Maya Ranganathan

Indian Media in a Globalised World

This book explores the transformation of Indian media in the context of two major developments: globalisation (which Sociologist Anthony Giddens terms as being ‘revolutionary’) and advances in communication technologies. It is rich in empirical details of how the Indian media has evolved in the past two decades, particularly in the context of potential to transform, construct and nurture particular identities in response to globalisation. The study of the transformation of Indian media is significant because not only has globalisation allowed access to a host of things hitherto represented as ‘foreign’ to Indian culture by the media, but it has also opened the floodgates for foreign media. Adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, this book looks at the role of media in purveying political, economic and cultural identities, the current definitions of ‘we’, ‘they’, and the ‘other’, and how the ‘other’ is perceived in contemporary India. The discussions cover all forms of media, that is, newspaper, films, radio, television and online media, along with media policy and other economic challenges facing the media.

Indian elections 2014: The ‘alternative’ and ‘critical’ online

The Indian national election in 2014 marked the emergence of social media as a significant site of political campaigning. The sweeping of the polls by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by the party’s prime ministerial candidate, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, who employed social media extensively in his campaign, has drawn further attention to the hitherto ‘alternative media’ space. ‘Alternative media’ has been positioned and studied in relation to mainstream media. This article illustrates the ways in which the perceptions of mainstream media in a liberalised economy contoured the ‘alternative media’ space, limiting its potential to lead to radical and transformative processes of communication. In the process, the article interrogates the online space occupied by political parties and activists in the context of theoretical understandings of ‘alternative’ and ‘critical’ media. The article flags the need for, and the significance of, sustained study of the emerging new media space to understand the process of reconstitution of the Indian public space.

When the Regional Counters the National: Frames in Press Coverage of the Sri Lankan Ethnic Issue in Tamil Nadu, India

The central role that regional-language identities play in the communicative and cultural settings of South Asia is best reflected in the regional media landscape. The varied influences of regional media on a nations polity and society in multilingual countries like India have largely been evaluated within the framework of the reconstitution of public space. This paper furthers such studies by arguing that the reconstitution of the Indian public by regional media is, in some instances, effected through a discourse that counters the mainstream, or the ‘national-nodal point’. At a time when coalition national governments comprise or depend upon the support of regional political parties for survival, a counter-hegemonic regional discourse can have far-reaching effects, extending the regional medias sphere of influence significantly—from national politics to international relations. Through an analysis of the constructions of the Sri Lankan ethnic issue in the English- and Tamil-language press, I draw out the significance of ‘counter-hegemonic’ representations in the regional media.

Research review of three books on media practices and education

The two books and the special issue of the journal Asia Pacific Media Educator deal with some of the very pertinent issues that face media personnel, researchers and media teachers. They grapple with some issues that are consequential to changing times, and others that have over time defied simple solutions. While globalising technologies have ushered in far-reaching changes on information delivery and consumption, the economic shifts have focussed attention on other aspects of media such as the need for cultural understanding and sensitivity while catering to diverse communities. The unequal communication flows around the globe have also made generalisations difficult necessitating detailed studies of issues relating to media in particular contexts. While the developed countries are witnessing erosion of the popularity of traditional media, developing countries are facing increased interest in all media forms, including the traditional. The three books explore various issues connected with media education, composition of newsrooms and pressing issues in journalism in the light of evolving media technologies. While they focus upon different regions two of them on Europe and the other on the Asia-Pacific together they give an overview of the issues facing media around the world. Graf’s book of five chapters explores diversity and integration of migrant media workers in newsrooms in Sweden and Germany. Editor Heike Graf places the book in the context of globalisation and the election of anti-immigrant party, the Sweden democrats, in 2011 to explain the significance of the study. Notwithstanding that the two are significant developments the issue has been the focus of research in the disciplines of media studies, journalism and cultural studies for quite a few decades now, as Graf and Jonhill state in the ‘Introduction’. The book visits the question of whether ethnic diversity in the newsroom