C Neeki: MEDIA and POLITICS

MEDIA and POLITICS

Mass media is often linked to the word „communication‟ which generally refers to an exchange of information and messages. Mass media which involves in Newspapers, Radio, Television, Films, and the like, refers to methods of message transmission over space and time. According to historical evidence, oral exchange of news was the common method of communication in ancient India, whereas the modern medium of communication system was originated since the end of the eighteenth century. The present inquiry deals with variety of sub topics when analysing Indian mass media. The coverage, popularity, diversification, westernization, commercialization, technology, entertainment, education, politics, sex, violence, women and children, are some of such topics which are deeply and sociologically analysed in the study.

mass media has been enormously related to political affairs in making news. In Indian context, it has been evident that either most of mass media is totally under the control of political leaders (or parties) or they are biased to certain political parties. This idea is supported by Kumar (2003). To him, the functions of mass communication in the political sphere are of grave importance to India, since more than anything else, mass media are fully exploited by the leaders for political propaganda, but the truth is that even the largely private-owned press is charged with political news, biased frequently in favour of one party or another.

In fact, it is obvious that certain TV channels and Newspapers bring news which are favourable to certain political groups or parties. However, this character is common to almost all South Asian countries where politics is largely depend on the propaganda of mass media.

Mass media can play a key role in enabling citizens to monitor the actions of incumbents and to use this information in their voting decisions. This can lead to government which is more accountable and responsive to its citizens’ needs. In spite of the intuitive plausibility of the proposition, there is comparatively little work in the political economy literature that scrutinizes the role and eﬀectiveness of the media in fulﬁlling this function As far as the coverage and popularity are concerned, audio-visual media play a dominant role today, whereas the print media appear as the medium of educated men in urban setting.

A good framework in which to think about the role of the media is one in which citizens are imperfectly informed about the actions of government and the track records of their leaders. To the extent that we believe that politicians may behave opportunistically, and serve their own private agendas ahead of that of the public at large, then politics is a kind of principal agent problem. The principals are the citizens of the polity who ﬁnance government activities through taxes and are subject to various regulations, and the agents are the elected oﬃcials and bureaucrats who determine policy outcomes

The potential for improved access to increased volumes of better information to move greater numbers of people to more intensive and consistent political engagement has been routinely held out as one of the key democratic promises of emerging media technologies. In his detailed survey of the role played by information in the history of American democracy, Bimber (2003) affirms the importance of information to preference formation and representation, political behaviour, decision-making, accountability and legitimacy.

The political economy perspective should be connected to studies on culture and commodification of symbolic forms. For instance, the role of the commercial mass media is central to a theory of a promotional culture and its impact on politics and society needs more attention. Here it is necessary, as Andrew Wernick reminds us, not to think of advertising and symbolic expressions as separate texts, but as intertextually connected to and embedded in culture at large (Wernick 1991: 93). If it ever was possible to imagine the existence of a pure political discourse aimed at educating and empowering citizens to participate in the production of a rational consensus in an ideal, public sphere, it now has become utterly problematic. Agenda setting studies focused on elections times and on the impact of the media during campaigns.