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വാരാന്തപ്പതിപ്പുകള്‍ക്ക് പുതുജീവന്‍

അഞ്ചുവര്‍ഷങ്ങള്‍ കൊണ്ട് ബ്രിട്ടനിലെ അച്ചടി പത്രങ്ങള്‍ക്ക് സംഭവിച്ചതെന്താണ് ? പത്രങ്ങളുടെ സര്‍ക്കുലേഷന്‍ 35 ശതമാനം കുറഞ്ഞു എന്നതുതന്നെ. ഇപ്പോള്‍, 2015 ആഗസ്തിലെ കണക്ക് അനുസരിച്ച് ലണ്ടന്&zw...

A Cursory Glance at Some Historical Facts on the Concept of ‘Mass’

Mass Communication involves: 1. Large-scale production of messages by groups of professions for very large audiences; 2. unidirectional flow of messages; 3. unbalanced, unequal, asymmetric flow of news; 4. impersonal and anonymous; 5. sometimes calculated, manipulative messages; 6. standardized content, organized to reach the largest number of people; 7. sometimes with the sole objective of providing mass audiences that are potential customers for the products advertised. ...

Advertising Research in India: Why It Is Important Today

Research is to find out something new, and advertising research is to find out how advertising works effectively and guide in making effective advertising decisions. There are various kinds of advertising research, and these include pre-testing, post-testing, campaign research, and measuring advertising effectiveness. Introduction Many similar manufacturers compete in the market, and advertising has become a tough business (Vilanilam and Varghese 2004). Advertisers pay money for advertisin...

An Instant World

I am honoured to be invited to deliver this evening’s Lecture in honour of Prabhash Joshi. He was a family friend and warm companion and an esteemed colleague in the Indian Express and beyond. We shared many professional and social values and I admired his dedication to the causes he held dear. Our bonds were cemented during the Emergency and remained so until the end, when he was campaigning against the rising menace of “paid news”. Prabhash was close to JP and Ramnath Goenka, edited...

An Introduction to the IT Age and Mass Electronic, Digitized, Interactive Communication

Before we proceed to the history of various branches of mass communication, let us make a few introductory remarks in this special article. The four components of Information Technology have developed at a fast rate during the past six decades: photophonics; the scientific phenomenon of glass fibres carrying information as pulses of light and sound to near and far destinations; microelectronics, the branch of electronics that deals with components of miniature size; digital systems, operating on the di...

Building credibility is the key

For those in the media it’s always interesting to learn how newspapers or television channels are faring, who the movers and shakers are, what the buzz is like, what the grapevine is, what the managements are up to, etc. So, a headline on the front page such as ‘TOI bigger than next 3 papers put together’ draws your attention immediately and gets you hooked. It’s not strange any more to see how newspapers or news publishing organisations use surveys to their advantage, the objectiv...

Cash for Coverage: Bribery of Journalists Around the World

Introduction To appreciate the full irony of what happened to Alexandra Wrage, it is necessary to know that she is the founder and president of a non-profit association that helps multinational corporations deal with bribery and corruption around the world. Her organization, TRACE International, wanted publicity for an event in India and asked for a proposal from a respected local media-relations firm. The firm submitted two proposals, but Wrage was confused: they were full of “oblique languag...

Communication and Mass Communication

Some students of journalism and mass communication fail to recognise the basic differences between “communication” and “mass communication”; they use the two terms interchangeably. This article is a humble attempt to make all students of journalism and mass communication understand the fundamental differences between communication (C) and mass communication (MC). Later on, we shall dwell at length on “mass” in MC. Communication is at the base of all social intercours...

Correlation of Parts of Society and Interpretation of Events and Issues (Major and Minor Functions of the Media - ii)

It is necessary for citizens to get an interpretation of the economic, political, and cultural significance of various events. The media do such interpretation through features, editorials, special articles, letters to the editor, and special discussions on radio or TV. The Internet helps citizens to exchange views on important developments. Certain wrong actions taken by government agencies (Gawakadal in Kashmir) and wrong actions by citizens (Khairlanji, Maharashtra) are explained by the media thr...

Democratic Participant Media Theory

This theory is the latest in the field of media theories, and Professor McQuail is its proponent. Its location is mainly in rich, developed countries where the citizens have the scientific, technological and financial means to put the latest innovations in inter-personal communication to practical and regular use. It is by no means confined to the rich developed countries because science and technology is universal; all countries can make use of them provided there is a will to do so, particularl...