Indian Mass Research Articles

Minorities in Mass Media: India

This research study investigates the depiction of minorities in Indian mainstream media, with a particular emphasis on religious, ethnic, and linguistic minorities. The purpose of this article is to examine how these minority groups are portrayed in various types of media, such as television, cinema, print, and digital media. This study intends to provide light on the problems, possibilities, and potential methods for fostering accurate and inclusive portrayal of minorities in Indian mass media by reviewing current literature, media content, and socio-political situations

Factors Influencing Adoption of Climate-Friendly Oxo-Biodegradable Jan Ausadhi Suvidha Sanitary Napkins among Women in India

With the aim of making and providing generic drugs available at a cheap cost to everyone across the country, "Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Ausadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP) was launched and under this PMBJP (can be translated in English as Prime Minister Indian Mass Medicine Scheme) scheme, Jan Ausadhi Suvidha Sanitary Napkins were launched to provide biodegradable sanitary napkins at less price for women of the country. Menstruation is a part of women’s life and menstrual hygiene product is the basic need for women to face this menstruation period. There are many health issues that were faced by women during menstruation and the sanitary napkins used during menstruation causes different pollution. For the purpose of safeguarding the health, financial affordability of Indian women this suvidha sanitary napkin was launched. Earlier in rural areas by abandoning non-biodegradable sanitary napkin a lot of pollution was caused but now it is under check. In order to assess the “Factors influencing adoption of climate-friendly Oxo- biodegradable Jan Ausadhi Suvidha Sanitary Napkins among women in India” Muzaffarpur district of Bihar was selected as locale of research and two blocks Muraul and Sakra have been selected for the study, as these blocks found with established structures of Jan Ausadhi Kendras. From each blocks 40 respondents were selected and all these selected respondents known to this scheme or having experience in using Jan Ausadhi Suvidha Sanitary napkins. So, total number of respondents were 80. Statistical tool such as Binary logistic analysis revealed that Profession and Annual income were significant at 5 percent level and variables like AWARE PMBJP and Marital status were significant at 10 percent level and all significant factors determine the adoption of climate-friendly bio-degradable Jan Ausadhi Suvidha Sanitary Napkins. The result of the study of the impact on women will surely be used to enhance the health status of women and also compliment Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

Examining the contingency between emotional words and genders: Evidence from the media corpus of #MeToo movement

Gender inequalities are linguistically constructed and indexed through the strategic use of language representing the power structure in the physical world. Recently, #MeTooIndia, an Indian version of the global feminist movement, provided a scholarly opportunity to explore the gender stereotypes of emotional expressions. Even though some researchers have studied the sociocultural dimensions of #MeToo, the corpus-based linguistic analysis of this movement has yet to be explored significantly. Therefore, the current study investigated the discursive association of emotional representation of masculine and feminine genders in media texts. Given the societal nature of Indian patriarchal ideologies, power and gender stereotypes, we hypothesize that Indian mass media, as a powerful political actor, may attribute more positive lexicons to the masculine pronoun he and more negative markers to the feminine pronoun she. Textual genres of #MeToo were extracted from the print media by using the corpus framework of collocational and concordance methods. Our results revealed that, though the news of #MeToo heightened the feminine actor and largely produced the pronoun she in the referential position, the narratives of texts assigned more positive emotive markers to the masculine social actors. Overall, this study concludes that #MeToo as a gender movement has faced strategic linguistic resistance against feminine sexual victims, favouring the masculine actors.

Depiction of tobacco in Indian mass media: A content analysis

Depiction of tobacco in Indian mass media: A content analysis

Indian media professionals' perspectives regarding the role of media in suicide prevention and receptiveness to media guidelines: a qualitative study.

