Television And Reality Shows Over Children In Manipal Media Essay

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015

The head of Federal Communication Commission which regulates television in the United States one famously said "Television is a ....... toasters with pictures and we are normally concerned with the working of our toasters or the exact origins of our water when, for example, we run a bath. According to Josetein Gripsrud, The word Television literally means "distant sight".But as we all know, when watching television we are actually just seeing something a few feet away an image on the glass front of the box we call a T.V set. Television in other words a metaphor intented to describe what this box, this experience, this form of communication, is all about.

  According to Singh, Chandrakanth P., in his book the dictionary of Television and Radio says that the medium of communication that operates through the transmission of images and sound over a wire or through space by means of an electronic system that converts light and sound into electrical waves and then reconverts them into visible images and audible sounds. As an advertising medium, television is the youngest and has grown faster than any other in the history. No other medium has the unique creative capabilities of Television. The combination of sight, sound and movement, the opportunities for demonstration and the believability of seeing something happen right before one's eyes the potential for special effects, all these have contributed to television successful impact. According to R. Terry Ellemore, the author of NTC's Mass Media Dictionary, he says litteraly, to see at a distance. A system of telecommunication used for the transmission of images of fixed or moving objects for the transmission of transient images fixed or moving images.

Since birth it is involuntary for any infant to communicate and look at the world

around with new eyes. For a mother even the cry of a baby sounds soothing.

Communication is an inbuilt art which we all carry ourselves from the time of birth.

There are different ways of communicating. We express ourselves mostly by body

language, our voice and words. They are broadly classified into nonverbal

communication, verbal communication and visual communication. Non verbal is

something which is prevalent throughout. Verbal is learnt by the person and what

language he or she learns is totally dependent on the place and surrounding they

come from. Visual is a recent development and came into existence with

technological advancement.

The form of communication has gotten modified from time to time. From the

invention of the tape recorder, (when people used to think that if anyone recorded

their voice, then, they would loose their voice completely), to the present day gadgets

like the cell phone which has all facilities from radio to recording sound and visuals as

well. Audio or music is one such media which has the capability to create a virtual

reality in one's mind.

What is reality?

What is fake and what is real? This has been the question since the time man has

come into existence. With time many of these questions have been solved and

answered either by scholars or by the scientific approaches. Many of these have led to

conflicts of the original question whether they are god's miracles or simple logical

solutions. For example rain has always been a great mystery for the ancient people.

They used to worship the rain god. They used to make many sacrifices just to please

the rain gods. But gradually science has given it a different and more logical meaning

to it. It is not magic but the cycle of water from the oceans to the land and to the sea.

But at the same time science is an instrument which has created a world of its own.

The scientific advancement has got us so far, that even though, it has cleared many

doubts and has been showing us the right way, for example before it was thought that

earth was the center of the universe and earth is flat, but these misconceptions have

been cleared. At the same time in the process of sharing news, showing events live,

connecting people of different parts of the world together through one medium has

led to the generation of an entirely new virtual world. This virtual world which has

taken over all the primitive means of communication by shock wave. The technical

advancements have been taking place since hundreds of years. The most recent and

still prevailing one is the television. It seems wired that we are seeing the visuals that

are happening thousands and thousands of kilometers away but at the same time we

believe them because is has the substance, just like god, we have faith and belief in

this new media as well. Reality is the totality of all things. It is the structures which we

see in actual and conceptualise, events that have happened in past and present. It is

based on what an individual has seen by himself/herself or shared the same human

experience, which ultimately attempts to describe the situation and conclude as real.

Television a Medium

Entertainment has always been a prime focus of the media to target the audience.

From the time of the early eighteen hundred, where people who could afford to go

to expensive pubs and clubs to enjoy the performance, be it music or dance

performance. It was impossible for a common man to go for such luxuries. It was

even not possible to listen to the famous musician's compositions again and again,

everything used to happen live. It was only in the 30s and late 40s the scientists

started experimenting to have a virtual vision in front of our eyes or even send long

distance messages electronically. Initially the television sets were mechanical. Paul

Nipkow was the first person to discover television's scanning principle, in which the

light intensities of small portions of an image are successively analyzed and

transmitted. The next improvement took place when a completely electronic based

screen was invented. It was known as the Cathode Ray Tube, also known as the

Picture Tube. This enabled the transmission of current and the pictures would appear

on the screen. This technique is still being used in the television sets but not in the

newly developed LCD screens. Just having the screen was not enough, coordinating

with the sound and the visuals was necessary. This need was given a new solution by

Louis W Parker and by the starting of 1920s colour television was in the markets in

the reach of the public. Even though it could only be afforded by the rich as the

technology developed and the cost reduced, due to simplification of the components

used in the making of a television.

Television has the capability to attract the attention of its viewers.1 Even radio is not

as efficient in keeping a person's attention for more than a minute. Both the visuals

and the sound have a sort of a magical effect on the audience and it feels as if what is

being shown is real. This invention has created a huge market, a whole new field of

work, job opportunities and of course a medium of entertainment to the people.

Television became more popular in the western countries first. They also became

available for everyone to own a set for themselves. This technology to come to other

countries took it s own space and time. Due to cultural differences much

advancement took time to penetrate into every country. And in India it has a

somewhat a similar story to share. Post independence, in September 1959 first

television was introduced in the country. It was felt that, India needs upliftment with

respect to the development that has to be brought about. Initially the broadcast used

to be only for 2 hours in the metros and in villages where community viewing was

encouraged. A television set would be assigned for a couple of villages and people

would come to watch at the time of broadcast. This was the scenario when there

were only a couple of channels that too under government control, they were

Doordarshan and DD 2. By 1991 the main goal of the channel, ie, to give social

messages n bring development, vanished and it became a commercial channel with

advertisements. And by this time the first western party (private) venture to enter the

market was Star TV and then the first Hindi based private channel was Zee TV. And

by the end of 1994 there were more than 30 channels available through the

dish/cable network in India available to the common man. With the increase in the

television channels an increase in the ownership of television sets also increased

gradually.

