"Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter." -Thomas Jefferson, 1787.
The Roman Acta Diurna, is the earliest recorded “newspaper”, which was found to have appeared in about 59 B.C. . The Acta kept citizens informed about government scandals, military campaigns, trials and executions under Julius Caesar's regime. Today, when,there are more than 60,000 registered newspapers in india alone, newspapers are looked upon to play a similar role, though the areas on which they now have to provide information stand largely diversified.
Newspapers have played a role in facilitating development mainly by performing their primary activity of providing facts and information. This role of newspapers has been enacted at different levels in different magnitudes in different areas of our country. India has a large number of local dailies and regional newspapers,specific to a district,state or region, most of which are also locally owned and operated by people directly effected by the development or lack of development in that region. Many of these newspapers, being run in rural areas ,become the only source of information,for the rural people, regarding areas outside of their villages or districts and also about local information that they don'y get. When newspapers give information about living conditions better than the ones in which the readers are living, they tend to organise themselves and put pressure on authorities and on the local governments to bring about the required changes. In many cases this has resulted in bringing about changes in factors effecting the quality of public life. Newspapers in rural areas have resulted in empowering the rural people to take part to a certain extent in the process of facilitating development.
Newspapers in many large cities are sometimes circulated amongst people who aren't aware of the conditions prevailing in the rest of the country or the level of development outside the metros. Newspapers in the metros hence also fail to have an adequate impact on influencing the urban masses to give support to rural issues relating to development. However, the role of newspapers in urban areas has been linked to development through various other ways. The newspapers have facilitated the organising of thought and action amongst various educated urban masses, over the years on various issues,though that role is now shared by all forms of media.
Making use of the accesibility to a mostly an educated readership, newspapers in urban areas have, in the past few years, initiated many direct programmes towards development. Many popular english dailies in the metros started programmes targeting school students, to create awareness, to give them a voice, and to directly take part in the development of the educational scenario,for eg. The Times of India started the programme NIE- newspaper in education aimed at school students, very recently The Times of India also started a campaign, called the teach india campaign, aimed at organising the educated people in 4 metros towards educating people who aren't privileged enough to get admissions in schools.
The role of newspapers in facilitating development has changed largely over the years, from being the biggest mode of mobilising people towards action during the years of the struggle for independence, to now,when it shares the responsibility towards creating an awareness of development or underdevelopment with other forms of media. Newspapers have responded to the requirement and have constantly reinvented themselves to continue contributing to the process of creating awareness, which is the first step towards defeating underdevelopment, be it social, cultural or development of any kind.
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