RBU_JR_LIS_V23_2021-FULL_TEXT-E-Copy

RBU Journal of library & Information Science, V. 23, 2021
because their reason for being is service to a community or
a group of communities” (Wikipedia, 2020)
According to Metula & Osunkunle (2019) community
newspapers are characterized by its five attributes and they
are: “localism, diverse participation, storytelling,
deliberation and empowerment”. The “Khabar Lahariya”,
is an award-winning (Deutsche Award) weekly newspaper
first published in the year 2002 in rural Uttar Pradesh and
Bihar in local languages and it is collectively run by 40
rural women journalists. The jury of the award said that
"The newspaper is a shining example that a functioning
democracy is dependent on access to information for all
people”. In India this is a perfect example of community
newspaper providing access of rights, resources, and issues
of rural women among the community and thus it helps
them to develop their skills by acting as medium of
information production and dissemination Rahme, (2014).
Similarly, “Mahila Dakiya” (1993) is considered to be the
first community newspaper in India” to empower and to
aware the women in rural areas of Utter Pradesh but it was
closed during year 2002 due to shortage of funding Das
(2020). The Jagaran Prakashan Group also launched
community newspaper in compact size weekly newspaper
named as “Jagran CityPlus” and introduced its e-paper
version also (Saraiya, 2011, August 17) to target the rural
communities for their betterment.
There had been a long history of newspapers in Darjeeling
hills since 1901 when first Nepali newspaper Gorkhe
Khabar Kagat had been published and then series of
newspapers like Chandrika (1918), Adarsha (1930),
Nepali Sahitya Sammelan Patrika (1932), Nebula (1935),
Khoji (1940), Gorkhali Rabi (1935), etc, were published
for Darjeeling and Kurseong and Himadri, Gaum Sundar
Patrika etc., were published from Kalimpong (Ghising,
2021, June 19).
Objectives of the Study
The study was conducted with following objectives:
1. To assess the consumption of various categories
of information by reading the newspapers
2. To know the purpose of reading newspapers
3. To know the most preferred newspapers and its
medium of language among the community
4. To study the frequency of reading a newspapers
5. To study the peoples’ interest on community
specific information.
Methodology
For the present study a survey method has been adopted to
assess the newspaper reading habits of ‘khas’ community
of Kalimpong district. The questionnaire cum interview
method is perused to collect the data. A well-structured
180 questionnaires were distributed, out of which 172
properly filled questionnaires were received and the rest 8
participants responded carelessly and ruined the
questionnaires of the survey, and hence excluded from the
study. The simple
random sampling method was adopted to pick the sample
from the population irrespective of their age, sex,
occupation and qualifications to generalize the outcome of
the study. Some of the statistical formulas are being used
to interpret the data to draw a meaningful conclusion.
Limitation
This study is focused to assess the reading habits of ‘khas’
community residing in the Kalimpong -1 block. The
Kalimpong town and its adjacent 5 different villages are
taken into the consideration for the purpose of the study.
Therefore the outcome depicted in this study can be
generalized for the Kalimpong district. The respondents
who were reading the printed and online news portals (for
e-newspapers) are considered for the present study.
Data Analysis and Discussion
The respondents who do not read any newspaper at all in
any means is not taken into consideration (whenever it is
necessary) while preparing some graphs, tables and data
analysis; to eradicate the spurious data of the respondents
for the study.
The table-1 shows that 83% of total respondents do have
newspaper reading habit prevailing discrete pattern
frequencies of times of reading a newspaper in a week.
The 17 % of respondents do not have newspaper reading
habit at all. The percentages of reading newspaper are
higher among the age group of 31 -50 years compared to
other age group of respondents. The chi square value is
found to be X (F=5, N=172) = 18.39; p = < 0.5, which
seems to be statistically significant. So, it can be said that
there is some association between the variables i.e., age
distribution and reading newspapers habit.
‘Do have’ or ‘do
not have’ reading
habit of
newspaper
Do have
Do not have
Age group distribution of respondents (n=172)
10 – 20 21 – 30 31 – 40 41 – 50 51 - 60 60 +
13
(59.1%
9
(49.9 %)
32
(88.9 %)
4
(11.1 %)
29
(93.5 %)
2
(6.5 %)
33
(91.7 %)
3
(8.3 %)
22
(81.5 %)
5
(18.5 %)
Chi-Square value = 18.39
P-Value = .002495 Degree of freedom (F) = 5
Critical Value = 11.07
Table 1: Analysis of age distributions and of newspaper reading habit
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13
(65 %)
7
(35 %)
Total % of
frequency
distribution
142
(83 %)
30
(17%)
172
100 %