The programmes aired initially on these channels were based on the movies. For

example the old programme on Doordarshan "Chitrahar" was modified into "Top 10"

on Zee TV. All the channels would follow the same but in a fancy and much

attractive way leaving Doordarshan way behind in the competition. With the arrival of

satellite television, Doordarshan lost its monopoly. And slowly the trend of the shows

changed over to the daily and weekly soaps. The most popular ones are: Fauji, Shanti,

Swabhiman, Mrignayani, Filmy Chakkar, Humraahi, Manoranjan, Karamchand, etc to Ekta

Kapoor's "K" serials. Even though, the number of serials have not decreased but the

recent that is evident is the increase in the reality shows.

History of Television

Television in India has been in existence for nigh on four decades. For the first 17 years, it spread haltingly and transmission was mainly in black & white. The thinkers and policy makers of the country, which had just been liberated from centuries of colonial rule, frowned upon television, looking on at it as a luxury Indians could do without. In 1955 a Cabinet decision was taken disallowing any foreign investments in print media which has since been followed religiously for nearly 45 years. Sales of TV sets, as reflected by licenses issued to buyers were just 676,615 until 1977.

Television has come to the forefront only in the past 21 years and more so in the past 13. There were initially two ignition points: the first in the eighties when color TV was introduced by state-owned broadcaster Doordarshan (DD) timed with the 1982 Asian Games which India hosted. It then proceeded to install transmitters nationwide rapidly for terrestrial broadcasting. In this period no private enterprise was allowed to set up TV stations or to transmit TV 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. Prior to this, Indian viewers had to make do with DD's chosen fare which was dull, non-commercial in nature, directed towards only education and socio-economic development. Entertainment programmes were few and far between. And when the solitary few soaps like Hum Log (1984), and mythological dramas: Ramayan (1987-88) and Mahabharat (1988-89) were televised, millions of viewers stayed glued to their sets.

When, urban Indians learnt that it was possible to watch the Gulf War on television, they rushed out and bought dishes for their homes. Others turned entrepreneurs and started offering the signal to their neighbours by flinging cable over treetops and verandahs. From the large metros satellite TV delivered via cable moved into smaller towns, spurring the purchase of TV sets and even the upgradation from black & white to colour TVs.

DD responded to this satellite TV invasion by launching an entertainment and commercially driven channel and introduced entertainment programming on its terrestrial network. This again fuelled the purchase of sets in the hinterlands where cable TV was not available.

The initial success of the channels had a snowball effect: more foreign programmers and Indian entrepreneurs flagged off their own versions. From two channels prior to 1991, Indian viewers were exposed to more than 50 channels by 1996. Software producers emerged to cater to the programming boom almost overnight. Some talent came from the film industry, some from advertising and some from journalism.

More and more people set up networks until there was a time in 1995-96 when an estimated 60,000 cable operators were existing in the country. Some of them had subscriber bases as low as 50 to as high as in the thousands. Most of the networks could relay just 6 to 14 channels as higher channel relaying capacity required heavy investments, which cable operators were loathes to make. American and European cable networks evinced interest, as well as large Indian business groups, who set up sophisticated head ends capable of delivering more than 30 channels. These multi-system operators (MSOs) started buying up local networks or franchising cable TV feeds to the smaller operators for a fee. This phenomenon led to resistance from smaller cable operators who joined forces and started functioning as MSOs. The net outcome was that the number of cable operators in the country has fallen to 30,000.

The rash of players who rushed to set up satellite channels discovered that advertising revenue was not large enough to support them. This led to a shakeout. At least half a dozen either folded up or aborted the high-flying plans they had drawn up, and started operating in a restricted manner. Some of them converted their channels into basic subscription services charging cable operators a carriage fee.

Foreign cable TV MSOs discovered that the cable TV market was too disorganized for them to operate in and at least three of them decided to postpone their plans and got out of the market. The government started taxing cable operators in a bid to generate revenue. The rates varied in the 26 states that go to form India and ranged from 35 per cent upwards. The authorities moved in to regulate the business and a Cable TV Act was passed in 1995. The apex court in the country, the Supreme Court, passed a judgement that the air waves are not the property of the Indian government and any Indian citizen wanting to use them should be allowed to do so. The government reacted by making efforts to get some.  

A committee headed by a senior Congress (I) politician Sharad Pawar and consisting of other politicians and industrialist was set up to review the contents of the Broadcasting Bill. It held discussions with industry, politicians, and consumers and a report was even drawn up. But the United Front government fell and since then the report and the Bill have been consigned to the dustbin. But before that it issued a ban on the sale of Ku-band dishes and on digital direct-to-home Ku-band broadcasting, which the Rupert Murdoch-owned News Television was threatening to start in India. ISkyB, the Murdoch DTH venture, has since been wallowing in quicksand and in recent times has even shed a lot of employees. But News Corp has been running a C-band DTH venture in the country which has around 20,000 subscribers regulation in place by setting up committees to suggest what the broadcasting law of India should be, as the sector was still being governed by laws which were passed in 19th century India. A broadcasting bill was drawn up in 1997 and introduced in parliament. But it was not passed into an Act. State-owned telecaster Doordarshan and radiocaster All India Radio were brought under a holding company called the Prasar Bharati under an act that had been gathering dust for seven years, the Prasar Bharati Act, 1990. The Act served to give autonomy to the broadcasters as their management was left to a supervisory board consisting of retired professionals and bureaucrats.  

In 1999, a BJP-led government has been threatening to once again allow DTH Ku-band broadcasting and it has been talking of dismantling the Prasar Bharati and once again reverting Doordarshan's and All India Radio's control back in the government's hands. Some things change only to remain the same.

