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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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 0

8. 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

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

10. 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

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

12. AUDIENCES
 However, some stories could grab very good impression

13. 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!

14. Thank you!