Newspapers And Electronic Platforms: Media Evolution And The New Age Acceptance
By: Ayodele Ayanfe
Tags: Newspapers, Social Media, Media Criticism, Information, Education

Newspapers And Electronic Platforms: Media Evolution And The New Age Acceptance

By the sixth year into the millennium, I had developed much affinity for newspapers almost to the detriment of academic books. I would only visit my school notes when mandated by my teachers or by tests and exams, but newspapers were found everywhere in my closet, they were the first thing to be found in my hands after dropping my school bag and taking my lunch; It is one of the main reasons why I will burn the night candle unrepentantly. I was going to enjoy reading newspapers forever. As a secondary school pupil who had less than a session to oblige in school uniform, my passion to know more than what academic curriculum offers at the secondary level had been kindled by various realities in my country and fuelled by the presentations of these realities by many folks among which was my Government teacher, a budding politician who had pleasure in interacting with his pupils’ intelligence by feeding them with non-syllabus stories of the Nigerian politics. Mr. Leloh had used the corruption tussles of the then Bayelsa and Plateau states governors and the somewhat biased usage of the Nuhu Ribadu- chaired EFCC by the Obasanjo administration to respond in the gates to stimulate my interest more on political activities. Leloh would also try to make us understand the difference between the tiers and arms of government and the supremacies of each of them by exploiting the possibilities of policies and realities in the sphere. Of course, these periods were always interesting to a number of us in the Art department and we would be looking forward to having the teacher come to class again. However, while I listened keenly to the narrations of my teacher, I struggled to see a balance in most of it because of the way his criticisms mostly tend towards a part of his stories in that most persons that answer a name that sound like his rarely got ablame. Or even get his exoneration if otherwise had been widely reported about them in prior time. I enjoyed his class though but I have to be sure I was not been spoon-fed by one man’s opinion in an issue that is supposed to be a general concern. I had to be prepared for the classes and ask questions in places where I detect one-sidedness, and to detect one-sidedness you won’t be fed from only one side, therefore, the need to listen and read from sources other than my teacher’s became pertinent if I’m to be sure I am not taking the worms of tribalism thinking it is coming from the pot of communal education.

The media turned to be the best place the information and explanation I needed to get more familiar with the polity is served fresh, hot and ungarnished and maybe this will be what will make me take the radio more seriously. Listening to radio is what I’ve been doing with much ardor because of my father’s consistency with it and my childish will to mimic the professionalism of newscasters. But I am limited. Even though I listened to the news and mimic the reading, I hardly understood the content with the way the pace and phonetics of newscast beat my ability to comprehend, and secondly, the financial cost of getting and battery-fuelling a mobile transistor radio could not be borne by my empty pupil pocket. But at that time, I was a protégée to a neighbor who was so interested in my academic and intellectual welfare and would leisurely treat all sorts of questions with me to keep the interest. It was with this neighbor I started whetting my appetite for political knowledge. He had noticed my curiosity and felt limited by time to feed it, so he resolved to attend to my quests with newspapers — a material which he had seen me show a great deal of interest in. I started picking up his outdated newspapers on Fridays after school to pass the weekend and then return them for more. My interest in reading papers grew with this that I would only buy roasted corn on my way from school from any corn seller who used any kind of newspaper to wrap corn for buyers. My motive was to keep the newspaper-wrap while I eat my corn and restfully read whatever I find on the print irrespective of the year or story therein. I was doing this to quench my thirst for newspapers — or should I say my thirst for information — because I could not afford to pay the vendor. My visit to my neighbor’s room for dead newspapers increased from once a week to almost daily. He was a sociopath who wanted to be abreast of everything happening and would visit the vendor daily to pick at least 3 different types of dailies. I had had that saving grace and I would maximize it to the fullest. I would go to help decongest my neighbor’s room and return with three or four newspapers including sports newspapers to consume. This did not just help me to ask the right questions in my interesting Government classes, it also helped to know the right answers. By the time I would be writing my final secondary school exams, I had become well-informed in some social issues including governance and politics, religion, fashion, arts and entertainment, technology, literature, diplomacies, and sports. I had read diverse articles, opinions, interviews, and columns from different newspapers and enriched my knowledge bank to become opinionated on virtually everything.