The year 2000 will be remembered for a single show that dominated the Indian television industry and went on to switch the fortunes of some media companies. Kaun Banega Crorepati, the Amitabh Bachchan hosted game show based on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, not only became the most-watched programme on private satellite television but also catapulted Star Plus into leadership position.On the back of the success of Star Plus, Rupert Murdoch built his media empire. If Subhash Chandra had tasted success all through these years since Zee launched, 2000 was a turning point in Zee's history. Chandra's dream of creating a media company that would march into the convergence era faced severe threat and the internal weakness of his organisation stood exposed.It was clearly Murdoch's year. After divorcing his business from Zee, his Star Group acquired a 26 per cent stake in the Rajan Raheja-owned Hathway Cable & Datacom for an estimated $50-60 million. This marked a re-entry of Murdoch into cable after selling his 50 per cent stake in Chandra's Siticable and gave him a presence in a cable network which had around one million subscribers.

Sony Entertainment Television, which was competing fiercely against Zee at the time, also floundered as it came under the attack from three Star Plus programmes - Bachchan's show which gave away prize money of Rs 10 million, flanked by the Balaji Telefilms' produced soaps Kyunki saas bhi kabhie bahu thi and Kahaani ghar ghar kii. The year saw the entry of Kerry Packer's Channel Nine in a joint venture with HFCL. The HFCL-Channel Nine JV sealed a deal with Prasar Bharati, agreeing to pay a whopping Rs 1200-odd million for a three-hour prime time band on the floundering DD Metro channel. This revenue model was unsustainable, as would be proved later when Channel Nine withdrew from renewing the contract on the same commercial terms. DD Sports was also launched as a pay channel, trying to cash in on the India cricket rights which Prasar Bharati bagged in a successful bid for five years.

It was also the year that saw the birth of a Hindi news channel, Aaj Tak, from the India Today stable. This was to later fuel a news channel boom in the country. B4U, promoted by LN Mittal, Kishore Lulla and Binani, was also launched during the year.There was activity in the regional channel space. Down south, Sun Network continued to rule supreme. Zee made a foray into regional language broadcasting with the launch of four channels under the Alpha brand - in Marathi, Punjabi, Gujarati and Bengali. Rathikant Basu, ending his stint as CEO in Star India, launched the Tara group of regional channels. ETV Network also made a foray into regional language broadcasting. Cable TV was getting high valuation on the back of ambitious convergence plans. Intel forked out $59.23 million to pick up 3.3 per cent stake in Hinduja-owned IndusInd Media & Communications. Chandra's Siticable was valued by HSBC at $1.9 billion. MSOs announced upgradation plans, but the investments were more promised than made. The cable TV industry grew to over 30 million subscribers in the year, up from around 28 million a year ago. ( IndianTelevision.com)

Telecom operators like Reliance, Bharti, BPL and Spectranet also began to dream of the convergence play. Hopes on broadband emerged with players like NumTv.com, broadcastindia.com, sharkstream.com, homelandnetworks, and spectranet.com surfacing. On the policy front, Ku-band DTH broadcasting was permitted after a three year ban. Guidelines were issued but a detailed note on how DTH will roll out mysteriously did not see the light of day. Uplinking and ownership of earth stations by private broadcasters from Indian soil were opened up. No final word was heard on the broadcasting bill however. The idea of a convergence bill was mooted, but it was caught up in a tussle between the IT, telecom and I&B ministries as to who would play the steering role for convergence. The door was open for private players to own and operate communication satellite systems. The local INSAT system was offered for commercial use by private agencies. Sun TV and Eenadu TV were the first players to get permission to enter the fray. They set up their own earth stations and were granted uplinking facilities. Meanwhile, Chandra's ambitious Agrani satellite project ran into export licence issues under US munitions restrictions imposed after India's nuclear explosions.

The year 2001 was marred by a series of controversies, starting with diamond merchant and noted film financier Bharat Shah's arrest and Ketan Parekh's expose which led to the collapse of the stock market and the media stocks. B4U's initial public offering (IPO) plans went for a toss as Shah was to play a prime role in the company. Then came the accusation against the prevailing ratings system - the currency advertising industry used to measure the popularity of television programmes - being rigged, an effort by some organisations that ultimately fizzled out as they could not back it with adequate proof. And just as this mudslinging effort continued, the news came that a unified rating system would emerge after Dutch Communications giant VNU NV had acquired AC Nielsen. This meant VNU would own TAM and INTAM, the two companies that were monitoring TV viewership in India.

It was also a dark year with three events spelling disaster: the earthquake in Gujarat, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the US-led offensive on Afghanistan. But this was fodder for the news channels and Aaj Tak gained audiences to become the leading news channel in the country. Kerry Packer's dream to expand his base in India ended rather unfortunately as Doordarshan did not bend to sweeten the commercial terms with HFCL-Channel Nine. By no stretch of imagination would DD Metro find somebody to bet Rs 1.2 billion a year for a three-hour prime time possession on the channel. Packer had done it as an entry strategy, but hoping that he would repeat it for another year was a little too much to expect. And with the exit of Packer also ended Balaji Telefilms' hopes of roping in Channel Nine as a minor equity partner in the company.

Zee continued to fall and its much-hyped re launch with 24 shows initiated by newly inducted chief executive Sandeep Goyal flopped miserably. Star retained its premium leadership position, climbing up the charts. Sony failed to stem Star's onslaught and its Jeeto Chappar Phaad Ke, a game show hosted by actor Govinda, managed to create initial hype but fizzled out fast.Chandra's attempt at getting Turner International to invest as an equity partner in Zee may have failed, but he managed to get a joint venture agreement for distribution. While Zee Telefilms would hold 76 per cent stake in the distribution company, the balance 26 per cent would be with Turner. Such distribution alliances to strengthen bouquet offerings to cable operators would prove to be the trend in future. The government continued to be hazy on outlining a broadcast policy that would free foreign media companies from the clutches of regulation and be attractive for investments. But the government finally tabled the Convergence Bill which envisaged a super convergence commission with control of broadcasting as its major plank.

