Mass Media

Mass media has become an increasingly central part of everyday life as a socialising force, and while electronic media such as television has expanded rapidly, print media continues to matter as well -- its influence is not new either: in nineteenth-century India, printed 'conduct books' instructing women on how to be better homemakers and more attentive wives were already popular across several languages. One thing media does especially well is widen access to information: electronic media in particular can reach a village that has no road connection and no local literacy programme, in a way that older, more localised forms of learning simply could not.

Research on how much media actually shapes behaviour and attitudes gives a mixed picture. A British study found that children spend roughly the equivalent of a hundred school days a year watching television, with adults not far behind -- yet what that exposure actually does to people is harder to pin down; the question of whether on-screen violence causes more aggressive behaviour in children, for instance, remains genuinely debated among researchers rather than settled either way. What is not in doubt is the sheer scale and reach of media's influence: Indian television serials and films draw sizeable audiences well beyond India's borders, among diaspora and other viewers in places like Nigeria, Afghanistan and among Tibetan communities abroad -- the televised Mahabharat, for instance, …