ObjectivesCrime reports of suicide incidents routinely feature in the Indian mass media, with minimal coverage of suicide as a broader public health issue. To supplement our recently published content analysis study, we undertook qualitative interviews to examine media professionals' perspectives and experiences in relation to media reporting of suicide-related news in India.Design and settingIn 2017–2018, we undertook semistructured qualitative interviews with media professionals with experience reporting on suicide-related news. A semistructured interview guide was designed to initiate discussions around their perspectives and experiences in relation to reporting on suicide. Interviews were digitally audio-recorded and transcribed, and a deductive and inductive approach to thematic analysis was used.ParticipantsTwenty-eight interviews were undertaken with media professionals in Delhi, Chandigarh and Chennai.ResultsA clear role for media in suicide prevention framed around educating and informing the public was articulated by several participants and a majority of participants also reported concerns and anecdotal accounts that their reporting may negatively influence vulnerable people in the population. Nonetheless, a fatalistic attitude towards suicide was evident among several participants including dismissing or minimising concerns around imitation suicides. Several participants also expressed doubts around the quality of suicide helplines in India and were hesitant to add such contact details to their reports. Participants were largely very receptive to the idea of developing voluntary media guidelines for the Indian context, although doubts were raised around compliance unless additional initiatives were taken to engage media professionals at the highest levels.ConclusionsOur findings reveal the perspectives of media professionals operating in the Indian context and can be used to support constructive partnerships between media professionals and suicide prevention experts. There is a clear need for a genuine and sustained partnership between suicide prevention experts and media professionals at all levels.

Design and simulation of point absorber wave energy converter

The paper aims to design and simulation of a wave energy harvesting system commonly known as point absorber for Ennore port located in the coastal area of Chennai, India. The geographical condition of India, which is surrounded by the three sides with seas and ocean, has enormous opportunity for power production through wave energy harvesting system. The wave energy converter device is a two-body floating system and its both parts are connected by power take-off unit which acts as spring mass damper system. In this paper, the hydrodynamic diffraction, stability analysis, frequency, and time response analysis is carried out on ansys-aqwa. The numerical results are compared with the results obtained from the similar experiments for validation of CFD solver. Effects of the properties featuring wave characteristics including wave height and wave period of Ennore port on the energy conversion, Froude-Krylov and diffraction force, response amplitude operator (RAO) are studied. Based on the study, float diameter, draft, geometry, and varying damping coefficient for power generation are optimized. Finally, the optimally designed point absorber is simulated as per Indian ocean energy harvesting standard and mass of the system, heave dimension, diffraction forces, and pressure variations are computed.

Depiction of tobacco in Indian mass media: A content analysis

BackgroundAlthough exposure to tobacco content on mass media is a well-grounded source for early initiation, less is known on how tobacco is portrayed in mass media. ObjectivesTo determine the proportion of tobacco appearances and the percentage of pro or anti-tobacco messages in the selected print, electronic and internet based Indian mass media. MethodsThe content analysis was conducted among selected categories of: top two daily newspapers in terms of readership, topmost Television channel in terms of viewership and top five trending videos on YouTube. The tobacco appearances in newspaper, television (five minute interval) and YouTube (one minute interval) were recorded and coded as pro or anti-tobacco messages. ResultsTobacco appearances were present in 0.3% of 9373 [95% CI: 0.2–0.5] advertisements reviewed in Newspapers; all of which were pro-tobacco messages. Among the total 1512 intervals watched on Television, 18.1% [95% CI: 16.2–20.1] had tobacco appearance. There were a total of 289 tobacco incidents in television of which 92.4% were pro-tobacco messages. Out of the total 900 videos watched on YouTube, 11.44% [95% CI: 9.49–13.65] had tobacco appearance. Among the 206 tobacco incidents present in YouTube, 98.5% were pro-tobacco messages. ConclusionsThe study documented considerable extent of pro-tobacco depictions in Indian mass media.

Technical feasibility of conventional and nonconventional vegetables’ intercropping under organic fertilization