Making conditional access system (CAS) mandatory for viewing of pay channels was the most important piece of legislation to be passed by Indian Parliament in 2002, though it came after several hurdles. On 7 May 2002, the Cabinet passed a bill in the Lok Sabha (lower house) seeking to amend The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act 1995. Cable TV operators would have to transmit or retransmit programmes of any pay channel through an addressable system. For the free-to-air channels that were to form part of the basic tier, the government would decide the minimum number of channels and the maximum rate that cable operators were to charge viewers.

And on 15 May, the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2002 was passed through voice vote by the Lok Sabha after a marathon debate that lasted three hours. However, hectic lobbying by a section of politicians and broadcasters delayed the passage of the Bill in the Rajya Sabha (upper house). Finally on 10 December, it won overwhelming support in the Rajya Sabha. The credit to bring legislation in for CAS must go to then information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj. Multi system operators welcomed CAS which they believed would change their fortunes as they were squeezed in between broadcasters asking for more payout and last mile operators who were under-reporting their actual subscribers. Independent cable operators also saw this as an opportunity. The complexity of implementing CAS would only surface in 2003 as it would require massive investments and seeding of CAS boxes. In 2002, it was seen by the MSOs and independent cable operators as a victory for them.

Sony Entertainment Television India also had reason to celebrate as it bagged the exclusive cable and satellite TV rights for live telecast of ICC cricket tournaments to be held from 2002 to 2007 covering the Indian subcontinent. The cost: a whopping $ 208 million in the biggest ever licensing deal in Indian broadcast history. Sports broadcasting saw a new entrant with the launch of Ten Sports in April. The channel was immediately in the limelight as it had bagged the exclusive terrestrial and C&S telecast rights to the FIFA soccer World Cup for a piffling $3 million. Sports properties would thus get fragmented, a situation that ESPN Star Sports had wanted to avoid when they set up the joint venture.

The big news of the year was the split between Star and NDTV. While Murdoch wanted complete control, Prannoy Roy did not want to let go of editorial independence. Star would take full control of Star News from 31 March 2003 after the five-year exclusive supply contract ended while NDTV announced it would launch two channels of its own around the same time. The government also set in motion a process whereby FDI in TV channels operating in the news category was to be reviewed and likely to be linked to the parameters prevailing in the print medium. In the print arena (except trade publications), the government allows 26 per cent FDI investment. Zee Telefilms was on an acquisition spree, buying stake into ETC Networks and Padmalaya Telefilms. The size of the all-cash deal for ETC Networks which owned ETC Punjabi and ETC Music was approximately Rs 250 million (Rs 180 million for purchase of shares from promoters and Rs 70 million for preferential allotment).

Zee's stake in Padmalaya Telefilms (a listed company) was through an acquisition of a 64.3 per cent stake in the holding company, Padmalaya Enterprises Pvt Ltd (PEPL). This gave Zee a 32.8 per cent stake in Padmalaya Telefilms, a Hyderabad-based content company. Zee was to pay Rs 590 million for the deal including an open offer of 20 per cent as required by regulations. The year also saw the exit of Zee Telefilms CEO Sandeep Goyal. Chandra decided to run the company at the operational level as well and brought back his brothers Jawahar Goel and Laxmi Goel to manage Siticable and news businesses of Zee.

For the major players like Sun and ETV in the southern region, it was a period of consolidation. Vijay TV led the move towards pay in Tamil Nadu. Sun announced plans to take Telugu channel Gemini TV pay. Doordarshan's revenues were being taken away by the private satellite players. During 1999-2000, DD's revenues stood at Rs 5,971.9 million and AIR's at Rs 808.4 million. DD's earnings increased in 2000-2001 to Rs 6,375.1 million while AIR's dipped to Rs 739 million. For 2001-2002, DD earned Rs 6,152 million (indicating a dip in earnings), while AIR's revenues increased to Rs 966.8 million. By the time this financial year closes, Prasar Bharati expects that DD would have mopped up about Rs 6,250 million, while AIR is expected to do another Rs 1,000 million. 

Television in the Life of Children

In city of Ahmedabad, a 30 months  old female child watches a TV  serial of "Thomas and Friends" produced by Hit Entertainment , U.K. Television programme is available on CD  This little Thomas viewer is aware of various friends of Thomas by name. Train engine animation programme is beautifully done and voice over is given by an elderly male.  Colourful blue, red and brown engines and rail compartments, engine sound and noise all give the feeling of real engine. The little girl makes demand all day long to view Thomas on her home TV.  Now she has learned to load CD on DVD and on the television.  In less than six months, Thomas has become a 'real' human being for her who now sleeps in the night, goes to his parent's house and even takes a nap in the afternoon.  The empathy with Thomas is very high.  The music and the soundtrack of Thomas is fully known to the little girl who moves her body on the sound track.  The family members almost all the time are around her while she watches television. Without doubt the little girl belongs to an affluent, highly educated multilingual professional household in which parents and grand parents looks after her.  But then in a way, the viewing behavior of the little girl would be no different than any other child having access to view television along with parents and other relatives.  Almost a decade ago, similar observations were made about a two year old multilingual girl in Delhi. A two-year-old multilingual girl in Delhi has learnt to watch television in the company of her parents and grandparents. She imitates dance sequences, actions and repeats sentences and songs sequences while viewing the television.  She is encouraged by her parents and adults to repeat these acts which she does delightfully.  She, by her actions, attracts the attention of her family members, neighbours and relatives alike.  But then she belongs to a family where music and art is a family tradition.  It is difficult to find out why she watches television, but then she does what parents do for passive entertainment, information and news as a family activity.  In her parents apartment the television is located in the living-cum-dining room where a great deal of e little girl is a part whether cleaning the house, cooking means or entertain activities take place from the early hours of the day until late at night of which thing guests.  The family has cable connection. They generally watches television programmes in Hindi and English (Binod C. Agrawal, 2009)

