Introduction to India
India, with a population of more than a billion, is a multiethnic, multilingual, multi-religious, pluralistic society. Politically it is a union of states (28 states and 7 union territories) and a sovereign, secular, democratic republic with a bicameral, multi-party, parliamentary system of government based on a universal adult franchise. It is governed by a written constitution, adopted by the Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949, which came into force on January 26, 1950. India was under the British crown 1858–1947; independence and partition into India and Pakistan came in 1947.
The president of India is Prativa Patil. The prime minister is Man Mohan Singh. The Capital of India is New Delhi. Influence and emergence of media is mostly affected by Bombay, Delhi, Hyderabad.
Media in India
The media system of India consists of different types of communications media, i.e. television, radio, cinema, newspapers, magazines, books, Internet and several different new media (mobile phones, Ipod,etc). India also has a strong movie industry. Media system of India is taken as a free-market system. The deregulation and convergence are under way, leading to mega-mergers, further concentration of media ownership, and the emergence of multinational media conglomerates. Critics allege that localism, local news and other content at the community level, media spending and coverage of news, and diversity of ownership and views have suffered as a result of these processes of media concentration.
Politics and media:
Politics of India takes place in a framework of federal parliamentary multi-party representative democratic republic modeled after the British Westminster System. The Prime Minister of India is the head of government, while the President of India is the formal head of state and holds substantial reserve powers, placing him or her in approximately the same position as the British monarch. Executive power is exercised by the government. According to its constitution, India is a “sovereign socialist secular democratic republic.” India is the largest state by population with a democratically-elected government.
In India, the Press is free but subject to certain reasonable restrictions imposed by the Constitution of India, 1950, as amended (“Constitution”). Before the impact of globalization was felt, the mass media was wholly controlled by the government which let the media project only what the government wanted the public to see and in a way in which it wanted the public to see it. However, with the onset of globalization and privatization, the situation has undergone a humongous change.
Government control of the press:
Although freedom of the press in India is the legal norm--it is constitutionally guaranteed--the scope of this freedom has often been contested by the government. Rigid press censorship was imposed during the Emergency starting in 1975 but quickly retracted in 1977. The government has continued, however, to exercise more indirect controls. Government advertising accounts for as much as 50 percent of all advertisements in Indian newspapers, providing a monetary incentive to limit harsh criticism of the administration. Until 1992, when government regulation of access to newsprint was liberalized, controls on the distribution of newsprint could also be used to reward favored publications and threaten those that fell into disfavor. In 1988, at a time when the Indian press was publishing investigative reports about corruption and abuse of power in government, Parliament passed a tough defamation bill that mandated prison sentences for offending journalists. Vociferous protests from journalists and opposition party leaders ultimately forced the government to withdraw the bill. Since the late 1980s, the independence of India's press has been bolstered by the liberalization of government economic policy and the increase of private-sector advertising provided by the growth of India's private sector and the spread of consumerism.
Newspaper
Print Media started in 1780. The country consumed 99 million newspaper copies as of 2007—making it the second largest market in the world for newspapers. There are four major publishing groups in India, each of which controls national and regional English-language and vernacular publications. They are the Times of India Group, the Indian Express Group, the Hindustan Times Group, and the Anandabazar Patrika Group. The Times of India is India’s largest English-language daily, with a circulation of 656,000 published in six cities. The Indian Express, with a daily circulation of 519,000, is published in seventeen cities. There are also seven other daily newspapers with circulations of between 134,000 and 477,000, all in English and all competitive with one another. There are also numerous smaller publications throughout the nation. The combined circulation of India’s newspapers and periodicals is in the order of 60 million, published daily in more than ninety languages. 1990 the number of daily newspapers had grown to 2,856, with 209 in English and 2,647 in indigenous languages.
Malayala Manorama is a popular Malayalam daily newspaper in Kerela, India. This is India's largest circulated "regional newspaper". The Manorama group, which manages the newspaper, also runs the Manorama Yearbook, a circulated yearbook in the region. Malayala Manorama, which first appeared on 14th March 1890, as a weekly, currently has a readership of over 15 million, with a circulation base of over 15 laks copies.Manorama is Kerala's largest selling and most widely read newspaper. Malayala Manorama has the largest readership among Malayalam dailies. The Malayalam word Manorama roughly translates to "Entertainer."
Magazines:
India has a large magazine industry with hundreds of magazines serving almost every interest, as can be determined by glancing at any newsstand in any large Indian city or states. Most magazines are owned by one of the large media conglomerates or by one of their smaller regional brethren.
India also has over a dozen major political magazines (the exact number is debatable, of course), serving every part of the political spectrum from left to right.
Finally, besides the hundreds of specialized magazines that serve the diverse interests and hobbies of the American people, there are also dozens of magazines published by professional organizations for their members, such as Communications of the ACM (for computer science specialists) and the ABA Journal (for lawyers).