This work aimed to evaluate the technical feasibility of lettuce, Indian spinach and taro intercropping under organic fertilizer. The experiment was performed at Água Limpa Farm, belonging to the University of Brasília, located in Brasília - DF, from October 2014 to June 2015. A completely randomized block design with seven treatments and four replications was used. Each experimental plot had 18 m2 (4.5 m x 4.0 m), totaling 28 plots. The following treatments were assessed: lettuce monoculture, Indian spinach monoculture, taro monoculture, lettuce/Indian spinach intercropping, lettuce/taro intercropping, Indian spinach/taro intercropping, and lettuce/Indian spinach/taro intercropping. In all treatments, the following spacings were used: 0.25 x 0.25 m (lettuce), 1.0 x 0.6 m (Indian spinach), and 1.0 x 0.3 m (taro). Crop production was evaluated from sample plants taken from the central part of each plot. Two harvests of lettuce, two of Indian spinach and one of taro were carried out during intercropping. In the first cycle, lettuce highest mean yield values were observed in the lettuce monoculture (3.5 kg m-2) and lettuce/Indian spinach intercropping (3.4 kg m-2). The crop reached the commercial size in both production cycles, except when intercropped with Indian spinach in the second cycle. The highest Indian spinach mean fresh mass was recorded in the lettuce/Indian spinach intercropping (974.7 g plant-1; first harvest) and monoculture (327.5 g plant-1; second harvest). The yield of taro rhizomes was significantly higher when intercropped with lettuce, showing a mean value of 16.8 kg m-2. The intercropping arrangements with lettuce increased yield of nonconventional vegetables. The conventional and nonconventional vegetables’ intercropping technique increased species diversity in the area without interfering in the agronomic performance and quality of the crops.

"It's a battle for eyeballs and suicide is clickbait": The media experience of suicide reporting in India.

Suicide rates in India are among the highest in the world, equating to over 200,000 suicide deaths annually. Crime reports of suicide incidents routinely feature in the Indian mass media, with minimal coverage of suicide as a broader public health issue. To supplement our recently published content analysis study, we undertook qualitative interviews to examine media professionals' perspectives and experiences in relation to media reporting of suicide-related news in India. In 2017-18, semi-structured qualitative interviews with twenty-eight print media and television media professionals with experience reporting on suicide-related news were undertaken across north (New Delhi and Chandigarh) and south (Chennai) India. A semi-structured interview guide was designed to initiate discussions around; 1) perspectives on why suicide incidents are regularly reported on by mass media in India, 2) a description of experiences and processes of covering suicide incidents on the crime beat; and 3) perspectives on the emergence of health reporter coverage of suicide. Interviews were digitally audio-recorded and transcribed. A deductive and inductive thematic analytic approach was used, supported by the use of NVivo. Suicides were typically seen as being highly newsworthy and of interest to the audience, particularly the suicides of high-status people and those who somewhat matched the middle-class profile of the core audience. Socio-cultural factors played a major role in determining the newsworthiness of a particular incident. The capacity to link a suicide incident to compelling social narratives, potentially detrimental social/policy issues, and placing the suicide as a form of protest/martyrdom increased newsworthiness. Reporters on the crime beat worked in close partnership with police to produce routine and simplified incident report-style coverage of suicide incidents, with the process influenced by: informal police contacts supporting the crime beat, the speed of breaking news, extremely tight word limits and a deeply fraught engagement with bereaved family members. It was articulated that a public health and/or mental health framing of suicide was an emerging perspective, which sought to focus more on broader trends and suicide prevention programs rather than individual incidents. Important challenges were identified around the complexity of adopting a mental health framing of suicide, given the perceived pervasive influence of socioeconomic and cultural issues (rather than individual psychopathology) on suicide in India. Our findings delve into the complexity of reporting on suicide in India and can be used to support constructive partnerships between media professionals and suicide prevention experts in India. Policymakers need to acknowledge the socio-cultural context of suicide reporting in India when adapting international guidelines for the Indian media.

How Does the Largely Unregulated Private Health Sector Impact the Indian Mass?

Private hospitals in India are least monitored by the government, which leads to violation of the roles and responsibility they have to offer for the community. Indeed, it is a more serious issue in a country like India where people are forced below poverty line (BPL) after every hospitalization. Of the four different models of health expenditure, India and, in fact, many developing countries follow the out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure model rampantly. This is very evident from the recent working article (2015) published by NITI Aayog-Health Division, which reveals that OOP expenditures are high in India accounting for 69.5 per cent of total health expenditure. These are catastrophic economic damages for the poor and push an estimated 37 million into poverty each year. Furthermore, 66.4 per cent of the total expenditure is on medicines. A major part of these expenditures are invariably the money spent by a huge section of the community, both rich–poor and rural–urban, on healthcare services availed from the privately run corporate hospitals in India. The sector needs to be sensitive for an inclusive healthcare. However, the situation appears to be the opposite in India and the private health sector creates a divide in the society by virtue of which the rich get medical care and the poor stay sick or die. This article discusses various ethical concerns and remedial measures relating to the functionality of private hospitals which poses serious pressure on the community and marginalized sections of the society.

