1. Background
Human
generations have also evolved through using varieties of communication
channels. During early 20th century, people were surprised to listen
to the radio. Similarly, their patience was awarded with audio-visual medium
i.e. Television in 1930s. Later on, arrival of satellite communication system
during 1970s expanded their imagination of communication channels. Since then,
the communication channels are ever-increasing. From writing in caves to using Papyrus to
papers, now human beings have reached to the point when they are using virtual
slat where they can read, write, draw and almost do anything. People do not
basically need paper and pen for writing purpose or sending letters. Likewise,
they do not need to rely on books for quenching their thirst of knowledge. They
can do it by reading e-books available on internet.
Of
all these communication channels invention, arrival of internet has changed the
human communication like no other previous media has. The concept of
'information superhighway' has been largely possible due to the arrival of
internet. It has not only revoultionalized human communication but also altered
communication style and its speed. Its benefit has not only been ripped by
individuals but organizations and every other prominent people. Mass
communication has been largely changed and boosted due to the
The
foundation for development of Internet was laid back in the United States in
the 1960s. The United States Defense Department’s Advanced Research ProjectAgency (ARPA) built a small network called ARPANET for internal usage. The
agency’s had its plans to create a medium that would allow its researchers to communicate
about the work they were doing and share their ideas with each other. By 1971,
more than 20 universities and government research centers were were connected
to each other that meant they were already 'online'. Two years later, the
network expanded to research centers in Europe. The most popular early use of
the network was e-mail.
Paxson
(2011) observes, "By the late 1970s, ARPANET developers began to look
beyond military applications for the network. The term “Internet” was used for
the first time in 1982. The following year, the Domain Name System came into
effect. Instead of trying to remember a web site address by a long number, as had
been the practice, a user only had to remember an address such as www.continuumbooks.com.
In 1990, the ARPANET network went out of existence in favor of the broader
Internet. Two important changes occurred in 1991. First, commercial use of the
Internet was allowed, and was no longer restricted to educational and
governmental institutions. Second, the World Wide Web was introduced, which
made getting information on the Internet much easier, as one could then connect
to a website via a hyperlink. The hyperlink, developed by Tim-Berners Lee,
links an electronic file to other electronic files, which we access by simply
clicking on the link. Mosaic, a computer program that allowed users to see
photographs and other graphic items on the Internet, was developed by the
National Center for Supercomputing Applications and was made available to the
public in 1993. Of course, with graphics came banner ads. The first banner ads
appear on hotwired.com in October 1994. They were for the alcoholic beverage Zima
and AT&T."
Now,
people have been spending more time on internet than using other traditional
media. Media consumers especially youth have lost their interest towards
reading newspaper, magazine, listening to radio and watching Television. Even
if they happened to consume all these contents of traditional media, they
prefer to access them using Internet through internet connect desktop computer,
laptop, mobile phone and or other gadgets. So, consumption of information and
media content has also gone severe change due to the internet and its
increasing penetration in social life.
Like
every other sector that has been directly or indirectly come under the
influence of internet, news sector or media industry cannot stay untouched. Better
technologies, digitalization, skilled manpower and huge investment in media
sector have contributed in globalization of media, which could not be possible
without the advent of internet. While the whole world is marching towards
globalization with higher priorities on global issues like global citizens,
global health, global economy, global education, climate change, terrorism,
environmental protection, media industry had to push harder and walk along
other socio-cultural dimensions of the world. Undoubtedly, internet has been
instrumental in helping media attaining this goal.
With
media going global and covering global issues gave birth to a newer form of
journalism – online journalism. Like traditional journalism, online journalism
also shares its root with the profession. However, what sets it apart from other
forms is use of internet for delivery of media content, unlike newspaper,
magazine for print media and radio and television for electronic media. It is the state of 'connected to the internet'
where materials are stored on a virtual domain for mass consumption. Just by
visiting the website and clicking a particular placed item there, one can have
access to the news placed on the news portal. Some of the poorly news website
and other with online edition of their print edition has been so widely popular
around the globe. Their popularity had no geographical limitations are
extensively visited and read by visitors from different countries.
A
survey conducted by eBizMBA in August 2015, a business website, has ranked the
following 15 Most Popular News Sites with the data derived from Alexa's Global
Traffic Rank.
- Yahoo News
- Google News
- Huffington Post
- CNN
- New York Times
- Fox News
- NBC News
- Mail Online
- Washington Post
- The Guardian
- WallStreet Journal
- ABCNews
- BBCNews
- USAToday
- LA Times
2. Online Journalism in Nepal
Online
journalism has been in its early days in Nepal. The beginning of online
journalism is believed to be started with the beginning of www.nepalnews.com
in 1997 AD. Since then the practice of online journalism has continued. With
increasing internet penetration, technological advancement and tools getting
cheaper have paved way for development of online journalism in Nepal. Online
news portals are mushrooming in the country which has about 43% of internet
penetration according to the latest MIS report of Nepal Telecommunication
Authority. Excessive use of Smartphone and internet data package available on
mobile phones has also contributed in the development of online journalism in
the country. Also, people's engagement on social-networking sites from where
they also happened to reach Nepali news portals has benefitted these portals
positively.
