Mass media in India consists of several different means of communication: television, radio, cinema, newspapers, magazines, and Internet-based websites/portals. Indian media was active since the late 18th century. The print media started in India as early as 1780. Radio broadcasting began in 1927.[1][2] Today much of the media is controlled by large, corporations, which reap revenue from advertising, subscriptions, and sale of copyrighted material.
India has over 500 satellite channels (more than 80 are news channels) and 70,000 newspapers, the biggest newspaper market in the world with over 100 million copies sold each day.[3]
The French NGO Reporters Without Borders compiles and publishes an annual ranking of countries based upon the organisation's assessment of its Press Freedom Index. In its 2023 downgraded India by 11 points to 161st level out of 180 countries. Indian media freedom now stands below Afghanistan, Somalia and Columbia. It stated its reason saying "The violence against journalists, the politically partisan media and the concentration of media ownership all demonstrate that press freedom is in crisis in “the world’s largest democracy”, ruled since 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the embodiment of the Hindu nationalist right."[4] In 2022, India was ranked 150th, which declined from 133rd rank in 2016. It stated that this was due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party and their followers of Hindutva having greater exertion of control of the media.[5]Freedom House, a US-based NGO stated in its 2021 report that harassment of journalists increased under Modi's administration.[6] The English-language media of India are described as traditionally left-leaning liberal, which has been a point of friction recently due to an upsurge in popularity of Hindu nationalist politics.[7] According to BBC News, "A look at Indian news channels - be it English or Hindi - shows that fairly one-sided news prevails. And that side is BJP and Hindutva."[8]
Where the norms are breached and the freedom is defiled by unprofessional conduct, a way must exist to check and control it. But control by the government or official authorities may prove destructive of this freedom. Therefore, the best way is to let the peers of the profession, assisted by a few discerning laymen, regulate it through a properly structured, representative, and impartial machinery. Hence, the Press Council of India was established.[10]
Overview
The traditional print media, but also the television media, are largely family-owned and often partake in self-censorship, primarily due to political ties by the owner and the establishment. However, the new media are generally more professional and corporate-owned, though these, too, have been acquired or affiliated with established figures. At the same time, the Indian media, viewed as "feisty," have also not reported on issues of the media itself.[11]
Print
The headquarters of Doordarshan, for which experimental telecast started in September 1959. Regular daily transmission followed in 1965 as a part of All India Radio.
Even after independence from Britain in 1947, the English-language papers were prominent due to a number of reasons. The telegraphic circuits of news agencies used the Roman Alphabet and the Morse code, giving the English press an advantage in speed. The speed of typesetting was also much slower in Indian languages because of the Diacritics. Also, the press largely relied on advertisements of imported goods for revenue, and the foreign advertisers naturally preferred English-language media. The language of the administration had also remained English.[16]
In terms of readership, Dainik Jagran is the most popular Hindi daily with a total readership (TR) of 70,377,000, according to IRS Q1 2019. Dainik Bhaskar is the second most popular with a total readership of 51,405,000. Amar Ujala with a TR of 47,645,000, Rajasthan Patrika with a TR of 18,036,000 and Prabhat Khabar with a TR of 14,102,000 are placed at the next three positions. The total readership of the top 10 Hindi dailies is estimated at 188.68million, nearly five times that of the top 10 English dailies that have a 38.76million total readership.[18]
In the 1950s, 214 daily newspapers were published in the country.[12] Out of these, 44 were English language dailies while the rest were published in various regional and national languages.[12] This number rose to 3,805 dailies in 1993 with the total number of newspapers published in the country having reached 35,595.[12]
The Dispatch (Jammu and Kashmir) currently, operates from Jammu and Kashmir and covers all the happening in the Northern States of India focusing on Kashmir.[19]
Newspaper sales in the country increased by 11.22% in 2007.[20] By 2007, 62 of the world's best selling newspaper dailies were published in China, Japan, and India.[20] India consumed 99 million newspaper copies as of 2007—making it the second largest market in the world for newspapers.[20]
