“Have you seen the papers here?” asks PC Zosangzuala.

The 28-year-old and I are sitting in a tiny tea shop off Aizawl’s old Zodin theatre. It is Saturday evening. The city is slowly shutting down for Sabbath. And I have just asked him how he accesses news.

He doesn’t answer immediately. Instead, Peecee, as his friends call him, asks the young girl behind the counter if she has a copy of the day’s paper. She doesn’t. No matter. He leans forward on the table, blinks earnestly, and says, “Have you seen the papers here? The first page has local and state news. The second page is national news. The third is notifications. The fourth has articles by Mizo writers. The fifth is ads. And then the last three pages are sports. Why should I read a paper like that when I can get much more news on the internet?”

Familia Fanai Laltansanga. One of the administrators of the facebook group, Special Report.

Peecee and his friends get a part of their news from Mizo-only discussion groups on Facebook. The biggest of these, Special Report, has 1.38 lakh members. To put that in perspective, the state has about 8.5 lakh Mizos. The circulation of the largest selling Mizo daily is 45,000. My story on these groups appeared two days ago. Take a look.