Coverage of fine art in the Media in Nepali Context

Coverage of fine art in the Media

1. ART COVERAGE IN NEPALI ONLINE MEDIA Prabesh Subedi President Online Journalists Association, Nepal www.onlinejournalists.org

2. INTRODUCTION This presentation is prepared to discuss coverage of art in Nepali Online Media. Presentation includes a short historical overview of online media in Nepal, content sources, state of art related coverage and suggestions for better coverage in the days ahead.

3. EVOLUTION 1996, South-asia.com was established 1999, Mercantile moved to Nepalnews.com Digital edition of printed content Dailies and weeklies used the same platform No independent news room Poor multimedia presence Before 2000

4. EVOLUTION 2000, Kantipuronline.com started with independent news room Major daily newspapers started online edition Online only outlets also emerged eg : Parewa , OnlineKhabar Newspapers were still main source of content Radio/television bulletins contributed for frequent update Multimedia presence and interactivity improved 2000 to 2010

5. EVOLUTION Professionals and entrepreneurs moved from traditional media Mobile phones became effective medium to deliver content Social Media played strong role to promote content Dependency on newspapers for content heavily reduced News agencies especially RSS contributed very strongly Multimedia presence and interactivity massively increased 2010 to 2015

6. TODAY Internet penetration reached 46.4% (NTA MIS 2/16) 4 /10 most viewed sites are news portals ( Alexa 3/16) Total news portal listed 275 (Press Council 2/16) News portals specified for art

7. COVERAGE OF ART Art exhibitions, awards, and formal events are covered Covered either as a component of entertainment or literature Featured and in-depth stories are rarely covered Dedicated sub-portal /section is not provided

8. Stories on Fine Art are rarely highlighted on ‘Art’ section of the news portals COVERAGE OF ART

9. COVERAGE OF ART News stories are not presented creatively Weak presence of cartoon and other art works Less prioritized placement at home page Coverage is not at satisfactory level

10. AUDIENCES Regular event stories have weak audience involvement Comments and social sharing are not at satisfactory level

11. AUDIENCES However, some stories could grab very good impression

12. FOR BETTER TOMORROW Intimacy between artists/ art institutions and online media institutions is required New media tools like formation of virtual community, photos and file sharing apps have to be adopted by artists/ art institutions Presence on social media and search engines has to be improved News agencies can boost coverage Press release works!

13. Thank you!