Radio broadcasting was initiated in 1927 but became a state responsibility only in 1930.[21] In 1937 it was given the name All India Radio and since 1957 it has been called Akashvani.[21] Limited duration of television programming began in 1959, and complete broadcasting followed in 1965.[21] The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting owned and maintained the audio-visual apparatus—including the television channel Doordarshan—in the country prior to the economic reforms of 1991.[22]
Following the economic reforms satellite television channels from around the world—including the BBC, CNN, CNBC, and other foreign television channels gained a foothold in the country.[23] 47 million households with television sets emerged in 1993, which was also the year when Rupert Murdoch entered the Indian market.[24]Satellite and cable television soon gained a foothold.[24]Doordarshan, in turn, initiated reforms and modernisation.[24] With 1,400 television stations as of 2009, the country ranks 4th in the list of countries by number of television broadcast stations.[25]
The Indian economy underwent economic reforms in 1991, leading to a new era of globalisation and international economic integration.[29] Economic growth of over 6% annually was seen between 1993 and 2002.[29] The economic reforms were driven in part by significant the internet usage in India.[30] The new administration under Atal Bihari Vajpayee which placed the development of Information technology among its top five priorities— formed the Indian National Task Force on Information Technology and Software Development.[31] Internet gained a foothold in India by 1998.[26] India had a total of 100 million Internet users—comprising 8.5% of the country's population—by 2010.[32]
India had a total of 34 million fixed lines in use by 2011.[33] In the fixed line arena, BSNL and MTNL are the incumbents in their respective areas of operation and continue to enjoy the dominant service provider status in the domain of fixed line services.[34]BSNL controls 79% of fixed line share in the country.[34]
In the mobile telephony sector, Bharti Airtel controls 24.3% subscriber base followed by Reliance Communications with 18.9%, Vodafone with 18.8%, BSNL] with 12.7% subscriber base as of June 2009.[34] India had a total of 880 million mobile phone connections by 2011.[35] Total fixed-line and wireless subscribers reached 688 million as of August 2010.[36]
The history of film in India begins with the screening of Auguste and Louis Lumière moving pictures in Bombay during the July 1895.[37]Raja Harishchandra, a full-length feature film, was initiated in 1912 and completed later.[37]Alam Ara (released 14 March 1931), directed by Ardeshir Irani, was the first Indian movie with dialogues.[38]
Indian films were soon being followed throughout Southeast Asia and the Middle East—where modest dressing and subdued sexuality of these films was found to be acceptable to the sensibilities of the audience belonging to the various Islamic countries of the region.[39] As cinema as a medium gained popularity in the country as many as 1,000 films in various languages of India were produced annually.[39]Hollywood also gained a foothold in India with special effects films such as Jurassic Park (1993) and Speed (1994) being specially appreciated by the local audiences.[39] Expatriates throughout the United Kingdom and in the United States continued to give rise to an international audiences to Indian movies, which, according to The Encyclopædia Britannica (2008) entry on Bollywood, "continued to be formulaic story lines, expertly choreographed fight scenes, spectacular song-and-dance routines, emotion-charged melodrama, and larger-than-life heroes".[40] Present-day India produces the most films of any country in the world.[41] Major media investors in the country are production houses such as Yash Raj Films, Dharma Productions, Aamir Khan Productions, Disney India and Reliance Entertainment. Most of these productions are funded by investors since there are limited banking and credit facilities maturity in India for the motion picture industry. Many international corporations, such as Disney (formerly UTV) and Viacom (Network18 Studios) have entered the nation's media industry on a large scale.
Digital media is opening up to paywalls and other subscription based models. However a majority of readers still do not pay for the content they read, causing the media houses to rely on other means of funding.[42]
"In my case, my ideology, if I must confess to one, is that of the preservation of diversity. As a funder, I am willing to support individuals and institutions that are demonstrably committed to the largest public interest, that demonstrate high integrity and clarity of thought [...] I am quite okay with differing points of view. That’s why I can comfortably fund a somewhat 'right-wing' think tank, even as I fund something 'left-wing' like EPW. This is important to explain, because, in my understanding, I am true to a higher ideology, which is freedom of expression, freedom of the press."