There
are some very popular online news portals in the country, which have huge
visitors on daily basis. Onlinekhabar,
Setopati, Ratopati, Pahilopost, and other news portals of newspapers like www.ekantipur.com,
www.nagariknews.com,
www.annapurnapost.com,
and www.enayapatrika.com
are some of the most popular online news portals of the country. As per the
ranking of Alexa, onlinekhabar is the most popular news portal of the country,
followed by Setopati, Ekantipur, Nagariknews, Annapurnapost, Ratopati, and
Pahilopost. In overall ranking of the Nepali website, onlinekhabar is the 5th
most visited website.
3. Objectives of the study
This
study has been carried out to meet the following objectives:
- To observe the news
priority on selected online news portals of Nepal; and
- To find out the popular
news category or beat of these news portals.
4. Limitations of the study
The
study is basically conducted for academic purpose has some limitations. While
selecting news portals for studies only four news portals – www.onlinekhabar.com,
www.setopati.com,
www.ratopati.com
and www.pahilopost.com
with Alexa ranking of 5th, 6th,
14th and 17th respectively were selected. Also, online
news portals which are not extension of any print or electronic media were
selected for the study. Likewise, these four websites were observed on a single
day i.e. on August 24, 2015 at the same time.
5. Data Presentation and Analysis
These
four websites were studies on a particular day to find out what kinds of news
are given much priority by selected news portals. To observe this phenomenon,
the home page of these news portals was studied to see what kinds of news were
given preferences over other types.
 |
Figure
1: News Items on Home Page
|
 |
Figure
2: News Priority on Online News Portals
|
Data
shown in Figure 2 talks about the category of the contents carried out by these
four online news portals. During this study, total 10 categories of contents –
politics, entertainment/art/literature, education, foreign affairs, international,
economics, sports, health, technology, and others – were defined and items were
enlisted in those categories.
As
mentioned in the above figure, politics has been the most dominant content
among these online news portals, where Ratopati has as many as 25 political
items. Likewise, OnlineKhabar, Setopati and Pahilopost had 20, 14 and 13
similar items.
The
second dominant category of news items has been 'economics'. As shown in the
table, Ratopati leads with 20 items, followed by OnlineKhabar (18), Setopati
(11) and PahiloPost (8). Entertainment/Art/Literature has been the third
largest category of the news where Setopati has 19 items followed by
OnlineKhabar (16), Ratopati (14) and PahiloPost (8). OnlineKhabar (8) has the
maximum number of sports news items in comparison to Ratopati (5), Setopati (3)
and PahiloPost (naught). Likewise, 'Health'
has been another category of news that is prioritized by Ratopati (12),
OnlineKhabar (7), Setopati (5) and PahiloPost (naught). Other noteworthy category
includes 'International' which has been carried out by OnlineKhabar (7),
Setopati (1), Ratopati (6) and Pahilopost (naught). However, 'Education' category
has been led by PahiloPost (6), OnlineKhabar (2), Ratopati (2) and Setopati
(naught). Only OnlineKhabar (4) and Ratopati (5) have 'Technology' categories. There
have not been any other significant categories with notable figures. Besides,
OnlineKhabar, Setopati, Ratopati and PahiloPost have 10, 5, 12 and 6 news items
in 'Others' category. It is also interesting to note that only OnlineKhabar and
Ratopati have news items in these 10 defined categories. Setopati had no news
items in one category i.e. 'Technology', whereas PahiloPost had no news items
in total five categories – Sports, Health, Foreign Affairs, Technology, and
International, though news pieces of these categories hold significance and
have huge news value.
6. Conclusions
Number
of online news portals is growing rapidly in Nepal, which reflect the trend in
development of online journalism here. Unlike past years, there are some very
popular and powerful online news portals in the country which have been equally
influential in setting agendas. Several news stories posted on these websites
have generated larger public interest and also been responsible in positive
changes.
This
study has shown that like every other media outlets of the country even online
news portals have been giving maximum news items related to politics. They have
no other categories other than print media of the country. These online portals
are updating many news throughout the day but most of them are about political
development of the day.
References:
- Paxson, P. 2011. Mass communications and media studies: an
introduction: The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc: New York.
- www.alexa.com,
August 25, 2015.
- www.onlinekhabar.com,
accessed on August 24, 2015.
- www.pahilopost.com,
August 24, 2015.
- www.ratopati.com,
accessed on August 24, 2015.
- www.setopati.com,
accessed on August 24, 2015.
