Mass Media and Communications

This is Chapter 7 of Social Change and Development in India. Chapter 6 called the media ‘the most visible effect of globalisation’; this chapter tells that story at length. It runs 18 pages (89–106 plus questions on 107) with three numbered sections — 7.1 the beginnings of modern mass media; 7.2 mass media in independent India (radio, television, print); 7.3 globalisation and the media (print, television, radio) — fourteen boxes, four numbered activities, two box exercises and three end questions. It is a descriptive, history-heavy chapter with few named theories; we add attributed scholarly lenses, clearly marked, so that you can write analytical answers.

• Builds on Chapter 2 (lesy202 — reformers used the printing press, newspapers and journals), Chapter 4 (lesy204 — the Green Revolution that AIR publicised) and Chapter 6 (lesy206 — the communication revolution, the digital divide and glocalisation); leads into Chapter 8 (social movements, which use and are shaped by media).
• Pairs with live chapters: Rights in the Indian Constitution (keps202 — press freedom inside Article 19(1)(a)); The Crisis of Democratic Order (leps206 — the Emergency and press censorship); Nationalism (keps107); Globalisation (leps107 — cultural effects).
• UPSC: the Essay paper asked whether biased media threaten democracy (2019); GS2 asked about FDI in news media (2014). Prelims asked the order in which printing, films, radio and television came to India (1981) and who started Shome Prakash (2007).

• Mass media reach mass audiences; their relationship with society is dialectical; they need formal organisation and capital, so the state and/or market shape them; access is unequal (digital divide).
• Print began with Gutenberg (1440); mid-19th-century newspapers built a ‘we feeling’ — Benedict Anderson's ‘imagined community’; the nationalist press (Kesari, Mathrubhumi, Amrita Bazar Patrika) faced colonial censorship.
• After 1947: media as partner in nation-building — Nehru's ‘watchdog of democracy’, Films Division newsreels, AIR's development talks and HYV campaign from 1967; radio grew from six stations in 1947.
• TV: experimental in 1959; SITE (Aug 1975–July 1976, six States, 2,400 sets); colour with the 1982 Asian Games; Hum Log (1984–85) and Maggi ads began commercialisation; Emergency censorship 1975–77.
• Globalisation: Indian-language newspaper revolution (39.1 → 62.8 million copies a day, 2006–16; Eenadu, Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhaskar); advertisers' say; infotainment.
• TV: one channel in 1991 → ~900 private networks (2020); Star TV 1991, Zee 1992; localisation (STAR Plus all-Hindi by Feb 1999). Radio: private FM (2002) barred from news; Raghav FM shows local demand.

The mass media include television, newspapers, films, magazines, radio, advertisements, video games and CDs; they are ‘mass’ because they reach mass audiences, and are also called mass communications. They are woven into daily life: households wake to the radio, television or the morning paper; children check their phones first; plumbers and electricians are reached on mobiles; shoppers chat about the cricket on a shop's TV; migrants phone their villages and Indians abroad stay in touch online. Even CBSE results — and this textbook — are online.

NCERT gives four reasons for a sociologist's interest. First, like any social institution, the media's structure and content are shaped by economic, political and socio-cultural contexts — the state and its vision of development dominated the first decades after Independence; the market took a key role after 1990. Second, the relationship between media and society is dialectical: each influences the other — traced through colonial India, the early years of Independence, and globalisation. Third, mass communication, unlike other communication, needs a formal structural organisation for large-scale capital, production and management — very large organisations with big investments and staff — so the state and/or the market matter greatly. Fourth, people differ sharply in how easily they can use the media — recall the digital divide (Chapter 6).

The first modern mass medium came with the printing press. Print has a long history in some societies, but modern book printing began in Europe with Johann Gutenberg in 1440; early printing was mostly religious books. The print industry grew with the Industrial Revolution, first for literate elites; only in the mid-19th century, with better technology, transport and literacy, did newspapers reach mass audiences. People in distant corners read or heard the same news and developed a ‘we feeling’. Benedict Anderson argued that this helped nationalism grow: people who would never meet felt like members of one family — the nation as an ‘imagined community’.