Criticism
Some sections of Indian media, controlled by businessmen, Politicians, and government bureaucrats, are facing criticism for biased, motivated reporting, behave like one party owned or governing party owned and selective presentation. After the devastating earthquake in Nepal on 25 April 2015, in spite of India helping, tweets from Nepal trended effectively saying, "Go home, Indian media".[53] Disturbed by corruption, Delhi chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal suggested on 3 May 2015 to have a public trial of Indian media.[54][55][56] On 8 May 2015, the then I & B Minister, Arun Jaitley echoed a similar rhetoric saying that there was a, "flood of channels but dearth of facts".[57][58] Of late, a lot of mainstream media channels have been accused of printing and telecasting unverified and biased news which they retracted later. In a few instances content from Twitter's parody accounts were cited as a source. Indian mainstream media has often been accused of showing sensationalized news items.[59] In March 2018, the then Chief Justice of IndiaDipak Misra said that, "journalists cannot write anything they imagine and behave as if they are sitting in some pulpit".[60]Godi media is a pejorative term coined & popularised by former NDTV journalist Ravish Kumar referring to the sensationalist and biased Indian mainstream media which supports the ruling party of India.
Chief Justice of India N. V. Ramana criticized Indian media in a speech in July 2022 accusing the media of running Kangaroo courts and running agenda driven debates without any accountability, which he thinks is bad for democracy.[61]
A report by Oxfam and Newslaundry found out that employees from general category constitute around 90% of leadership positions in the Indian media, which means that the marginalized communities like Dalits, Adivasis and Bahujans do not have adequate representation.[62]
India Today is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, India Today launched a new online opinion-orientated site called the DailyO.
Print circulation is the average number of copies of a publication. The number of copies of a non-periodical publication are usually called print run. Circulation is not always the same as copies sold, often called paid circulation, since some issues are distributed without cost to the reader. Readership figures are usually higher than circulation figures because of the assumption that a typical copy is read by more than one person.
The Economic Times is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. It is owned by The Times Group. The Economic Times began publication in 1961. As of 2023, it is the world's second-most widely read English-language business newspaper, after The Wall Street Journal, with a readership of over 900,000. It is published simultaneously from 14 cities: Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Chandigarh, Pune, Indore, and Bhopal. Its main content is based on the Indian economy, international finance, share prices, prices of commodities as well as other matters related to finance. This newspaper is published by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. The founding editor of the paper when it was launched in 1961 was P. S. Hariharan. The current editor of The Economic Times is Bodhisattva Ganguli.
Malayala Manorama is a morning newspaper in Malayalam published from Kottayam, Kerala, India by the Malayala Manorama Company Limited. Currently headed by Mammen Mathew, it was first published as a weekly on 14 March 1888, and currently has a readership of over 8 million. It is also the second oldest Malayalam newspaper in Kerala in circulation, after Deepika, which is also published from Kottayam. Manorama also publishes an online edition.
Mangalam Publications (India) Private Limited, is an Indian publishing company in Kottayam, Kerala, India. It publishes online daily newspaper and weekly magazines such as Mangalam Weekly, Kanyaka and Cinema Mangalam in Malayalam. They also publish some magazines in Kannada language. Printed from Kottayam, Kochi, Kozhikode, Thiruvananthapuram, Idukki, Kannur and Thrissur, Mangalam is the sixth most circulated Malayalam daily.
Dainik Jagran is an Indian Hindi-language daily newspaper.
Deshabhimani is a Malayalam newspaper and the organ of the Kerala State Committee of the CPI(M). It started as a weekly in Kozhikode on 6 September 1942 and converted to a daily in 1946. The paper now has ten different printing centres: Kozhikode, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Kannur, Kottayam, Thrissur, Palakkad, Alappuzha, Kollam and Malappuram. At present, Puthalath Dinesan State Secretariat Member of the CPI(M) is the Chief Editor of the paper, K.J. Thomas, CPI(M), secretariat member of the CPI(M), the General Manager and V. B Parameshwaran, the Resident Editor.
