Press and Social Issues: A study of two Bengali newspapers of Cachar District of Assam

Abstract

The desire to communicate, to exchange ideas, to learn about
the changes in the immediate environment and to seek the
truth is inherent in human nature. Communication of news
and views is an integral part of human life. Man is always
eager to know what is going around him and what people
are thinking about various things. He used different means
in different times to fulfill this need. From its fundamental
importance for social development, communication has a
development point of view in all societies. Communication
as a means of transmission of information and as a process
of development underwent many changes with the invention of the printing press.
The press plays an important role in the fulfillment of the information needs of the people and has been playing a dominant role in the dissemination of news and information.
Being a major force in forming public opinion, the present study was conducted to analyse the nature and extent of
coverage of socially relevant issues in two major language
newspapers of Cachar district of Assam.
The paper thus explores on how language press in a remote
place covers socially relevant issues and how they reflect
and shape the views of societal diversity. For the purpose of
this study a content analysis of two highest circulated Bengali newspapers has been considered for a period of four
months. The findings of the study did not differ much as far
as the coverage pattern of social issues are concerned, reflecting the prevalence of conventional and traditional media reporting practices still in existence in small towns and
remote areas. Typically socially relevant issues like rape,
female foeticide, prostitution, etc have appeared almost in
the same numbers in both the newspapers.
However the findings also reveal that language newspapers
in remotest part of the country give reasonable importance
to social issues and highlight different social problems like
corruption, terrorism, prostitution, female foeticide, etc in
their reports