze the Passage:
Let's locate the reference to the "dominance of the image over text" in the passage:
- The second paragraph mentions: "These developments are consistent with global trends that reveal that the newspaper industry is struggling to contain the migration of readers and revenue to other formats, especially digital media."
- It further explains: "The dominance of the image over text as a cultural phenomenon is another formidable challenge."
3. Logical Reasoning:
- The passage lists the dominance of images over text as a major challenge contributing to the struggle of newspapers and the migration of readers/revenue to other formats (like digital or television media).
- Therefore, if this factor were removed (i.e., if images were not dominant over text), one of the key challenges causing the shift would be eliminated or mitigated.
- As a result, the print media would not suffer as severe a loss in readership and revenue as it currently does due to readers migrating to visual or digital formats.
4. Evaluate the Options:
- Option 1: "Print media would not suffer as much of a reduction in readership and revenue as readers shifted to other formats." — This logically follows from eliminating a major challenge facing text-based print media.
- Option 2: "Print media would suffer a greater reduction..." — Incorrect, as removing a negative challenge would lessen the loss, not increase it.
- Option 3: "There would be no impact..." — Incorrect, since the image dominance is explicitly mentioned as a formidable challenge influencing the industry.
- Option 4: "There would be an increased demand..." — Incorrect and contradictory to the hypothetical condition where image is not dominant over text.
Thus, the correct option is Print media would not suffer as much of a reduction in readership and revenue as readers shifted to other formats.
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