Rajasthan Patrika is an Indian Hindi-language daily newspaper. It was founded by Karpoor Chandra Kulish in 1956 and published as Rajasthan Patrika in Delhi and Rajasthan, and as Patrika in 9 other states.
Dainik Bhaskar is a Hindi-language daily newspaper in India which is owned by the Dainik Bhaskar Group. According to the World Association of Newspapers, it ranked fourth in the world by circulation in 2016 and per the Indian Audit Bureau of Circulations was the largest newspaper in India by circulation as of 2022. Started in Bhopal in 1958, it expanded in 1983 with the launch of Dainik Bhaskar's Indore edition. The Dainik Bhaskar Group is present in 13 Indian states with 65 editions in Hindi, Marathi, and Gujarati.
Subhash Chandra Goenka is an Indian billionaire media baron. He is the chairman of the Essel Group, an Indian media conglomerate and founded Zee TV in 1992. He was also the chairman of Zee Media but resigned as Director and Non-Executive Chairman of the company on 24 May 2016. He was elected to the Upper House of the Indian parliament for the Haryana state in the 2016 Rajya Sabha election, as an independent candidate supported by legislators from the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Amar Ujala is a Hindi-language daily newspaper published in India which was founded in 1948. It has 22 editions in six states and two union territories covering 180 districts. It has a circulation of around two million copies. The 2019 Indian Readership Survey reported that with 9.65 million it had the 4th-largest daily readership amongst newspapers in India.
Media in Kerala, India are widely accessible and cater to a wide variety of audiences. Kerala has the highest media exposure in India with newspapers publishing in nine languages, mainly English and Malayalam.
Hindi media refers to media in Hindi language and its dialects, across the Hindi belt in India, and elsewhere with the Hindi-speaking Indian diaspora.
Ei Samay Sangbadpatra is a Bengali-language daily newspaper from The Times Group. It was launched as a broadsheet daily newspaper with a motive to enter into a head-to-head competition with Anandabazar Patrika. It is owned and published by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. which is owned by the Sahu Jain family. At present it is owen by Tidings Media & Communications Pvt Ltd.
Online journalism in India is a growing field shared between traditional media and the growing blogging community. Large media companies, traditionally print and television focused, continue to dominate the journalism environment now online but a growing group of dedicated bloggers are providing an independent voice.
The Media in Gujarati language started with publication of Bombay Samachar in 1822. Initially the newspapers published business news and they were owned by Parsi people based in Bombay. Later Gujarati newspapers started published from other parts of Gujarat. Several periodicals devoted to social reforms were published in the second half of the 19th century. After arrival of Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian independence movement peaked and it resulted in proliferation of Gujarati media. Following independence, the media was chiefly focused on political news. After bifurcation of Bombay state, the area of service changed. Later there was an increase in readership due to growth of literacy and the media houses expanded its readership by publishing more editions. Later these media houses ventured into digital media also. The radio and television media expanded after 1990.
Jagran Prakashan Limited is an Indian publishing house listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange. The company is in the business of printing and publishing newspapers, magazines, journals, and other media. Outdoor advertising, event management and activation services, and internet business are among the Company's other interests. Dainik Jagran Kanpur, Dainik Jagran Gorakhpur, Daily Action Kanpur, and a monthly magazine called Kanchan Prabha Kanpur had been purchased by the company.
Desai, Ashok V. (2006), "Information and other Technology Development", Encyclopaedia of India (vol. 2) edited by Stanley Wolpert, pp.269–273, Thomson Gale, ISBN0-684-31351-0.
Wolcott, P. & Goodman, S. E. (2003), Global Diffusion of the Internet – I India: Is the Elephant Learning to Dance?, Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 11: 560–646.
Further reading
Malone, David M., C. Raja Mohan, and Srinath Raghavan, eds. The Oxford handbook of Indian foreign policy (2015)excerpt pp 259–270.
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