My academics had improved drastically with expositions gotten from divergent views and opinions on most academic topics expressed by professionals and practitioners on the papers’ pages. My reading and comprehensive ability had taken a quantum leap and my writing skills had so improved that I now write my opinions in form of articles to rehearse for the day it will be given as an English assignment by my pessimist English teacher. A teacher who thought I was too young and callow to be passing out of secondary school. My understanding and use of grammar had been recycled because I now had to check for the meanings of new words as used to embellish write-ups. I had to get a pocket dictionary that went everywhere with me for this purpose.

The Nations newspaper launched me into another realm of art and literary appreciation with its weekly art column where it featured the works and death story of the great literary icon, Dr. D.O Fagunwa amongst many other thrilling stories of African works and writers. A reading experience that gave me more interest and academic grades in my Literature subject. With special fashion and music pages in the Punch newspaper, I could understand why fashion tastes are different in both men and women’s worlds, how the blending of classic songs with the new school is addressing the desires brought by the constant thing called change and why contemporary innovations are needful to sustain the times. Vanguard became my best for foreign affairs and The Guardian gave me a handful on sexuality and society. Complete Sports and Soccer Star were the most favorites for explanations on track and field events and players. These papers gave me the impetus to talk on sporting activities around the world and to also choose favorites sports clubs I will pitch my tent of support with as it was then becoming the trend in the sports world.

Of course, all the newspapers had embedded in them the writings that appealed to readers’ desires on virtually all societal issues but I was swimming in the abundance of my neighbor’s library and I have the luxury of picking which best addressed a particular topic for me after I had read every page of all the papers.

Some of my (male) mates, including my immediate elder brother, also had this passion for reading newspapers. Most of the time, I was begged by my classmates who wanted to read but could not afford the pay to bring the papers to school so they could spend the break time on them. Those who could follow me home did follow me to read. We read and treated articles and matters arising together. We debated, argued, opined and agreed on many issues of politics, sports, music, fashion, and foreign affairs. We would spend time in my corridor after school and on weekends. Some of these mates became friends because they preferred to read at my house to trekking to the vendor to peep at the headlines. We were hunting for newspapers to read like it was all we needed to gain admission into institutions of higher learning. We wanted to be informed all round. Sometimes, I contend with my brother to be the first to read Alaroye — the choice Yoruba newspaper bought by our father. Sometimes, the contention will be caused by the desire to selfishly have the kerosene lamp to yourself to read the mirage of newspapers accrued from our neighbor’s. We craved for newspapers then because we wanted information, because we wanted an education.

But there was also an interesting flip. Even though many of us took an interest in getting informed and entertained through the papers, our number was a far-cry difference compared to mates that were disinterested in the fad. Many were folks who will treat newspapers with disdain and ignorance of what it is, and the number of these folks far outweighs that of its lovers. Not many people would crave and hunt for newspapers as many of us would do and this made me curious. Though I do not have the statistics that can show accurately how people treated newspaper when I was growing up but recalling some of the care-free and nonchalant attitudes with which some people treated this media tool, I could only wonder if they ever cared to know the book contained things that could help form their unformed living. Talking about places where I saw these careless treatments, places like homes, schools, religious places, and markets. I was once given a gift wrapped with a full page of a day-old newspaper torn carelessly by a mother figure. I marveled, to think if that paper was mine, I would have cared for it and kept it as long as the prints are readable, but here is a thoughtless tearing.

Together with a mate who loved to read papers, I researched why some of our mates would not care to even peep at papers even though it is aging in their father’s cabinet and would rather leave it unread till it is aged enough to be used in their mothers’ kitchen. It wasn’t because they couldn’t read, of course, they read and write in school every day. They just didn’t like long read. They were not ready to commit time to know the details of those headlines. They were not interested in knowing what policy is formed by who, did not want to know what is said by who concerning what. Nothing mandated them to stock their knowledge silo with facts and lessons from platforms different from schools and homes. They knew zilch about the media and they were not propelled to.

