Development Of Radio Journalism And Television Journalism 4go3m

1  Development of Radio Journalism and Television Journalism. Radio journalism:India is the biggest democracy in the world, with a population of over one billion. And yet it has deprived the majority of its people the basic right to information. Private radio channels in India are banned from broadcasting news. The ban stems out from the archaic broadcasting law, The Telegraph Act of 1885, which gives full control to the government to grant or revoke license to private broadcasters. The rationale lies in evolvement of broadcast in India. Till 1990s, the government had a monopoly over television and radio broadcasts. With the advent of cable television, private news channels came into the picture and eventually grew into a big industry overtaking Doordarshan, the public service broadcaster. Radio had to wait till 2001, to get private ownership after a landmark ruling by Supreme Court in the Union of India Vs Cricket Association of Bengal case in1995. The Supreme Court was of the view that airwaves are public property and hence citizens are the owners by virtue of right conferred upon them by Article 19 of the constitution (right to freedom) with the exceptions noted in Article 19(2) relating to public safety. The first radio channel, Radio City, was launched in Bangalore but with a license to broadcast entertainment shows only. Since then, 100 more radio channels have entered the Indian airwaves but as mere instruments of amusement. The law has drastic implications that ripple down to the very core of democracy in India. If one goes by National Family Health Survey figures, only 44.2% of the households in India own a television. The condition is worse in the poor states of Bihar and Jharkhand where the percentage goes below 28%. So for the majority, the only option and source for getting news is by listening to radio. And what they get to hear is the mouthpiece of the ruling government, All India Radio (AIR).

Pradnya Mumbarkar. TY BMM Journalism-21. Date of submission – 30/11/13. Signature:-

2 All India Radio:If you want to know where the PM is headed for his next foreign visitor which head of state is visiting India, AIR is the channel for you. But do not expect to hear anything remotely critical of the government in power. There is no written guideline to that effect, but an unspoken law does exist. Never in the history of broadcasting in independent India, has AIR said anything damning about the government. For people who have access to cable television, it’s a different story. Private television news channels have in a way satiated the demand for news in towns and big cities. They can always get the other side of the story by watching a private news channel. But someone who has just got a radio is still only seeing one side of the coin. The situation becomes more serious during election campaigns as radio plays a vital role in formulating opinions that can translate into votes. The possibility of AIR broadcasting anything that criticizes the government is ridiculous. Hence to protect the democratic rights of the citizens, it becomes highly essential that they are well aware of the choices to make an informed decision. This is only possible if there are private radio news channels in the market. Government argues that the Indian audience is yet to mature to be able to handle unobstructed news. In reality, it is wary of the fact that radio waves will be bombarded with the news channels, making it hard for them to censor anything. No Doubt, India been a sensitive society needs certain laws and rules as to what can be broadcast. Radio commanding a far greater reach, if allowed to run amok like TV, will become Goliath. Hence change is imperative but with certain degree of restrain.

Pradnya Mumbarkar. TY BMM Journalism-21. Date of submission – 30/11/13. Signature:-

3 Television Journalism:In 1959 Television was introduced. The government had been reluctant to invest in television, because it was felt that a poor country like India could not afford the medium. Television had to prove its role in the development process. A Cabinet decision was taken disallowing any foreign investments in print media which has since been followed religiously for nearly 45 years. On September 15, 1959 in Delhi when UNESCO gave the Indian Government $20,000 and 180 Philips TV sets. The programs were broadcast twice a week for an hour a day on such topics as community health, citizens’ duties and rights, and traffic and road sense. In 1961 The broadcasts were expanded to include a school educational television project. In time, Indian films and programs consisting of compilation of musicals from Indian films ed as the first entertainment programs. A limited number fold U.S. and British shows were also telecast sporadically the first major expansion of television in India began in 1972, when a second television station was opened in Bombay. This was followed by stations in Srinagar and Amritsar (1973), and Calcutta, Madras and Luck now (1975). Relay stations were also set up in a number of cities to extend the coverage of the regional stations. In 1975, the government carried out the first test of the possibilities of satellite based television through the SITE (Satellite Instructional Television Experiment) program. SITE was designed to test whether satellite based television services could play a role in socio-economic development. For the first 17 years, broadcasting of television spread haltingly and transmission was mainly in black & white. By 1976, the government found itself running a television network of eight television stations covering a population of 45 million spread over 75,000square kilometers. Faced with the difficulty of istering such an extensive television system television as part of All India Radio, the government constituted Doordarshan, the national television network, as a separate Department under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. INSAT-1A, the first of the country domestic communications satellites became operational and made possible the networking of all of Doordarshan regional stations. For the first time Doordarshan originated a nation-wide feed dubbed the "National Programme" which was fed from Delhi to the other stations. In November 1982, the country hosted the Asian Games and government introduced colour broadcasts for the coverage of the games. To increase televisions reach, the government launched a crash program to set up lowland high power transmitters that Pradnya Mumbarkar. TY BMM Journalism-21. Date of submission – 30/11/13. Signature:-

