1Associate Professor and Head, Department of Library and Information Science, Pondicherry University, Kalapet, Puducherry-605014, India
2Post Graduate Student, Department of Library and Information Science, Pondicherry University, Kalapet, Puducherry-605014, India
3Assistant Librarian, Central Library, Pondicherry University, Kalapet, Puducherry-605014, India
*E-mail id: sevukan2002@yahoo.com
The study highlights the use of Web 2.0 tools by online newspapers in West Bengal. A list of 23 newspapers was considered for the study. The websites of all 23 newspapers of different languages in West Bengal were the sources of data. The website of each newspaper was completely analysed to ensure the use of social media tools for disseminating information through newspapers. Then the links to social media tools provided on the websites of each newspaper were counted. The result indicates that out of 23 newspapers, 21 newspapers’ websites (91.30%) used Web 2.0 tools for disseminating information to their users and a meagre percentage (8.7%) of newspapers did not use. Majority of the newspapers (91.3%) used Facebook, and Pinterest was less used by newspapers (4.35%). Out of six English newspapers, Darjeeling Times used six social media tools. Telegraph newspaper used five social media tools. Indo-Indians English newspaper used four social media tools. A comparative analysis of Facebook and Twitter used by various languages revealed that majority of Bengali language newspaper used both Facebook and Twitter sharing 47.62% and 50%, respectively.
Web 2.0 tools, Social media, Social networking sites, Online newspapers, West Bengal, Social media tools, Information sharing
