Mass Media in Independent India

The Vision for Media in Independent India

When India became independent, the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru gave the media a clear responsibility: to function as the watchdog of democracy. The media was not seen as a neutral observer but as an active partner in the nation's development. It was expected to spread the spirit of self-reliance and national development among the people.

The media was also encouraged to fight against oppressive social practices — untouchability, child marriages, the ostracism of widows, and beliefs in witchcraft and faith healing. A rational, scientific ethos was to be promoted for building a modern industrial society. The government's Films Division produced newsreels and documentaries that were shown before the screening of films in every movie theatre, documenting the development process as directed by the state.

Radio Broadcasting

Early Beginnings and Growth

Radio broadcasting in India began through amateur 'ham' broadcasting clubs in Kolkata and Chennai in the 1920s. It matured into a public broadcasting system during the 1940s, when World War II turned it into a major instrument of propaganda for the Allied forces in Southeast Asia.

At the time of independence, there were only six radio stations located in major cities, catering primarily to an urban audience. By 1950, there were 5,46,200 radio licences across the country. When India gained independence in 1947, All India Radio had six stations and 2,80,000 radio receiver sets for a population of 350 million.

The Three-Tiered Service

After independence, the government prioritised the expansion of radio broadcasting infrastructure, especially in state capitals and border areas. Over the years, AIR developed a formidable infrastructure operating a three-tiered service — national, regional, and local — to cater to India's geographic, linguistic, and cultural diversity.

Vividh Bharati and Entertainment

Apart from AIR's news broadcasts, Vividh Bharati was a channel for entertainment that primarily broadcast Hindi film songs on listeners' request. In 1957, AIR acquired this hugely popular channel, which soon began to carry sponsored programmes and advertisements, growing into a money-spinning channel for AIR.

The Transistor Revolution

The major constraint for the popularisation of radio initially was the cost of the radio set. The transistor revolution in the 1960s made radio more accessible by making it mobile as battery-operated sets and reducing the unit price substantially.

By 2000, around 110 million households — two-thirds of all Indian households — were listening to radio broadcasts in 24 languages and 146 dialects. More than a third of these were rural households. Today, AIR has grown to 480 stations and 681 transmitters, covering 99% of the population spread over 92% of the country's area.

AIR's Role in the Green Revolution

In the 1960s, when high-yielding varieties of food crops were introduced as part of the Green Revolution, it was All India Radio that undertook a major countryside campaign on these crops on a sustained day-to-day basis for over ten years from 1967. Special programmes on high-yielding varieties were formed in many AIR stations across the country. These programme units, manned by subject specialists, undertook field visits, recorded broadcasts, and aired first-hand accounts of farmers who started growing the new varieties of paddy and wheat.

Wars, Tragedies and Expansion of AIR

Interestingly, wars and tragedies spurred AIR to expand its activities:

• The 1962 war with China prompted the launching of a 'talks' unit to put out a daily programme.
• In August 1971, with the Bangladesh crisis looming, the News Service Division introduced news on the hour, from 6 o'clock in the morning to midnight.
• The tragic assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 led AIR to take one more step — having bulletins round the clock.

Television

Early Experiments and SITE

Television programming was introduced experimentally in India to promote rural development as early as 1959. Later, the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) broadcast directly to community viewers in the rural areas of six states between August 1975 and July 1976. These instructional broadcasts were transmitted to 2,400 TV sets directly for four hours daily.

Expansion of Doordarshan

Television stations were set up under Doordarshan in four cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Srinagar, and Amritsar — by 1975. Three more stations in Kolkata, Chennai, and Jalandhar were added within a year. Every broadcasting centre had its own mix of programmes, comprising news, children's and women's programmes, farmers' programmes, as well as entertainment programmes.

Commercialisation and Colour Broadcasting

As programmes became commercialised and were allowed to carry advertisements of their sponsors, a shift in the target audience became evident. Entertainment programmes grew and were directed at the urban consuming class. The advent of colour broadcasting during the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi and the rapid expansion of the national network led to rapid commercialisation of television broadcasting.

Hum Log: A Turning Point

Hum Log was India's first long-running soap opera. This pioneering programme used the entertainment-education strategy by intentionally placing educational content within an entertainment message. Some 156 episodes were broadcast in Hindi for 17 months in 1984–85. The programme promoted social themes such as gender equality, small family size, and national integration.

At the end of each 22-minute episode, the famous Indian actor Ashok Kumar summarised the educational lessons in an epilogue of 30 to 40 seconds. He connected the drama to viewers' everyday lives — for instance, commenting on a negative character who drinks and beats his wife, he would ask why people behave badly and what could be done to reduce alcoholism.

A study of Hum Log's audience showed a high degree of parasocial interaction — viewers adjusted their daily schedules to 'meet' their favourite character, and many reported talking to their favourite characters through the television set. Hum Log achieved audience ratings of 65 to 90 per cent in North India and between 20 and 45 per cent in South India. About 50 million individuals watched the average broadcast. The programme attracted over 4,00,000 letters from viewers, so many that most could not even be opened by Doordarshan officials.

The advertising carried by Hum Log promoted a new consumer product in India — Maggi 2-Minute Noodles. The public rapidly accepted this product, suggesting the power of television commercials. Advertisers began to line up to purchase airtime, and the commercialisation of Doordarshan began.

The Soap Opera Boom

During 1984–85, the number of television transmitters increased all over India, covering a large proportion of the population. Indigenous soap operas like Hum Log (1984–85) and Buniyaad (1986–87) were aired. They were hugely popular and attracted substantial advertising revenue for Doordarshan, as did the broadcasting of the epics — Ramayana (1987–88) and Mahabharata (1988–90).

Television Today

As per the TRAI Annual Report for 2015–16, India has the world's second largest TV market after China. As of March 2016, of the existing 2,841 million households, around 1,811 million have television sets, which provide services of cable TV, DTH, and IPTV, in addition to a terrestrial TV network of Doordarshan.

Print Media

The beginnings of the print media and its role in both the spread of the social reform movement and the nationalist movement have been noted earlier. After independence, the print media continued to share the general approach of being a partner in the task of nation building by taking up developmental issues, as well as giving voice to the widest section of people. …