Smokeless Tobacco Warnings in Indian Mass Media: Intention and Attempts to Quit

Abstract Introduction: In India, over 200 million people use smokeless tobacco (SLT), which increases the risk of cancers. Studies have demonstrated mass media campaigns effectively reduce smoking tobacco prevalence, but few have assessed their impact on SLT cessation. Objectives: This study used data from the Global Adult Tobacco Surveys (GATS) in 2009–2010 and 2016–2017 to examine associations between SLT health warnings in mass media, and intention and attempts to quit using SLT. We also compared the proportion of SLT users who noticed mass media warnings between 2009–2010 and 2016–2017. Materials and Methods: Over 16,000 and 15,000 current SLT users from the GATS-1 and GATS-2, respectively, were used for analysis. Weighted logistic regression models were used to analyze associations between noticed health warnings on SLT packages, newspapers/magazines, television, radio, billboards, cinemas, internet, vehicles, and walls, and intention and attempts to quit SLT. Results: In final models, the odds of intention and attempts to quit were highest among those who noticed warnings in newspapers/magazines (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 1.50; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.30–1.74) and the internet (AOR: 1.60; 95% CI: 1.12–2.29), respectively. Warnings on SLT packages, television, billboards, radio, vehicles, and walls were also associated with increased cessation behavior. More noticed warnings on SLT packages, television, billboards, and newspapers/magazines in GATS-2 than GATS-1, but fewer heard radio warnings. Conclusions: Among Indian SLT users, we found evidence that SLT warnings in mass media may promote cessation behavior. Health warnings in mass media could play an important role in the overall strategy to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with SLT use.

Problems Faced by Muslim Minorities in India and Role of Mass Media

This article is based on problems of Muslim minorities of India and role of Indian Mass Media. Because of the differences in socio-cultural practices, history and backgrounds, minorities have to grapple with the issue of identity everywhere which give rise to the problem of adjustment with the majority community. Different identity and their small number relative to the rest of the society develop feeling of insecurity about their life, assets and well-being. This sense of insecurity may get accentuated at times when relations between the majority and the minority communities in a society are strained or not much cordial. The minority community in a society may remain deprived of the benefit of opportunities of development as a result of discrimination. Because of the difference in identity, the minority community develops the perception of the sense of inequity in India. Researchers also observed the role of media and its coverage related to Muslim minorities of India. India as the largest democratic state should have provide equality to all its citizens and in the same way Indian media should highlight the problems of Muslims minorities instead of doing propaganda against them.

Indian Writing in English and the Discrepant Zones of World Literature

AbstractFor world literature studies, Indian writing in English offers an exceptionally rich and variegated field of analysis: On the one hand, a set of prominent Indian or diasporic writers accrues substantial literary capital through metropolitan review circuits and award systems and thus maintains the high international visibility that Indian writing in English has acquired ever since the early 1980s. Addressing a readership that spans countries and continents, this kind of writing functions as a viable tributary to world literature. On the other hand, a new boom of Indian mass fiction in English has emerged that, while targeting a strictly domestic audience, is always already implicated in the dynamics of world literature as well, albeit in a very different way: As they deploy, appropriate and adopt a wide range of globally available templates of popular genres, these texts have globality inscribed into their very textures even if they do not circulate internationally.

Effect of pasteurization and conventional processing on endosulfan spiked raw buffalo milk

Endosulfan, an organochlorine insecticide/acaricide is used abundantly across north-west India. Of the many milk products used daily in the Indian household, ghee and curd is in-vogue throughout the sub-continent. Consumption of pasteurized milk in Indian mass is also gaining momentum. The numerous pharmacological studies till date reveal that the removal of the molecule from the food chain is not viable; hence, it is better to study the fate of the molecule during various processing of milk. So the present study was conducted to evaluate the fate of the molecule during processing of milk. Study was conducted on 60 samples of raw buffalo milk procured from different sources of Hisar district of Haryana. Endosulfan @ 200 ppm, was spiked to milk samples, which were processed to make ghee and curd and also pasteurized. The gas–liquid chromatogram (GC-ECD) analysis revealed that there was non-significant change in the endosulfan residue level in ghee. Statistically significant (p < 0.05) decrease was observed for both curd and pasteurized milk samples. Percentage reduction of total endosulfan was 2.46 ± 0.157, 15.130 ± 0.637 and 51.94 ± 0.63 for ghee, curd and pasteurized milk, respectively.