In India, 19th-century reformers wrote and argued in newspapers and journals (Chapter 2). Indian nationalism grew out of the struggle against colonialism, and the nationalist press nurtured anti-colonial opinion and opposed oppressive measures. The colonial government responded with censorship — NCERT cites the Ilbert Bill agitation of 1883. Papers linked to the national movement, such as Kesari (Marathi), Mathrubhumi (Malayalam) and Amrita Bazar Patrika (English), drew official displeasure but kept demanding an end to colonial rule. Under British rule the media meant newspapers, magazines, films and radio. Radio was wholly state-owned, so nationalist views could not be aired; newspapers and films were autonomous but strictly monitored. Circulation was small because few could read, yet influence far exceeded circulation: news was read out and spread by word of mouth from markets, trading centres, courts and towns. The press carried many ideas of a ‘free India’, and that variety continued after 1947.

Jawaharlal Nehru called on the media to be the watchdog of democracy. The media were to spread self-reliance and national development, inform people about development efforts, fight oppressive practices — untouchability, child marriage, the ostracism of widows, beliefs in witchcraft and faith healing — and promote a rational, scientific ethos for a modern industrial society. The government's Films Division made newsreels and documentaries screened before every film in every cinema, documenting development as the state directed it.

The print media also saw themselves as partners in nation-building, taking up development issues and giving voice to the widest sections of people. Journalism had been a ‘calling’ fired by patriotic and reforming idealism — drawing outstanding talent but poorly paid — and slowly became a profession (Box 7.6). The gravest challenge came with the Emergency of 1975 and media censorship; democracy was restored in 1977, and NCERT concludes that India can be justly proud of a free media. It then draws the threads together: at some times the state has the greater role, at others the market — and the recent shift to the market has sparked debate about what the media ought to do in a democracy.

Radio began through amateur ‘ham’ clubs in Kolkata and Chennai in the 1920s and became a public broadcasting system in the 1940s, during the Second World War, as a major propaganda instrument for the Allies in South-East Asia. At Independence there were only six radio stations in the major cities, serving mainly urban listeners, and 280,000 receiver sets for 350 million people; by 1950 there were 5,46,200 radio licences. Seen as a partner in development, AIR broadcast mainly news, current affairs and development discussions. Its entertainment channel Vividh Bharati (1957) played Hindi film songs on listeners' request, soon carried sponsored programmes and advertisements, and became a money-spinner.

The government gave priority to stations in State capitals and border areas. AIR now runs a three-tiered service — national, regional and local — to match India's geographic, linguistic and cultural diversity. The early obstacle was the price of a set; the transistor revolution of the 1960s made radios battery-operated, mobile and much cheaper. By 2000 about 110 million households — two-thirds of all — listened in 24 languages and 146 dialects, over a third of them rural. NCERT reports that AIR has grown to 480 stations and 681 transmitters, reaching 99% of the population across 92% of the area.

Television was introduced experimentally in 1959 to promote rural development. The Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) beamed programmes directly to community sets in rural areas of six States from August 1975 to July 1976 — to 2,400 TV sets for four hours a day. Meanwhile Doordarshan stations were set up in Delhi, Mumbai, Srinagar and Amritsar by 1975, with Kolkata, Chennai and Jalandhar added within a year; each centre mixed news, children's, women's and farmers' programmes and entertainment.

As programmes were commercialised and carried sponsors' advertisements, the target audience shifted: entertainment grew and was aimed at the urban consuming class. Colour broadcasting arrived with the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi, and the rapid growth of the national network brought quick commercialisation. In 1984–85 transmitters spread across India; indigenous soap operas — Hum Log (1984–85) and Buniyaad (1986–87) — were hugely popular and attracted advertising, as did the televised epics Ramayana (1987–88) and Mahabharata (1988–90). Today, NCERT notes from TRAI's 2015–16 report, India is the world's second-largest TV market after China, with cable, DTH and IPTV alongside Doordarshan's terrestrial network.

