Mass Communication in India: Changing Paradigms

Abstract

There has been a sea change in the mass communication priorities and paradigms during the last hundred years. Using the theoretical premises of agenda setting, one can critically explore the changing dimensions in the paradigm of communication. Thus the paper attempted to explore the continuity and discontinuity within the existing paradigm(s). With colonial legacy and pursuit of modernism, nation building in India has followed the ‘development’ agenda since independence. Nation building has been a dynamic and continuous process experienced through social, economic and political developments. While the economic and political developments are much more quantifiable and visible, the social development is an ambiguous and subjective matter. In the development paradigm, ‘Social Development’ means improved national integration, better health, education and better agriculture practices. Television in India, arrived during the period when there were visible efforts to harness energies to promote social and economic development, to spread education and to raise the general standard of living. To achieve this, India hoped to develop its strategy in the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE). SITE makes use of the first satellite capable of transmitting television programmes directly to 2400 community receivers in India. An analysis of SITE programs and experimentation provides evidence and explanation on how television programming developed in the country. Doordarshan (state broadcaster) follows many of the lessons learnt in program production, including on content priorities like health, agriculture and education. The development agenda and use of television to “disseminate” information relevant to social development of the people is obvious and changing dimensions of social base therefore must be having changes in the map of media.