Sociology · Ch 12 — Mass Media and Communications
Television
Television
Television in India began not as entertainment, but as a tool for development. The first experimental telecast, in 1959, was aimed at promoting rural development. This purpose-driven origin shaped Indian television for decades.
The Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) was a landmark. From August 1975 to July 1976, it broadcast directly to community viewers in the rural areas of six states. For four hours daily, these instructional broadcasts reached 2,400 television sets placed in villages. Meanwhile, by 1975, Doordarshan had set up television stations in four cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Srinagar, and Amritsar. Within a year, three more stations were added in Kolkata, Chennai, and Jalandhar.
Each broadcasting centre had its own mix of programmes. The content included news, children’s programmes, women’s programmes, farmers’ programmes, and entertainment programmes. The audience was diverse, but the focus was still largely on information and education.
A major shift occurred as programmes became commercialised and were allowed to carry advertisements from sponsors. The target audience changed: entertainment programmes grew and were increasingly directed at the urban consuming class. Two events accelerated this commercialisation: the introduction of colour broadcasting during the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi, and the rapid expansion of the national television network. During 1984–85, the number of television transmitters increased all over India, covering a large proportion of the population.
This was also the time when indigenous soap operas first appeared. Hum Log (1984–85) and Buniyaad (1986–87) were hugely popular. They attracted substantial advertising revenue for Doordarshan, as did the broadcasting of the epics Ramayana (1987–88) and Mahabharata (1988–90).
Hum Log was India’s first long-running soap opera. It used an entertainment-education strategy: educational content was deliberately placed inside an entertainment message. Broadcast in Hindi for 17 months in 1984–85, its 156 episodes promoted social themes like gender equality, small family size, and national integration. At the end of each 22-minute episode, the famous actor Ashok Kumar appeared in a 30–40 second epilogue. He summarised the educational lesson and connected the drama to viewers’ everyday lives. For example, after a scene where a negative character drank and beat his wife, Kumar would ask: “Why do you think that people, like Basesar Ram, drink too much and then behave badly? Do you know anyone like this? What can be done to reduce the incidents of alcoholism? What can you do?”
A study of Hum Log’s audience revealed a high degree of parasocial interaction — viewers felt they had a personal, one-sided relationship with the characters. Many viewers adjusted their daily schedules to ‘meet’ their favourite character ‘in the privacy of their living rooms’. Others reported talking to their favourite characters through the television set, saying things like, “Don’t worry, Badki. Do not give up your dream of making a career.” The show 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. An unusual aspect was the huge volume of letters it attracted — over 400,000 — so many that most could not even be opened by Doordarshan officials. …