 A number of studies in several states indicated that parents disconnect the television between November, December to February, March when a child is appearing in X or in XII grade.  This kind of periodic disconnection of cable television is not uncommon in other parts of the country. In a recent study completed on January 22, 2012 in the five states of North and North-West India, it was observed that 76% of the viewers watched DTH/Cable television channels with their children regardless of the kind of programmes they were watching.  In not more than 12.5% households individuals were found watching television alone. The researchers observed , Television viewing continues to be a family or group activity (Anonymous: 2009:9).  This observation is no different than similar observations made in earlier studies in case of public service broadcasting-Doordarshan and commercial satellite television in several parts of the country. The simple fact drawn from over three decades of children television research, whether toddler or adolescent is that children by and large watch television, under parents shadow, watchful eyes and share adult programme viewing in large qualities across the country. What are educational and cultural implications of this kind of viewing for children need to be discussed and methods of curbing negative effects must be found. (Binod C. Agrawal, 2009)

 

At the core of the Indian social structure is the child-focused family which is some what under stress today.  Its implications are all pervasive and visible in various aspects of day-to-day life. Television as a cultural medium personifies the importance of the child through every stage of one's life and is interwoven into cultural, social, economic and political life. Male dominance and gender inequality are considered the normative behavior, barring very few parts of the country.  The subservient position of the female can be seen at every stage of a woman's life from childhood to death.  There are three implications of this unequal position of male and female in the Indian Civilization; (1) Children's world and adult's world overlap in almost every aspect of their lives.   (2) Participation of children in a variety of adult roles and responsibilities are well pronounced; and (3) Children share poverty and hunger with their parents, so also opportunity or lack of opportunity for primary education.  Hence, a child grows in the adult world from the very birth and sees the world through adult eyes, including his/her social position. (Binod C. Agrawal, 2012)

 

Characterized by cultural plurality, religions and linguistic diversity, an average child in urban India and in several boarder districts learn multiple languages to deal with the world in which he or she lives. Television has further complicated the child's world view and language learning, who is forced to learn few more languages in order to meaningfully view television. The single most important impact of television viewing has been on the development and use of mix languages like 'Hinglish' (Hindi-English mix language propagated by television in large quantities as means of better communication). It may have also lead to certain amount of common understanding and exposure to heterogeneous cultural plurality of India and other countries among the children. But it would be difficult to say whether children watch such programmes because there is nothing else to watch or they watch because they enjoy watching such programmes. (Binod C. Agrawal, 2009)

 

Studies of television viewing have indicated that adults and children prefer to watch television programmes in their mother tongue and sometimes in another language taught in the school. This is also because as parents watch television in their mother tongue so do the children, as the entire family watches television together(Desai and Agrawal In Press). What happens in the bedroom is quite apparent. Language channels of Hindi, Tamil, Telegu and a host of other language channels are popular and viewed extensively when compared to any English channels both by adults and children alike. (Binod C. Agrawal, 2009)

 

Contrary to the popular sociological conclusion that the family structure in the Indian Civilization would break after industrialization and modernization. In the wake of intensive and growing use of television by children reflect increased inter and intra family communication, within the national and international boundaries. The upright children in front their parents have started talking non-stop. The one way communication has turned into two way communication. The exchange of information, sharing and advice have turned into dialogue, discussion and counter questioning there by strengthening relationships at various levels. (Binod C. Agrawal, 2009)

Parents consider television viewing as an intoxicating habit to the extent that the children will not do anything other than viewing television. This has resulted in serious conflicts between adults and children. These are some of the reasons that a large majority of parents try to dissuade children from watching  television. Some of the sporadic researches carried out in India have focused on these issues.(Goonsekhra nd, online 2008, Shastri and Mohite (1997) tested the hypothesis that the duration of television viewing has negative influence on the academic performance and cognitive skills of the children. Based on a small sample of boys and girls studying in classes 2,3 and 4 researchers observed that the only information that Indian research provide is that children are moderate viewers of television with no evidence of its adverse influence. Television does not have a detrimental effect on the academic performance and selected cognitive skills of children. However, there is a definite trend based on the specific mean score which indicates that moderate viewing is beneficial for children's academic performance and selected cognitive skills. (Shastri and Mohite 1997 : 160). Another study carried out among children below age five indicated that majority of the parents felt that television viewing was advantageous children learn new things, get knowledge and entertainment from television programmes (Shah and Shastri 1997). Teachers and school children on the other hand feel that not much can be learnt from television. The educational television is often viewed by children in the school for recreation in which learning is considered incidental. May be it is for this reason that a large majority of educational planners advocate to have entertaining educational programmes. By and large, parents and viewers have accepted television which has come to stay and going to have important influences in the children's lives. Television is therefore looked upon by most people almost as a natural phenomenon beyond people's control (Binod C. Agrawal, 2009)

 

Half a century ago, after a great deal of deliberation and soul searching, television was introduced in the country. The policy maker decided to 'wait and watch' before introducing television. The top leadership thought television was luxury for a poor country like India. At the time of its introduction, the policy makers made it very clear that television was meant for schools and rural viewers. Until 1964, the only television station was located in Delhi and covered about 10 million population of the capital and adjoining areas. Children Television Project was initiated in 1961. In more than one way, it was beginning of children's television in the country. The expansion of children's television in the country took place after SITE followed by INSAT. In spite of low economic growth, growing number of illiterates and increasing educational opportunities, high degree of communication stagnation and political factionalism, television began to impinge the lives of children in the school and at home. Uneven production, transmission and limited access of for pre-school, school and high school children, television marked its existence. (Binod C. Agrawal, 2009)