This attitude was not toward the newspapers alone, it was also the same way they treated the radio and the television. Nothing would make some younglings of that era stay tuned when it is news, opinion or current affairs programme on radio or TV. The attitude became more pronounced against newspapers because, unlike other mediums, newspapers are primarily and solely to inform and educate. The radio and the TV still have more contents of entertainment that fascinate listener and viewer and that was why many young ones preferred them to the newspapers. So for two major reasons, newspapers suffered neglect from the growing generation of my days, one being the inability of its design to give maximum and understandable entertainment content that will always bring them to the realm of mirth whenever they pick any copy. Secondly, and the bottom line, the ignorance of the people about the importance of media information and their unreadiness and lack of diligence to get informed.

This was 2006. We were then just teenagers trying to beat the natural restlessness. But a lot of things had changed since then.

Then, the newspaper was the most readily available information medium. It was the cheapest to acquire even though we could not afford it; it was the most mobile, it was the most comprehensible, it was less boring with pictorial attachments and the cartoons, it was exciting and engaging - next to the television. However, times have changed and all the monopolies of the primordial media tools have been wrestled by a novel arrival in the media world — the electronic social platforms.

This novelty came with many stunning features. Social Media as it’s preferably called is facilitated by the internet — a new age technological expression that enables information to travel through the ether and be delivered to the farthest of distance in split second. With information receivable in visual, audio and print forms on this platform, it collects the basics of the senior mediums and rolled them up in one. But just like every other media platform, the social media is all incorporated to make the dissemination of information easy and education more accessible and it is fulfilling that purpose marvelously. One amazing reality that is engendered by the advent of this media tool is how it got almost everybody in the social strata enmeshed in the use of the platform. From the old to the young, the upper class to the lower cadre of citizens, the famous to the relatively obscure folks… huge participation in information remittance on social media is evident in the millions of connections, both of friends and followers being boast of on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram — three of the leading social media platforms.

What wonders one is the presence of those who didn’t cherish and are still not cherishing the information and education offered by the newspapers and other media tools on this electronic information tool. If folks during my growing-up days didn’t so regard and are still not regarding media education of the newspapers, how come they so fill the internet space in bunches and pillage, why do we have those who didn’t care (and are still not caring) to be educated by the newspapers now grasping for tit-bits on Facebook, why are those who forsook the newspapers in its heydays rushing to be registered on Instagram, why do we have much more users of social media now than we had newspaper readers then and even now? Do social media create a sudden urge for media education in the young folks now than the newspaper did in ages past?

The social media is blessed with a plethora of features that can communicate in clearer terms.

WHY THE SOCIAL MEDIA ENJOYS MUCH ACCEPTANCE BY THE MILLENNIA THAN THE NEWSPAPERS IN ITS HAYDAYS.

When one is trying to draw the line of difference between social media and other media tools, particularly the newspapers, numerous factors pose to be considered. However, if the differentiation is meant to underscore or explain why the novel tool is more preferred to its fore-runners by media users of today, some factors come more notable. Three of these reasons shall be examined to see why many young people who wouldn’t give a wink about the medium of information and education in the days of the papers now crave to get glued to the same medium in these days of the internet. These factors should also bear open the difference between the lovers of news from the papers and phone fanatics.

