Mass media in India

From ArticleWorld

With the giant strides in technological field and improving awareness levels, the mass media in India, comprising mainly of the vast array of English and vernacular print media and multiple 24/7 television channels, is catering to the news-hungry billion Indians. The quality and quantity has increased in leaps and bounds over the last couple of decades or so of liberalization process. The main news agencies of Indian print media are the Press Trust of India and United News of India. Mass media in India has largely been the gift of British colonial rule started in about 1780.

History

The very concept of dissemination of information and news to all and sundry for all intents- useful or otherwise has been thought of to be introduced by a British William Bolts, not without hiccups. The continuity of the Gazette, by James Hicky, from Calcutta, the then capital of British’s’ East India Company, also died a premature death.

The blessings of the East India Company saw the nurturing of India Gazette. And it was soon followed by a mouthpiece of the company, the Calcutta Gazette. A private publishing, the Bengal journal came into being along with a monthly magazine, and Bengal was the birthplace of some of the first media publications in India.

Madras

Madras was the second place from where; media publishing’s started in the right earnest. The first paper to start was the madras courier in 1785. Hugh Boyd’s break-off from the entirely British-government owned Madras Courier brought Hurkaru on the paper map. This was an attempt to bring out a parallel paper to pose a challenge to the government mouthpiece. These and a few other attempts by British Publishers of newspapers to bring some news to the public that would not have passed government censure did not live long. However with the first Indian launch, The Hindu, freedom struggle was highlighted and caught the fancy of nationalists and common folk, alike. It raised and still does raise a banner on contentious issues. As of date, the Hindu is the largest read news paper in south India. It was only in 1789 that the city of Bombay announced its arrival on the media map. Here again, the publications were all about government notifications and advertisements. However the introduction of Kesari is seen as the paper of Indian sentiments seeing the light of the day in vernacular language.

Contemporary

After independence, however, dailies like The Indian Express, The Hindustan Times, The, Statesman, and magazines like India Today, outlook, and the Week, have a large following in the entire country and are a quoted worldwide, too, as regards the Indian point of view.

Television has brought about a sea-change in the way that Indians want to and perceive news. The popularity of “seeing” news, first and “live” has seen a surge in the form of round the clock news broadcasts and updates.