 

One of the silver lining and unique feature of the Indian children television was and continues to be high proportion of indigenous software production unlike many other countries of the world. Hence, the Indian children were not exposed to alien values and images. The same cannot be said of children's television after 1992.  Now a whole lot of foreign children television programmes are being telecast by commercial satellite television channels whether Indian or transnational. Out of over 400 television channels only about a dozen are exclusive children's television, that too of foreign origin and language. These channels bring with them ethos, values and visuals unknown to the Indian children. Within the country the other important telecast for children is Gyan Darshan an educational television channel fully supported by Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) government of India. Gyan Darshan channel telecast about two hours children's programmes for primary, secondary and higher secondary school children. So the children are now exposed to some Indian programmes and several foreign cartoon, animation and related children's programmes, all imported from Euro-American English speaking countries. Parents, educators, teachers and even communication experts, tirelessly emphases that children in India like children in other parts of the world like and enjoy watching cartoons.  While, some of these old cartoons productions are being watched by third generation Euro-American children, in India, first time children are watching these programmes.  These telecasts, in most cases, ignore the cultural and linguistic sensitivities and needs of the Indian children in which they are growing.  Bhaskar Rao (2009:1), observed More than half of television viewers in India today are children of below 15 years.  And yet there is hardly any sensitivity about the relevance and impact of what is dished out by various television channels.  All of them are operating in a competitive mode for one upmanship in the race for viewership.  In this order channels are concerned more about 'what interests or attracts' rather than what is ''in the interest' of children. (Binod C. Agrawal , 2009 )

 

In the last three decades, there has been a visible shrinking of space for children's television programmes on both public service broadcasting and commercial satellite channels in spite of having separate educational television channels for children like Gyan Darshan-1 and several commercial satellite television channels. In the state of Gujarat, for example, the regional Gujarati language channel of Doordarshan has a half an hour slot per fortnight, with rebroadcasts of the same programme on the national channel of Doordarshan. This is just a fourth of the time slot a decade ago.  Very simplistic in content, this programme, called Ramta Ramta, is a sort of talent search, where children from all over the state are selected to perform on television, either in a group or solo.  Specific talents of children-like music, dance and drama are performed on television.  These child performers are usually identified through newspaper advertisements, direct interaction with schools or through word of mouth.  On the national public service broadcasting channel of Doordarshan, a serial known as Shaktiman (Strong man) has become extremely popular with children.  Shaktiman, being a larger-than-life figure, and one who can perform a variety of feats, have captured the hearts of children.  Essentially based on certain moralistic values, there have been instances where parents have claimed that their children were willing to do certain things because Shaktiman said so. But such children's programmes are not telecast regularly.  Mathiyalagan (1995) and ten years later Phillips (2004) reported low percentage of children's content on the Indian television. Other studies have indicated that children perceive television as a medium of entertainment, especially those who are from poor socio-economic background.  This is not surprising, as television in India is primarily perceived as a medium of entertainment.  Voices have been raised against increasing information gap between children from poor homes compared to well-to-do family homes as a result of television access and differential patterns of viewing. Producers of children's programmes attribute commercial considerations as the single most important factor in children's programmes getting low priority.  Producers of sponsored programmes too claim that it is risky to produce programmes for children, in an environment where budgets are getting more stringent and deadlines tighter.  On other hand, commercial television channels have exclusively focused on children's programmes more for its market share than on any real improvement in its quality or duration of broadcast. (Binod C. Agrawal 2009)

 

In India, today children including young adolescents are being considered as potential consumers, since children can influence the family consumption and also can persuade and pressurize parents to buy new products. Both companies and television advertisers have been treating younger children as a consumer segment or consumer persuader.  Children and young people of today become consumers at an early age than previous generation and they are also much heavier media users [Television Viewers].  The rapidly changing pace makes it possible for them to experience purchasing and consumption at a rate much faster than previous generations. (Binod C. Agrawal, 2009)

 

 

In a small television content analysis research carried out in 2010 indicated prevalence of child centric advertisements on almost all television channels in the country.  The term 'child centric' refers to an advertisement in which attempts are made to draw viewers attention through child's emotional appeal. These include 'salt', 'ice-cream', 'hair oil', 'spices', 'soap', 'car', 'decongestant', 'toothpaste', 'vaporizing ointment', 'biscuits', 'Income Tax Department', 'travel agency', to mention a few.  Young girls are used to sell sanitary napkins. Also medicines of various kinds and flooring tiles, use child character with or without the family context for advertising products on the Indian television.  There are three different ways a child is used in the television advertisement.  These are 'child as consumer', 'child as the essence of the family' and 'child as educator'. Though no large-scale systematic content analyses of television advertisements are available, limited analysis has indicated high proportion of 'child centric' advertisements on Indian television. (Binod C. Agrawal, 2009)

 

 

These advertisers, it seems completely disregard the rights of the child and treat children as products selling 'mascots', or 'ambassadors' in which the children are 'product pusher' at home. Such exploitation of children on Indian television is somewhat disheartening when compared with other European television channels, where the advertisers are often forbidden from using child characters for product advertisements. In the Indian advertisements, a fundamental assumption is that the children who are in the centre of family can provide emotional stimulus to the parents and adults of the family to do anything that would help parents to take better care of their children.  In such a cultural context, it is difficult to discern television's role for education, entertainment or for the protection of the rights of the child or cultural and educational improvements. This is a matter of serious concern, as several researches have confirmed the strong overlap between what children perceive as reality and what they see on screen. (Binod C. Agrawal, 2009)

 