4 would pick-up the satellite distribute signals and re-transmit them to surrounding areas. Using a U.S. ATS-6 satellite and up-link canters at Ahmadabad and Delhi, television programs were beamed down for about 4 hours a day to about2,400 villages in 6 states. The programs dealt mainly with in- and out-of-school education, agricultural issues, planning and national integration. The program was fairly successful in demonstrating the effectiveness of satellite based television in India and the lessons learnt from SITE were used by the government in deg and utilizing its own domestic satellite service INSAT, launched in 1982.In 1983 television signals were available to just 28% of the population, this had doubled by the end of 1985 and by 1990 over 90% of the population had access to television signals. The second spark came in the early nineties with the broadcast of satellite TV by foreign programmers like CNN followed by Star TV and a little later by domestic channels such as Zee TV and Sun TV into Indian homes. When the solitary few soaps like Hum Log (1984), and mythological dramas: Ramayana (1987-88) and Mahabharata (1988-89) were televised, millions of viewers stayed glued to their sets. Fifty years after it switched on, Doordarshan, India’s public television broadcaster, continues to face the trinity of the three R’s that haunt such broadcasters worldwide: REVENUE, RELEVANCE and REACH.A number of Indian satellite based television services were launched between 1991and 1994, prominent among them Zee TV, the first Hindi satellite channel. It was in the year 1992 that five new channels belonging to the Hong Kong based STAR TV provided a fresh breath to the Indian television. MTV, Star Plus, BBC, Prime Sports and STAR Chinese Channel were the 5 channels in those days. In south India the first private channel to be introduced was the Sun TV. Today it airs programmes in four different languages: Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. Indian television viewers - By 1994 : - some 6 million people were receiving television broadcasts via satellite, and the number was expected to increase rapidly throughout the rest of the decade. Cable television was even more prolific, with an estimated 12 to15 million subscribers in 1994.The Indian television system is one of the most extensive systems in the world. Terrestrial broadcasting, which has been the sole preserve of the government, provides television coverage to over 90% of India’s 900 million people. In 1995, the Indian Supreme Court held that the government’s monopoly overbroad casting was unconstitutional, setting the stage for India to develop into one of the world’s largest and most competitive television environments.

Pradnya Mumbarkar. TY BMM Journalism-21. Date of submission – 30/11/13. Signature:-

5 By the end of 1996 nearly 50 million households had television sets. International satellite broadcasting, introduced in 1991, has swept across the country because of the rapid proliferation of small scale cable systems. By the end of 1996, Indians could view dozens of foreign and local channels and the competition for audiences and advertising revenues was one of the hottest in the world. A few years later CNN, Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel were launched for the audience. Star also introduced other channels like Star World, Star Sports, ESPN and Star Gold. Over the years, several regional Indian TV Channels flourished along with other Hindi channels and some English channels. In 1999, a BJP-led government has been threatening to once again allow DTHKu-band broadcasting and it has been talking of dismantling the Prasar Bharati and once again reverting Doordarshan and All India Radios control back in the government’s hands. Some things change only to remain the same. By 2001, HBO and History Channel were the other international channels that entered India. By 2001-2003, more international channels such as Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, VH1, Disney, etc. came in the country. The year 2003 marked the boom of authentic news channels in India. Aastha TV is one of the most popular sociospiritual-cultural television channel broadcasting India`s rich heritage and currently. This channel reaches over 20 million households with viewer ship that exceeds 100 million. Now a day’s news channels presents an amalgamation of rolling news bulletins and specialized shows covering topics from crime to Cricket. Entertainments to spiritual stories. In recent times, Indian television is said to be in close amalgamation with the private channels that offers all kinds of entertainment and educational shows in a perfect dazzling presentation. The Indian television or the small screen has achieved strata of indispensability. Life without the audio visual media is imagined to be a standstill one. The glamour packed soaps and serials, reality shows, talk shows and other entertainment packages encom a major section of Indian lifestyle.

Pradnya Mumbarkar. TY BMM Journalism-21. Date of submission – 30/11/13. Signature:-