FUNCTIONALITY

Unlike the newspapers which only relay its message in prints, social media is blessed with a plethora of features that can communicate in clearer terms. With photographs, audio, and video functions as well as durable prints, social media is bound to attract and fascinate any level of intellect. While the writings of the newspapers would take a good deal of intellectual commitment to understand and interpret, the visuals of the social media tools will speak expressly to the comprehension of the less intelligent. Apart from the cartoon pages sparsely found in the newspapers, hilarious images and imageries are not what the papers will offer chronic lovers of comics. Too much of cartoon pages could make a publishers lose clients, because those paying for your papers are not paying to purchase mirth and laughter but to be abreast of happenings and get their horizons widened through quality reportage, and if you will be filling your pages with comic drawings, it had better be caricatures that teach and inform as much it makes laugh. But with social media comes all sorts of visuals that you could land in your kitty and replay whenever you feel like laughing. Those who don’t like reading and or have difficulty in absorbing written content get pacified and enticed by these options that will always keep them coming. And so beyond and apart from information and education that are the cores of the newspapers, the social media prides of functions that are being harnessed to entertain users in a great deal, and many there be that are found on the space because of this.

GRATIFICATION

The internet gives everyone the franchise to express. It is a place where thoughts and talks walk on walls and images fly in the space without restriction. You own your world and you are free to invite just anyone to share it with you. For the newspapers, few people talk there. Few and unknown. We just accept the few people are knowledgeable enough to talk because we find their names attached to what they have written, however, if you then read their write-ups and you disagree with the content, just feel free to argue with the books or your reading mates on the spot. No one hears you beyond the spot except you are so impassioned to go the extra mile of locating the publisher and pay to register your counter-argument. With social media, you can be the publisher as well as a counter-arguing respondent with just a click. Apart from being able to register your thoughts and engage others’, one factor that makes users feel so gratified is the ability to use the visual and audio features to get people to celebrate them. Pictures of you posted even without a caption could earn you hundreds of approving reactions and comments from those you don’t know beyond the screen. Users who lack meaningful and impactful contributions to make on the media space had been seen raking appraisals in a great number simply because they could make poses, capture them with filter lens and then post for others to admire. With the approvals and appraisals users get with their numerous photo updates, it makes it pleasurable for them to always want to dwell on the media space even if the sweet shallow reaction is all they can get. Though, many employ the print feature of it to pass a tangible message, catch fun and garner fans, a large number of the millennia are spending much in the photo studio solely to receive compliments online, which is why they joined and remain on the platform anyways. To these set of people, fifty-five minutes of their one hour online is for photo-fun. They will soon drop their phones to ask you what the 9th Assembly means, or who do they say Buhari sacked. The social media is not to educate them and they could never have been found reading newspapers.

CONNECTION

When it comes to connecting, reconnecting and reuniting people, give all the praise to the social media. The newspaper was impotent in this, it wasn’t made to bring any two together and it has not been credited to have done that even by mistake. We read the papers in those days and even now solely to enjoy reading news and views, not expecting to meet someone once known or someone not known. But how interesting is it to see the famous truism ‘’twenty kids cannot tangle for twenty years’’ fading into fallacy with the brilliance and simplicity the social media affords to keep people close and contacting. To find any name in the world is just a click away from possibility as long it is registered in the online wizard.

School leavers who crave to take friendships beyond the day of graduation find it easy to create online groups that will cater to their wish and keep them bound — with the visual and audio features to transfer their words and feelings, social media can keep them as close as walnuts. No other media platform can stage this kind of possibility. To dredge out-of-sight folks out of the hollow of the world’s population and rekindle the union again comes so easy and pleasant. And even if you have no one to dredge out, will it not be wise to just put yourself online in case some old fellows direly wish to reconnect with you? This reason is also akin to the ‘’belonging mentality’’ reason. Striving to be seen online because everyone is found online. Nobody picks up the newspaper for that kind of reason — joining the crowd at the vendor stand for the sake of joining the crowd — no one would do that. Readers read to broaden their minds, not for the shallow reasons that make social media a congested hive.

These three factors among others like mobility, accessibility, and interaction are responsible for the influx of young people online, people who would scorn the print media and its ‘’whatever’’ education, claiming they are on social media. However, if asked to deploy the knowledge gotten from the media to posit in current affairs, social or global discussion, they will be found wanting, helpless and disgraceful; lacking knowledge to share and contribution to make despite living in their so-called (social) media world.