Since 2000, the floodgate of television, video and computer games have opened up in the country. Without doubt there has been growing recognition that children are exposed to sexual content and violence on the television in India much more today than ever before.  The children are also encouraged by parents and teachers alike to use computer, Internet and also watch video alone wherever possible. The increasing access of electronic media, computers and video games, where a great deal of adult television programmes are already watched by children in the company of adults there are other kinds of dangers to the children. Today, the staple diet of the Indian television is commercial films containing violence and sex.  The prime time television- whether public service broadcasting, or commercial television channels provide soap operas and cinema for entertainment watched by children and adults alike leading to exposure to sexual content. (Binod C. Agrawal, 2009)

Reality Shows

Reality shows are those shows where ordinary people are subjected to a situation and

their reactions, emotions, their competence is judged and it also gives the audience a

chance to judge the people on screen. The people involved in reality shows are not

actors which is why it makes it even more difficult for the participants and exciting

for the viewers to watch these programmes. These shows have always been in lime

light in the eyes of the audience. Most of these concepts are taken from radio

programmes. From the starting in late 1940s with "Candid Camera" to the 2000s Big

Brother and American Idol, the concept of reality shows has remained the same. It

gives name and fame to the participant within no time and to get such fame and

become celebrities overnight, people can go upto any extent. In 2007, according to

the Learning and Skills Council, one in seven UK teenagers hopes to gain fame by

appearing on reality television.

There are different kinds of reality shows like:

1) Elimination Game shows - in these shows the participants would be given a

task or assignment to do. If the participant succeeds then he/she would go to

the enxt round or else would have to be either eliminated or face another

difficult task.

2) Social experiment - A special environment is created where the participants

willingly accept to put themselves into a situation created by the creator of the

programme and they have to abide by the rules n regulations as long as he is

participating.

3) Dating shows - a show where there might be one celebrity as the key to the

show. The participants are the people who have to woo the celebrity to get

more points in different rounds. According to the wishes of the celeb, he/she

would act like a judge and award them points and the winner would win

prizes.

4) Hidden Cameras - Perfect example of hidden cameras is Big Brother. It is a

scenario created, where there are hidden cameras hidden all over the place

without the knowledge of the participant. Their every action and move is

recorded, edited and then aired on the television along with their confessions

to the incidents they are going through. These shows are now very much in

demand and are popular.

5) Talk shows - This is an old method of ordinary people to have fame. They

used to get interviewed from time to time which would show difference in

their perception towards a given situation.

6) Supernatural - This reality shows place participants into frightening situations

which involve the paranormal. The stated aim is investigation, but in actuality,

the sub-category thrives on generating fear in the audience and participants.3

There are many other types but these are the major genre in which they can be

classified into. With time, shows of each one of these kinds had come up on the

television and spread across different nations.

The establishment of television in India has taken a lot of time. By the time these

reality shows were being aired in America, the first television broadcast was being

tested in India. Even though the private channels didn't take long to get a hold on the

market, there were a lot of culture barriers that had to be understood and overcome.

Apart from the government controlled Doordarshan the first private channel to

venture was Star TV, but the first Indian Private channel to come up was Zee Tv

which was a huge hit among the population. Among the reality shows the most

popular one that came into notice was Kaun Banega Carorepati hosted by Amitab

Bacchan.

Gradually replacing the 'K' series, the serial household, the reality shows are in vogue.

With the success of the Indian idol all channels have jumped on the band wagon. The

entire nature of the show the real circumstances the participants are put in. Besides

the involvement of the viewers in terms of voting for the participants lend a lot of

vibe and energy into the show. But this was not the case before. The reality shows

were to encourage people from different strata of life to come, show and prove their

talent in front of an audience. There used to be great appreciation for the

participants. Not that its not there now but in comparison the sanctity has gone

down.

With such a crowd alluring preposition and a cost effective alternative television serial

producers, need to be circumspect about the concept of the show to ensure the

legality and the view ability by all sectors of population. "Sach Ka Saamna" is a prime

example how a well brought reality show with arguably immoral concept, can stir a

controversy. The same was witnessed with "Pati Patni Aur Wo" resulting in yet

another blow to the television industry.

Music has always been a medium to capture attention audio visually. And so are the

shows which are conducted on the television. The first popular music talent show

was Sa Re Ga Ma on Zee TV. The planning and strategy was quiet different at that

time. The new participants used to challenge the winners of the last episode through

various rounds and then if they survive in the competiton they go to the next level.

But now the process of selection has changed with respect to singing competitions.

Now there are Talent hunt shows in different fields, be it dance, music or

entertainment.

Reality shows have their own charm. The shows are a double edged sword that can

woo millions of people or end up jeopardizing the very motive with which they are

made to begin with. MTV Rodies, Khatron ka khiladi, etc, have added several feathers

in the cap of the television industries. But what needs to be seen whether these shows

will continue to capture the imagination of the viewers and keep them engrossed, as

too much of anything tends to be boring.

Case 1:

Robert Ableman and David Atkin are the Professors at Cleveland State University. Partial financial support for this project came from the grant from the Javitis Act Program, as administered by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S Department of Education.

In this case study i.e. 'Children watch when they watch T.V: Putting Theory together'; they assess the interrelatedness of television use motives and view in the patterns, and investigate perceptions of viewer loyalty, network and station identification, and the generalizability of these perceptions to times when local television stations change network affiliation.

Uses and Gratification Research

Concurrent with the industry efforts to cater to what appears to be highly unpredictable viewing behaviour, researchers grounded in uses and gratifications theory have been systematically attempting to explain what governs viewers choice, viewing patterns and audience interpretations of program content.

Uses and gratification is founded on three basic tenets:

1. Viewers are goal directed in their behaviour

2. They are active media users

3. They are aware of their needs and select media to gratify these needs. Form this research analysis they expected to have a hypothesis that is Children's viewing motivations will be positively related to viewing exposure, television affinity, network affinity and station affinity. The hypothesis is largely in agreement with the logic of Levy and Windahl's scholarship, in which viewing exposure is the dependent variable for gratification obtained. Thus three research questions were raised and was addressed in this inquiry.

