KATHMANDU, Jan 2: Nepali media witnessed a huge financial crisis in the past one year- 2023, thereby causing a severe dent on the sustainability of free press.

Marshall McLuhan, the mid-20th century media visionary, whose statement “medium is the message” has been frequently quoted in the realm of media studies, predicted that people would be allured to using media as the major content than the content itself. In his book The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man, McLuhan writes: “In fact, all man-made material things can be treated as extensions of what man once did with his body or some specialized part of his body.” His expression implies that human beings tend to envision and produce new technologies relevant and necessary for their times.

Amendments on media council bill

The political change of 1990 came as a boon for media in Nepal. Several private media outlets were opened, they started to flow information from different perspectives and to a large extent Nepali media, over the years, have become able to expose the wrongdoings of political leaders in the government and Nepal’s entire public and private sector. Yes, they have not been able to do so to the full potential but at least they are trying.

Science and technology is yet to become a topic of mainstream debate in Nepali media. In national media, it occupies only a tiny fraction of space, and we rarely have scientific programs that cultivate in general public the importance of science. There is little conversation going on about this topic among the government agencies. What’s worse, our academic institutions do not promote science in ways they need to. They are failing at the most fundamental level: not teaching students what science actually is and how it can be advanced.

KATHMANDU, Nov 14: The way Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gokul Banskota responded to a crowd of reporters desperately waiting to learn about the decisions of a Cabinet meeting the other day has saddened and angered Nepal’s media fraternity.