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Mass media in India , especially news media, are undergoing significant changes in the current liberalised environment. To understand these changes, it is useful to examine the road traversed so far. This requires looking at media in two phases of India 's history - pre-colonial and post-colonial. Each medium has taken its own evolutionary path.
The National and the English press; The Hindu and Indian Express ; Times of India and The Statesman ; India Today and Outlook ; Pothan Joseph and G Kasturi; N Ram and Vinod Mehta; are not contrasts but a sampling of the range that needs to be covered here.
Colonial journalism
William Bolts, an ex-employee of the British East India Company attempted to start the first newspaper in India in 1776 . Bolts had to beat a retreat under the disapproving gaze of the Court of Directors of the Company.
Bengal
The Bengal Gazette was started by James Augustus Hicky in 1780 . The Gazette , a two-sheet newspaper, specialised in writing on the private lives of the Sahibs of the Company. He dared even to mount scurrillious attacks on the Governor-General , Warren Hastings ', wife, which soon landed "the late printer to the Honourable Company" in trouble.
Hicky was sentenced to a 4 months jail term and Rs.500 fine, which did not deter him. After a bitter attack on the Governor-General and the Chief Justice, Hicky was sentenced to one year in prison and fined Rs.5,000, which finally drove him to penury. These were the first tentative steps of journalism in India.
Calcutta
B.Messink and Peter Reed were pliant publishers of the India Gazette , unlike their infamous predecessor. The colonial establishment started the Calcutta Gazette . It was followed by another private initiative the Bengal Journal . The Oriental Magazine of Calcutta Amusement , a monthly magazine made it four weekly newspapers and one monthly magazine published from Calcutta , now Kolkata. ....continued....
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