Q.1 What are the salient patterns of interactions among television viewing motivations for children?

Q.2 What patterns of television use best reflect what children watch on Television?

Q.3 What patterns of television use help predict children's TV viewing levels and affinity and thus provide guidance for programming, promotional strategies and advertising?

Methods:

The study was conducted from mid to late January 1995 during one of the seminal events in broadcasting history when an unparalleled 68 station in 37 markets  across the country changed affiliations. Telephone survey were administered by 20 professional interview to a sample of 700 children. The child sample was generated from household randomly selected as part of a research effort examining adult televiewing. 532 survey were completed representing an overall response rate of 76%. 58% of the respondent were male. Respondent were ranged in age from 7 to 12. Only one child per household was employed in the investigation. The questionnaire  consisted of measures of television viewing motives, awareness of local station affiliation, awareness of local station affiliation shifts and television affinity, network affinity, local station affinity. Programming preferences and viewing levels were derived fromm family televiewing diary entry information submitted by mail within three weeks after the telephone survey. Diary enteries were coordinated by parents.

Television viewing motivation

Respondent indicated their level of agreement with each of 30 statements of motives for watching television, which were subdivided into 10 motivation in accordance with previous research. Responses options ranged from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Patterns of viewing were interrelated by determining intercorelated items and conducting a principal factors analysis with oblique rotation.

The factors solution identified five factors

1. Pass time\habit

2. Entertainment

3. Information

4. Companionship

5. Escape

Awareness measures

Children's awareness / unaided recall of local station channel number, call letters and network affiliation and awareness/ aided recall and identification of station affiliation change were assessed

Television Viewing Patterns

They tried to establish television viewing patterns by affinity measures, viewing levels and  programming preferences. In affinity measures, representing respondents perception of the importance of TV, broadcast networks and local station in their lives, formed summated TV affinity, network affinity and station affinity indices. In viewing levels were derived from diary entry information submitted by mail after the telephone survey and in programming preferences were derived from a secondary analysis of the diary entry information, where respondents indicated the names of the daytime and prime time programs they had watched.

 

Satistical Analysis

Pearsons product moment correlations were first computed to examine the interrelationships among viewing motives. Canonical correlation was then selected to examine the multivariate association between viewing motives and viewing patterns, owing to its ability to accommodate metric as well as nonmetric data either the dependent or independent variables; it was also selected in studies with which our findings will be compared.

Results

RQ1 asked whether salient patterns of interaction among television viewing motivations would emerge. Habitual viewing and information driven viewing are associated with using television as a vehicle for companionship, escape and entertainment. For the entertainment viewer, information, escape, pass time/habit and companionship are additional viewing motivations. Companionship viewers are also watching television out of habit/to pass time, to be informed, for escapism and to be entertained. Escapist viewing might also be associated with using television to pass time, to acquire information, for escapism and to be entertained. Escapist viewing might also be associated withnusing television to pass time, to acquire information, for companionship and to be entertained.

RQ2 asked whether patterns of television use become evident that best reflect what young viewers watch when they watch television ? The canonical correlation analysis indicates that three roots are significant at the .001 level reflective of three types of viewer medium and network and station oriented .Medium oriented do not have strong programming preferences nor are they necessarily aware of which network or station is providing their entertainment menu. Network oriented viewers posses a great awareness of a station's network affiliation than its local identification. Station oriented viewers have a strong affinity with their local station awareness and program affiliation awareness.

In RQ3 found out four viewing behaviours and attitudes can be significantly explained by viewing frou behaviours and attitudes can be significantly explained by viewing motivation factors. First, viewing levels increase with the salience of pass                                                                                                   

And decrease with the salience of the information and companionship motivation. Second, television affinity also increases with the salience of pass time/habit, escape motivation. Third, network affinity increases with the salience of the entertainment and information motivation companionship and decreases with the salience of companionship as a viewing motivations. Finally, station affinity increases with the salience of companionship as a viewing motivation.

Conclusion:

The present study served this purpose by profiling young television consumers in light of uses and gratifications theory. It also shows the television viewing of the children and also children's awareness measures and television viewing patterns. This case studies show also the how to study the attitude of the children. It gives you the in depth study of the children. 

The first paper by Abelman and Atkin shows that the study served the purpose by profiling young television consumersin the light of uses and gratifications theory. This study provided strong support for the hypothesis that viewing motivations and viewing pattern will be interrelated by identifying the variety of viewers motivations that reflect the utility, selectivity and intentionally of children's viewing. By incorporating diverse aspects of viewers preference, they they re able to identify three distinctive categories of child audience segmentation medium, network and station oriented viewers which present challenges as theyll as oppurtunities for television executves seeking to reach children.  

Case Study 2

In January 2001, religious and conservative pressure groups worldwide (America,

Europe, Australia and Asia) protested strongly against the airing of, 'Temptation

Island,' a TV show.

The show, belonging to the genre of reality TV, was made by the US media house

Fox TV (Fox TV). It was designed to 'test the fidelity' of four unmarried but

committed couples, who were taken to an exotic island, where 26 singles tried to lure

them so that they would cheat on their partners.

Whoever succeeded in remaining faithful to his/her partner was declared the winner

Critics of the program demanded a ban on it on the grounds that it promoted illicit

sex and endangered the relationship between the participating couples. A spokesman

for the American Family Association, Randall Murphree, remarked, "Even the trailers

for the show were enough to upset conservative organizations and various religious

groups."The activists, in their campaign, publicized the advertisers' identity and

encouraged the public to compel the advertisers to boycott the show.

Though Fox TV authorities argued that the focus of Temptation I