A large proportion of news coverage in every country is served in the national language of that country. To state the obvious – it is an important factor when considering the fact that the mother tongue being the primary language spoken will attract more readership in the country itself and also in other countries where the particular group of people has migrated.
India, whose population is second largest in the world, has a great variety of languages and as one moves from one area to another it is easy enough to pick out the varying languages.
Hindi is spoken widely in India because it is the national language. Though not everybody speaks Hindi, most are capable of understanding some rudimentary Hindi vocabulary.
India has 28 states and most states have their distinct language. With the exception of some states in the South, most Indians can carry on a decent conversation in Hindi.
Most areas of Northern India speak Hindi. This includes the states of:
- Delhi,
- Uttar Pradesh,
- Rajasthan,
- Punjab,
- Madhya Pradesh,
- Northern Bihar and,
- Himachal Pradesh.
Outside India, many countries have large Hindi speaking populations.
Countries with Hindi speaking groups include:
- Mauritius,
- Fiji,
- Guyana,
- Trinidad,
- the United Arab Emirates,
- Yemen,
- South Africa,
- Singapore,
- Uganda,
- Nepal,
- Germany,
- the United Kingdom,
- Australia and,
- New Zealand.
Due to these great and varied Hindi speaking population centres it is common to find the option to gain access to information in their mother tongue.
Along with the English daily newspapers, each state has a number of newspapers which are printed in the local language. Also, many newspapers solely serve news in the National language:
- Hindi.
This is a good reason to learn the language if traveling to India and wishing to discover more of the local culture.
In fact the Indian Readership survey for the first quarter of 2010 lists three Hindi daily newspapers in the top three slots on the Average Issue Readership (AIR) basis.
These papers include:
- Dainik Jagran,
- Dainik Bhaskar and,
- Hindustan
Each of these publications are printed predominately in Hindi & dominate the top three positions in the survey.
Dainik Jagran which rules the roost delivers news in Hindi to the states:
- Uttar Pradesh,
- Punjab,
- Delhi,
- Uttrakhand,
- Bihar,
- Haryana,Madhya Pradesh,
- Jharkhand,
- Rajasthan,
- Jammu and,
- Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Chattisgarh, West Bengal and, Orissa.
The second largest circulated daily newspaper, Dainik Bhaskar, covers:
- Delhi,
- Madhya Pradesh,
- Rajasthan,
- Chattisgarh,
- Himachal,
- Punjab,
- Haryana,
- Chandigarh,
- Uttar Pradesh,
- Bihar,
- Jharkhand,
- Maharastra and,
- Gujarat.
Hindustan has a smaller distribution network and mainly concentrates publication efforts within the states of:
- Punjab,
- Uttrakhand,
- Uttar Pradesh,
- Bihar and,
- Jharkhand.
As the medium for publishing information continues to evolve, the major publications also have adapted to the new technology available. With the boom in the Internet industry and mobile services, they have now taken their information to these new mediums.
Although the English language is the predominate language used in the Internet space, Hindi news coverage provided by the various publications via the Internet has become niche oriented and thus gained a more focused audience.
Where the scope of the printed daily newspaper is limited, the impact of an online publication of the same nature is far reaching.
The leading published daily newspapers listed above have taken their content to the Cyber-space medium and are providing Indian readers with an option to read and/or discover news online in Hindi (their mother tongue).
The websites dainikjagran.com, bhaskar.com, and livehindustan.com provide Hindi speaking audiences with complete news coverage written in the national language of India – Hindi.
Hindi is no longer limited to national boundaries of India and through technology has spread its reach far and wide. With printed books being a translated in several languages, it is reasonable to see that daily news within India and internationally would be delivered in the National language through a far-reaching medium.
As with most industries major Indian Media publications were quick to understand the importance that this new knowledge presented and by going global with their information gained an important reader base. With a strong network in news coverage, Hindi media groups are daily gaining strength and readership throughout the world.
