A Study of Evolving Notions of ‘Marriage’ as an Institution in the Mass Media

Abstract

If “the medium is the message”[1] (McLuhan, 2001), then the mass media has been showing the institution of marriage as constantly evolving notion; from the ‘personal’ to the ‘societal’. In contemporary society, the institution of marriage has permeated beyond the notions of the religious sanction to that of societal sanction. Evolution of the institution is especially seen when one notices that earlier, the act of the ‘social’ witnessing was done through the presence of the clergy (of any religion) and then the wedding witnesses. However, in the contemporary world the ‘image’ has become more important than that of actual witnessing. Plastic Realism has gained predominance through post globalization use of technology, especially in the form of social media like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc. This paper intends to study the implication of this phenomenon with special reference to mass media productions as seen through OTT platforms and the evolution of Indian marriage systems through cinema and television advertisements. While mass media has always been used a way of subjectivizing the populace with the ideologies of the State, it cannot be denied that in the post globalized world, marriage has become an institution of much concern to the State and the nation, as it has a direct and fundamental relation to the human resources, demography and capital of a country through child bearing and parenting as an addendum. This paper will thus also look at the socio- political importance and implications of marriage as shown in the mass media.