Media have always had international sides — gathering news abroad, distributing mainly Western films overseas — but until the 1970s most media firms worked within domestic markets under national regulation, and the industry was split into separate sectors: cinema, print, radio and television ran independently. In the past three decades, national markets have given way to a fluid global market, and new technologies have produced a fusion of media forms once distinct. NCERT admits the change is so vast that the chapter can give only a ‘fragmentary understanding’, and turns to print, television and radio in turn.

Contrary to the belief that TV and the internet would sideline print, newspaper circulation in India grew; new technologies boosted production, and glossy magazines multiplied. The growth of Indian-language papers has several causes. First, more literate people are migrating to cities: the Hindi daily Hindustan printed 64,000 copies of its Delhi edition in 2003 and 425,000 by 2005, because a large share of Delhi's residents came from the Hindi belt of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar — many from rural backgrounds and under forty. Second, small-town and village readers have different needs: Malayala Manorama and Eenadu pioneered local news through district and even block editions; the Tamil Dina Thanthi always used simple, colloquial language; language papers adopted advanced printing, supplements, pull-outs and niche booklets; and the Dainik Bhaskar group grew through consumer-contact programmes, door-to-door surveys and research — again showing the need for formal organisation.

English papers, often called ‘national dailies’, circulate across regions, while vernacular papers have vastly expanded in the States and the rural hinterland. To compete with electronic media, papers — especially English ones — have cut prices and launched editions from many centres. But this has meant growing dependence on advertisers, who in turn gain more say over content. Readers' habits are said to have changed too: older readers read the whole paper, younger ones jump to sport, entertainment or gossip; to hold such segmented interests, papers offer a plurality of ‘stories’ and turn to infotainment. Box 7.11 concludes, sharply, that the newspaper has become a consumer product no longer tied to a tradition of values.

In 1991 India had one state-controlled channel, Doordarshan; by 1998 there were almost 70; private satellite channels multiplied from the mid-1990s; by 2020 Doordarshan ran over 35 channels and about 900 private networks were broadcasting. In 2002, 134 million people watched satellite TV in an average week, 190 million in 2005; homes with satellite TV rose from 40 million to 61 million, about 56% of TV homes. The Gulf War of 1991 (which popularised CNN) and the launch of Star TV the same year by Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa group signalled the arrival of private satellite channels; Zee TV, a Hindi entertainment channel, followed in 1992. By 2000 there were 40 private cable and satellite channels, including regional ones — Sun TV, Eenadu TV, Udaya TV, Raj TV, Asianet — and Zee launched Marathi, Bengali and other networks.

Cable came first: while Doordarshan expanded in the 1980s, the VCR and video parlours offered film-based alternatives; by 1984 entrepreneurs in Mumbai and Ahmedabad were wiring apartment blocks; cable operators grew from 100 (1984) to 1,200 (1988), 15,000 (1992) and about 60,000 (1999). When transnational companies — Star TV, MTV, Channel [V], Sony — arrived, some feared for Indian youth and cultural identity. But research taught them that the familiar works best with India's diverse audiences: Sony began with ten Hindi films a week; MTV India added Hindi programming; STAR Plus, an English channel from Hong Kong, began a Hindi belt from 7 to 9 p.m. in October 1996 and became wholly Hindi by February 1999, advertised with the Hinglish slogan ‘Aapki Boli. Aapka Plus Point’ (Butcher 2003); STAR Sports and ESPN added Hindi commentary; regional channels followed in Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi and Gujarati. STAR and Sony kept dubbing US programmes for children, who seemed to accept one language with another setting.

Most channels now run 24×7. News has become lively, informal, more immediate, democratic and intimate; television has fostered public debate — but NCERT asks whether serious political and economic issues are neglected. Reality shows, talk shows, Bollywood shows, family soaps, interactive, game and comedy shows abound, many modelled on Western formats (Kaun Banega Crorepati, Indian Idol, Bigg Boss), and a new cadre of TV stars feeds the gossip columns.

