The chapter covers the definition of media and its effect on everyday life. It deals with the connection between media and technology, noting how changes in technology affect how far it reaches and how it’s viewed. It goes into the economics of media, like costs and income from advertising, and how money affects how free the media can be.
It stresses how important media is in a democracy, especially how it keeps people informed, but also the problems it faces like being controlled or censored, and how businesses can have an effect. It also looks at how the media can change what people think is important by choosing what to show, as well as the growth of local media projects that focus on problems in specific communities.
Media and Technology
How They Are Connected
- Media depends on technology that keeps changing and improving over time.
Reaching More People
- New technology helps media reach more people with better sound and clearer pictures.
Changing How We See Things
- Television shows people the world and makes them feel connected to a bigger community.
Types of Media We Use
- Newspapers and magazines are called print media, while TV and radio are known as electronic media.
Changes Over Time
- Cable television and the internet started in the last 20 years, and electronic typewriters improved journalism in the 1940s.
Media and Money
Why Media Costs a Lot
- Television studios need expensive equipment like cameras, lights, and satellites to operate.
People Who Work in Media
- Many workers, such as camera operators and technicians, are needed to make media, adding to the costs.
How Media Makes Money
- Big businesses own media and earn money through advertisements from products like cars and phones.
How Ads Affect Media
- Advertisements cost between ₹1,000 and ₹1,00,000 for 10 seconds, so media may not report bad news about advertisers.
Media and Democracy
Helping People Know Things
- Media informs people about how the government works so they can take actions like protesting.
Reporting Fairly
- Media should present all sides of a story so people can form their own opinions.
Staying Free and Fair
- Media must be independent and not controlled, but businesses and ads can affect its fairness.
When Media Was Stopped
- The government blocked media from sharing news during the Emergency in India from 1975 to 1977.
Choosing What Matters
- Media decides which stories to highlight and shapes what people think about every day.
Setting Agendas
Guiding People’s Thoughts
- Media chooses certain stories to focus on and influences what people think and talk about.
Examples of Choices
- Media covers a school event if a famous actor attends but may skip smaller events.
Bringing Issues to Light
- Media reported high pesticide levels in colas and helped push for better safety rules.
Missing Some Stories
- Media gave big attention to a Fashion Week but ignored slum demolitions in Mumbai.
Local Media
Focusing on Small Issues
- Local media covers everyday problems that big media often doesn’t care about.
Examples of Local Media
- Community radio tells farmers about crop prices, and documentaries show poor people’s lives.
Khabar Lahriya Newspaper
- Dalit women in Uttar Pradesh run Khabar Lahriya to report on local issues like corruption.
Social Advertising
What It Means
- Social advertising is when the government or groups make ads with messages for society.
An Example We See
- One social ad teaches people how to cross railway tracks safely to avoid accidents.
Exercise Questions and Answers
- In what ways does the media play an important role in a democracy?
- The media is very important in a democracy because it provides news and discusses events happening around the world.
- It informs citizens about how the government works, enabling them to take action, such as writing to ministers or organizing protests.
- The media should provide balanced information to allow citizens to form their own opinions.
- An independent media is crucial for providing reliable and unbiased information, though this is often compromised by business interests.
- Can you give this diagram a title? What do you understand about the link between media and big business from this diagram?
- A suitable title for the diagram could be: “The Interdependence of Media and Big Business.”
- The diagram illustrates that big business houses own media outlets and use them to advertise their products. This promotion encourages viewers, listeners, and readers to buy these products, which in turn, funnels money back to the big business houses. It shows a cyclical relationship where media promotes products through advertisements, and people buy the advertised products, benefiting the big business houses that own the media.
- You have read about the ways in which the media ‘sets the agenda’. What kind of effect does this have in a democracy? Provide two examples to support your point of view.
- When the media sets the agenda, it influences people’s thoughts, feelings, and actions by focusing on particular issues. This can significantly impact what the public perceives as important.
- Example 1: The media’s focus on the Fashion Week while ignoring the demolition of slums in Mumbai demonstrates how significant social issues can be overlooked. This can lead to a lack of public awareness and action on critical problems.
- Example 2: The media’s coverage of pesticide levels in cola drinks, despite government resistance, raised public awareness and prompted action regarding international safety standards.
- As a class project, decide to focus on a particular news topic and cut out stories from different newspapers on this. Also watch the coverage of this topic on TV news. Compare two newspapers and write down the similarity and differences in their reports. It might help to ask the following questions
- a. What information is this article providing?
- b. What information is it leaving out?
- c. From whose point of view is the article being written?
- d. Whose point of view is being left out and why?
- This exercise encourages a critical analysis of media by comparing different news sources.
- It prompts one to identify the information presented, the information omitted, the perspective of the writer, and whose perspective is excluded.
- By answering these questions, one can gain a deeper understanding of bias and agenda-setting in media.
- Do projects (solo, pair or group) about types of advertisements. Create commercial advertisements about some products and social advertisements about public health, road safety and the need to save water and energy.
- This exercise involves creating both commercial advertisements (promoting products) and social advertisements (promoting public service messages).
- The aim is to understand the different objectives and techniques used in each type of advertisement.
- Examples of social advertisements could include campaigns for public health, road safety, and the conservation of water and energy.
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