The economics of intelligence has ever been very intriguing, but the socio-economics is far more captivating. The social impact of newspaper, periodicals and TV or shall I say information media goes beyond conventional welfare economics. It has been discovered that most literate countries in the public also cause really high readership.
In bare words, newspaper, periodicals and news channels are the only tools that can reach masses, educate them and have them aware - all at one go.
When it comes to newspaper circulation, India beats any country hands down. We bear at the top position when it comes to newspaper circulation with 59,023,000 newspapers being circulated daily followed by Germany that manages to distribute only 25,000,000 - which is less than half that of India. India ranks 3rd in the earth when it comes to paper and periodicals combined circulation with 62,000,000 newspaper and periodicals being circulated daily closely following China and Japan. But when it comes to availability and approach to these information media, we don`t even feature in top 10! India stands at the 28th position, when it comes to newspaper circulation per capita, per day with just 54.64 newspapers per 1,000 people. While the top ranking country -Norway- boasts of 554.10 newspapers per 1,000 people - approximately 10 times that of India. The site gets worse with newspapers and periodicals availability per capita as India drops down to the 48th position with exactly 60.09 per 1,000 people, while Japan and Norway again tops the list. It goes without any question that periodicals do bring a substantial part in educating people at the same time inculcates a smell of opinion. Periodicals not only provides relatively deeper insights but also more analysis and comment on myriad issues. The most accessible media of data being TV are again in poor supply, as we get only 0.58 television broadcast stations per million people - with Norway having 82.569 per million people - making us the 152nd nation in the list. As of 2010, a full amount of 515 channels are usable in the land out of which 150 are pay channels with total cable subscribers per 1,000 being merely 38.5.
Th e entire number of news dissemination can be put under into two wide categories. One, being of aff ordability and other being of shortage of quality local mass media. Newspaper and periodicals are nevertheless very expensive in India, and TV channels are out of range of millions. A game of envelope calculation shows that an average Indian have to do way with 2-3 per cent of his annual income annually for a year round newspaper and periodicals readings, while a British can do it for just 1.5-2 per cent of his yearly income. And judgment you, this is only the price of the newspaper, which does not admit the price of approach as a great portion of the population do not receive a door step access of newspapers and periodicals like in cities. In paper and periodicals, India does take a few titles in Hindi that are at par with leading English titles, but when it comes to former local languages, we still go to meet the appetence of local readers. Similar is the subject with regional TV channels and especially regional news channel, which has more to do with access issues, than anything else. With low broadband connectivity, lower education and far lower internet awareness, it is print media and electronic media that want to be made more approachable and affordable for masses. It is not only about information dissemination but also about responsibility towards citizens as a whole.
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