In 2000 AIR's programmes reached two-thirds of households in 24 languages and 146 dialects over some 120 million sets. Privately owned FM stations arrived in 2002 and boosted entertainment. Because private FM is not permitted to broadcast political news, stations specialise in ‘particular kinds’ of popular music (‘All hits all day!’). Popular with young urban professionals and students, they often belong to media conglomerates — NCERT names Radio Mirchi (the Times of India group), Red FM (Living Media) and Radio City (the Star network). Independent public broadcasters such as NPR (USA) or the BBC (UK), NCERT says, are missing in India.

Films such as Rang De Basanti — where angry students, inspired by Bhagat Singh, kill a minister and seize All India Radio to reach the people — and Lage Raho Munna Bhai — whose heroine is a radio jockey greeting ‘Good Morning Mumbai!’ — show radio as an active medium even in contemporary settings. NCERT sees great potential: further privatisation and community-owned stations would expand radio; demand for local news is rising; and India is part of a worldwide trend of networks giving way to local radio. Its conclusion: media are essential to personal and public life, and should be understood through their links with the state and the market, their organisation and management, and their relationship with readers and audiences — both the constraints on media and their many effects on us.

Numbers

One-liners

• Media and society shape each other — the relationship is dialectical.
• Mass media need formal organisation and capital — so the state or the market shapes them.
• Print made the nation an ‘imagined community’ (Anderson).
• Colonial radio was wholly state-owned; the press was free but watched.
• After 1947, media were partners in development; Nehru wanted a watchdog.
• Hum Log taught social lessons — and sold Maggi.
• The language press grew by going local.
• Advertisers pay, so advertisers gain a say.
• Foreign channels won India by speaking Indian languages.
• Private FM may play music, not political news.
• Local radio is the worldwide trend — Raghav FM shows why.

Traps to avoid

• The Ilbert Bill (1883) concerned Indian judges trying Europeans — the press law was the Vernacular Press Act, 1878.
• Vividh Bharati was AIR's own service launched in 1957, not a channel AIR ‘acquired’.
• NCERT's ‘2,841 million households’ is a slip: read about 284 million, about 181 million with TV.
• 1998's ‘almost 70 channels’ and 2000's ‘40 private channels’ are different counts — quote each with its year.
• It is Hutchison Whampoa, Rajiv Gandhi, Mirat-ul-Akhbar and Robin Jeffrey.
• Circulation (copies) and readership (people) are different numbers.
• Private FM began in 2001 (Radio City, Bengaluru) by most accounts; NCERT says 2002 — disputed.
• Box 7.9 mixes years (2019 and ‘2005’): use it for the trend.
• Eenadu's anti-arrack campaign is usually dated to 1992–93, not the mid-1980s — disputed.

Prelims — what UPSC asks

• Media history: the order printing → films → radio → television in India (1981); Shome Prakash was started by Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (2007) — straight from Box 7.1. Keep Box 7.1's dates, AIR and TV milestones (1957, 1959, SITE 1975–76, 1982) and the satellite dates (1991, 1992) handy.
• Related questions sit on other chapters: press freedom implied in Article 19(1)(a) (1994, keps202); the Ilbert Bill (2013), the Vernacular Press Act and Ripon (1992, 2005) — know them so NCERT's ‘Ilbert Bill censorship’ phrase does not mislead you.

Mains — where it appears and how to answer

• Essay: ‘Biased media is a real threat to Indian democracy’ (2019) — Nehru's watchdog ideal; the Emergency; the market's role, advertisers and infotainment (Boxes 7.10–7.11); TRP-driven coverage (Box 7.12); set the propaganda-model critique beside the pluralist and active-audience views; end with remedies (plurality, self-regulation, media literacy, public broadcasting).
• GS2: FDI in news media (2014) — use the chapter's evidence on transnational channels (Star, Sony, MTV) localising rather than displacing Indian content, concerns over cultural identity, and the growing power of conglomerates and advertisers; weigh capital and technology against editorial independence.
• GS1 society: use this chapter for media's role in nationalism, development, consumer culture (Chapter 6) and social movements (Chapter 8). Keep views attributed and avoid present-day political commentary.

Tap an option. NCERT's own exercise questions come first; the rest test the figures and common confusions.

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