The Most Effective Medium Of Communication

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Television occupies an important place in our life. Television sets has become a part of an essential household item. Mass communication has become an essential ingredient in the modern and dynamic society. Mankind has always been endeavouring to improve devices of media communication. History reveals that man has made tremendous progress in the field of mass communication. Man’s ability to over-come barriers of time and distance is greatly achieved by innovation.

The phenomenal expansion of Indian television has influenced the people in two ways, firstly those living in remote corners of the national mainstream. Secondly, television has contributed to an unprecedented explosion of information. It has provided people with a perspective to bring about unit in our social and cultural life. In other part of the country, the constant exposure T.V. has generated cultural and artistic expressions of our people, belonging to different religious and socio-economic background.1

Television is one of the most effective medium of communication. In today’s world whether it is a child or an old man, everyone has some or the other favourite show on television. Also due to the up gradation of technology television is no more a commodity which is owned by only the urban sector. Even rural families have access to television. Since it is reaching such large number of people thus it has a major impact on the lives of these people. Initially when television was launched one of the major impacts of television was that it brought a family close to each other. But slowly and steadily with the advent of technology and more and more choices available catering to the demands of every sector of the society television sets reversed the above concept entirely. Now each room of a house may have a separate television set. Thus kids sit, watch, eat, drink and play in their room and parents do the same in their room.2

The television play a crucial role in offering communication support for social and cultural development of masses, including school going students as they are considered the most important human resource for the development of a country. The exposure to television is no doubt an easy source of acquiring knowledge and information. It also enables a person to acquire skills relevant to ones well-being. The expansions of television in terms of content of programmes to people from all walks of life have made it useful for people in improving their quality of life. Now, a child is exposed not only to film exclusively designed and produced for children but too many other programmes shown on television. 3

Television has deep impact on our society. It has changed the life styles of the people and has become a major influence on our culture. Unlike printing, which took hundreds of years to influence the culture T.V’s impact was almost instantaneous. Television has occupied an important position in homes and therefore, it is bound to make an impact on the individuals and the society. Television has brought a revolutionary change in the way people receive information and understand the world by shifting them from direct experience of life and environment to the second hand or contrived experiences, which make people feel that they are directly experiencing the events or different places.4

When children watching undue sex, violence and adult themes and glorified affluent lifestyles. This raises undue expectations among children and thereby pressure on the family. There is no programmes left on television schedule which could be exclusively called children’s programmes, except channels like cartoon’s which again take children in to fantasy world. 5

Television has become a very important part of our life. And the truth is that we cannot stay without it. Also television has had a major impact on the youth. In terms of violence, health and sex related issues. From the last two decades, hundreds of studies have examined how violent programming on T.V affects children and young people. At young age, their brains are tuned to manipulations, criminal thinking and violence. Some third world researchers look upon T.V. as a mean of ‘leap flogging’ some of the stages of development which developed world went through, where as some others view T.V. as a mean of ‘cultural imperialism’. Other thinks T.V. as agent of development and progress. However, a serious analysis would reveal that T.V. has deep psychological as well as cultural & sociological impact on people in general.

Children and adults remain completely immobile while watching the idiot box. Most viewing experiences are both quite and non-interactive. Children absorb millions of images from the television set in just one afternoon’s session. And what are they watching? If the child’s television has access to cable, his choice can range from 10 to 70 different channels all of them showing different programmes. A violent image seen by young children, unaccompanied by parents, without commentary by a third party and without being reframed through an inter-subjective relationship, has a more traumatic impact than one seen in an environment allowing exchange and a different focusing. 6

Children in the family are likely to be the most vulnerable population to be influenced by the contents of television transmission. Television acts as a source of information, education, entertainment and consumerism and it is through these functions that it is likely to influence the viewer. Children are now better equipped with knowledge regarding different places in India and other nations. They have come to know about different styles of life and have learned to develop greater tolerance towards people of other faiths. A majority of the respondents of the upper and middle classes felt that their children learnt many new things from television contents and become more aware about realities of life. 7

Television among all the mass media has a unique place and has enormous potential for inducing change. But the effects of television are not without any loop-holes. The use of television in the form of technology has given rise to some controversial issues. Television viewing has, no doubt, brought the family members physically together and provided the members of the middle class a subject for discussion. However, physical proximity has failed to bring about social togetherness as during the transmission of programmes there was no conversation among the members of the family. On the other hand, conversation of any type during the programmes was discouraged. 8

At present we are living in the age of science and technology which has given us many wonderful inventions out of which television is one of them. As compared to the impact of other media, television leaves it impact deeply on the school going students. Television is perhaps the most widely debated medium of communication all over the world. The developed world is concerned with the public addiction to it and the developing world is fast catching up with the fantasies of the small screen which brings news and views, triumphs and traumas celebrations and tragedies, live or recorded to the living room from every corner of the globe. 9

Television has entered at home, it has also created new problem. People are worried because T.V. has intruded their privacy. Earlier at home, they enjoyed certain autonomy. Our primary source of education-cum-information-cum-entertainment for children was the home. So far a child of present generation television is acquiring a great importance. It has weakened the influence of parents and teachers. Television has become a major socializing agent for the young. This is being viewed with alarm; children have no time now for listening to their parents in their home. Thus, T.V. has emerged as a formidable rival to the authority of the parents over their children. Before this new medium becomes a threat to the personality of young, as experienced by advanced countries, it would be prudent to give a serious thought to the positive potentialities and hazards of television.

Television can foster the development of desirable values and habits in our children. It exercises its influence at a time when the child’s knowledge of rules and conventions that govern social action and moral behaviour is incomplete and immature. There is no doubt that television does provide opportunities for children to learn about all kinds of things. In fact, it is double edges weapon and if not handled properly, it can cause enormous damage. The outcome of a child’s spending good deal of his leisure time watching programmes that incorporate a false or distorted view of the world and using what is portrayed in them as a basis for knowledge and a model for his own behaviour can be destructive and dehumanizing. 10

The whole gamut of T.V. viewing invite serious question like- Do T.V. affect the behaviour of those who watching T.V. regularly? How do commercials affect children’s behaviour or youth’s behaviour? Does T.V. watching help youth become more literate and better informed? Does T.V. create an unreal world for the youth (viewers)? Does heavy T.V. viewing make viewer more violent? Does heavy T.V. watching imitate the characters on T.V. screen and act anti socially? Do T.V. make youth more promiscuous/licentious? Do T.V. make the youth more ape western life styles? Does T.V. help viewers toward social change?

There are several questions, all of which have a bearing, visa-a visa T.V. watching. This study of effect is an essential necessity. Can the deviant behaviour of youth today be attributed to this observation with idiot-box (T.V.) watching? At times, it is seen that the socialization process in today’s society has been appropriated by television! On the other hand, the effects of cultural T.V. like Sanskara, Aastha, sudershan Channel, and a T.V. serial on religious or mythological characters are also important. Do cultural T.V. make viewers, especially youth more spiritual or more religiously fanatic? In fact, the socio-cultural dynamics of T.V. is an important issue on which research is needed.

The introduction of each medium has affected the natural life-style and thinking of today viewers. Television as a communication media is flooding society with information, which any social system would find difficult to assimilate. This has benefited the college going youth’s mind to a great extent.