Television:
As of 2009, India is among the 4th largest television broadcast association in the world with nearly 1,400 stations
Radio
Indian radio broadcasts in two bands: FM and AM. Some stations are only talk radio featuring interviews and discussions while music radio stations broadcast one particular type of music: Top 40, hip-hop, country, etc. Radio broadcast companies have become increasingly consolidated in recent years. All India Radio is the national radio network, but most radio stations are commercial and profit-oriented.
Radio broadcasting initiated in 1927. The Indian national radio, All India Radio or Akashwani, networks are state-owned and managed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Their news reporting customarily presents the government’s point of view. For example, coverage of the 1989 election campaign blatantly favored the government of Rajiv Gandhi, and autonomy of the electronic media became a political issue.
News Agencies:
India has more than forty domestic news agencies. The Express News Service, the Press Trust of India, and the United News of India are among the major news agencies. They are headquartered in Delhi, Mumbai, and New Delhi, respectively, and employ foreign correspondents.
Recorded music industry:
The recorded music industry had its beginnings in 1907 when Gramophone Company of India was established in Calcutta. Almost every major international player in global music business has a presence in India. These include EMI- Virgin Records, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Bros, Polygram, Gramco (formerly HMV), BMG, Cresendo, CBS Records and others.
Indian companies include T-series, Bombino Music, Magana Sound, Oriental Records, Plus Music, Super records, Venus, Tips, Time, Zee music, Padmini Music and others.
Indi-pop has also imerged but Film music always remained dominated.
Advertising Agencies:
The first modern “advertising agency” started operating around 1875, when N.W. Ayer and Son of Philadephia offered to produce advertisements and also to contract for space in press.
Film industry:
India is the biggest film industry in the world on the basis of number of movies produced every year. 1000 movies per year is produced. On the economic basis, movie industry of India is the second largest industry. In average, two movies per day is produced in India, which not only includes Hindi language movies but also of other languages such as Bhojpuri, Tamil, Telogu, Marathi.
Internet:
The Internet has provided a means for newspapers and other media organizations to deliver news and, significantly, the means to look up old news. By 2009, India had a total of 81,000,000 internet users comprising 7.0% of the country's population, and 7,570,000 people in India also had access to broadband internet as of 2010 making it the 11th largest country in the world in terms of broadband internet users. As of 2009, India is among the 4th largest television broadcast association in the world with nearly 1,400 stations.
Some organizations only make limited amounts of their output available for free, and charge for access to the rest. Other organizations allow their archives to be freely browsed. It is possible that the latter type obtain more influence, as they are true to the spirit of freedom of information by virtue of making it free. Anyone who has followed external links only to be confronted with a pay to view banner, might attest that the reputations of organizations that charge is not enhanced by their charging policy, particularly when the same information is available from sources that don't charge.
The Internet, by means of making available such constantly growing news archives, is, in effect, writing our history as it happens, at a level of detail never before known. While proprietary archives are slowly exposed to the public after many decades, organizations that maintain immediately-updating resources have more control over what will be remembered by the general public in the near future.
Number of Daily Newspapers: 2,856
Number of Television Stations: more than 1400 stations
Number of Television Sets: 219,000,000
Television Sets 134 million households (out of 223 million) with television sets(103 million have access to Cable TV or Satellite TV, including 20 million households are DTH subscribers.)
Number of Radio/FM Receivers: 279
Revenue from FM Stations: Rs 86 million as annual fee from the private FM radio broadcasters ('09)
Number of Radio/FM Receivers:
Number of Individuals with Computers: 161,000,000
Computers per 1,000: 579.0
Number of Individuals with Internet Access: 95,354,000
Internet Access per 1,000: 342.9
Media Ownership in India
Printing Press
The press of India is known to have a diverse ownership within the multilingual country. The top 10 newspapers control about half the daily circulations in all languages. However, ownership of some newspapers was argued to be controlled by monopoly houses. In North and South India, some escaped the monopolies and maintained their small regional newspapers. These were typically controlled by the family and caste of India.
Since May 1, 1995, all newsprint has been placed under ‘Open General License’, issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, whereby all newsprint can be imported by anyone. The Registrar of Newspapers for India is in charge of authenticating the certificate of registration.
Radio, Television Media
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is the head for devising and administrating rules and regulations regarding broadcasting, the press and films. Its role is to oversee the access people have to media channels, such as radio, television, films, the press, publications, and advertising. It targets people not only within India, but tries to reach outside of the country as well.
Internet
The Internet Public Library (IPL) provides information on Indian newspapers. Media in India is readily accessible via the internet. As of 2002, there were 62 Indian newspapers available online.
Conclusion:
The Media systems in India enjoy freedom. Democracy has provided them to the license to expand to large business corporations and thus these media strongly stimulate the process of globalization. However, India as becoming one of the dominating and powerful countries affects not only its neighboring countries but also imposes its culture and trade to other countries. The Indian mainstream media system is very powerful and dangerous appendage of a system that does not give a damn about the advancement of the rest of humanity. Its true function is to project the worldview and culture of the imperial system, of which it is an integral component. Keeping the public as dumbed down as possible keeps their corporate clients happy and their political partners in power. After all, if most Indian truly knew that their country’s government was at the root of most of the nation’s international disputes, they actually might try to rise up and do something about it.
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