UNDERSTANDING MEDIA

CLASS-VII                           SOCIAL AND POLITICAL LIFE-II

CHAPTER 6.       UNDERSTANDING MEDIA
WHAT IS MEDIA?
Media is the plural form of the word medium and it describes various ways through which we communicate in society.
Media refers to all means of communication, from a phone call to evening news.
TV, Radio, News paper are a form of media that reaches millions of people.

LINK BETWEEN MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY:

TRADITIONAL MEDIA:

1.   Broad Cast- Television, Radio, Music and Movies

2.   Print-News Paper, Magazine, Radio, Signs

NEW MEDIA:

Web sites, You Tubes, Facebook, Whatsapp, Apps, Email, Smart phones, Ebooks, Blogs, Streaming video and music, Wikis, etc.

Technology:

q Technology that mass media uses keeps changing

q News paper, TV, Radio- reach masses

q Print Media and Broadcast (widely transmitted) or electronic media

q Now to internet

q Technology getting modern- Improve sound and image quality

q TV image travel by satellite and cables

q Sitting in India-n see a storm that hits USA

q TV has made the world closer and smaller

COST

•        Some Technology are expensive

•        Lights, Cameras, Sound recorders, Transmission satellites

•        Newsreader in news studio- cameras and light

•        Mass media earns money by advertising different things like cars, chocolates, clothes, mobile phones etc.

 

MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY

•        Provide news and discuss events (e.g., crackdown on polluting factories and closure of factories cause unrest)

•        Write letter to minister

•        Organize public protest (large number of people come together), signature campaign     

•        ask govt. to rethink its program

•        Independent media- no one should control and influence the news coverage, reliable informations and is not biased

•        This is not reality. Why? Control that govt. has on media (censorship) – censorship occurred in emergency 1975-77

•        Govt. censors the film but no censorship on news – still no balanced story is provided

HOW TV WORKS?

•        Windows to the world

•        Earn from advertisement cost

•        Media’s continual need for money and its links to advertising – it doesn’t report against those who fund and now not independent as has close links to business

•        It focus on one side of story to make it interesting – more public support

SET AGENDAS

•        Media sets the agenda – influence our lives and shape the thoughts

•        Decide stories

•        Decide what is networthy

•        E.g., published reports for pesticides in cola drinks

•        What needs to be focused ? Safe drinking water, demolition of slums

•        Khabar Lahriya: Fortnightly by 8 Dalit women in Chitrkot district, UP in Bundeli language. 8 pages newspaper reports on dalit issues and cases of violence against women and political corruption.

•         Censorship: Govt. can prevent media from publishing certain news.THE END