Commod Bods and Frybread Power: Government Food Aid in American Indian Culture

Abstract This essay explores American Indian cultural expressions related to government food aid through interviews with Indians and surveys of Indian mass media. Many Indians consider foods like frybread, cheese, and canned meats as traditional or characteristic Indian foods, even though they did not exist in North America before Europeans introduced them. Government-provided food items have evolved over generations of shared experience into ethnic symbols. The foods also symbolize the history of conflict between Indians and the government and the continuing struggle for a strong, authentic Indian identity.

Innovations Around Mobile Applications: Scope for Indian Developers

This paper explores innovations around mobile applications, globally, and brings out the scope for monetization of these trends, by Indian Application Developers. The paper is based on qualitative research and utilizes Content Analysis Technique for tabulating and reporting the data. A thorough literature review has been conducted to understand the innovations around mobile applications globally and to identify the top 5 categories of mobile applications. These categories serve as variables for understanding the scope for Indian mobile application developers. Data on Indian Mobile application market has been sourced from mass media: Top 3 English newspapers (Indian) and 6 online sources. Recommendations for Indian developers have been generated on the basis on data which was reported under 5 identified categories of mobile applications. Scope for Indian Mobile application developers is in (but not limited to) the following areas; Developing cloud enabled applications, developing customised Indian applications, working on innovations based on global acceptability through multi-language apps., synchronising data with backend systems and addressing security threats, reducing costs through prudent locations and newer API’s (Application Programming Interface), beta testing applications and appropriate keyword tagging for marketing and making applications oriented towards customer delight so that in the process of diffusion of the innovation, the application becomes an integral part of the customer’s life. Methodical content analysis brings out the scope for Indian application developers and offers them valuable insights on monetization tactics. Since the findings are based on published data from Indian Mass Media, it makes the paper very contemporary and the recommendations very implementable for the industry. Academicians working in this area too, will also find an avenue for further exploration. This research work is distinctive because of the lack of scholarly studies in this area, especially in the Indian context. Data from mass media and use of content analysis – a widely used qualitative analytic method for a scholarly study, increases its value by making the work recent, contemporary and worthy of further scholarly explorations.

The Political Role of India's Caste Associations

IT IS ONE OF THE PARADOXES of Indian politics that India's ancien regime, surely one of the oldest and most deeply rooted in the world, produced no reaction. In three-fifths of India the nationalist middle classes which emerged out of the British colonial experience aimed not only at independence but also at the transformation of Indian society. The Rebellion of i857 is the only historical event in which the old order attempted to preserve itself, but its causes and objectives were so ambiguous that its meaning remains open to serious dispute even today. At Independence, the vestigial political expression of the ancien re'gime, the princely states, which covered two-fifths of India's territory, swiftly collapsed. This event was as much the result of the atrophied condition of the institutions and wills of the ruling order as of the skill with which the Indian Government (through Sardar Patel) managed the negotiations. Only a few minor local parties today stand for a full return to the rule of Brahmans and Kshatryas according to the precepts of dharma or traditional duty, and they are ineffectual.1 There is one perspective in which the absence of a reaction in the European sense is not surprising: within Hinduism, conflict (at the level of theology, philosophy and law) has generally been dealt with less by confrontation of adversaries, struggle and decision, than by compartmentalization, absorption or synthesis. And absorption appears likely to be the fate of the ancien regime's most central and durable institution-caste. Within the new context of political democracy, caste remains a central element of Indian society even while adapting itself to the values and methods of democratic politics. Indeed, it has become one of the chief means by which the Indian mass electorate has been attached to the processes of democratic politics. The appeal of India's relatively weakly articulated voluntary associations is confined to the urban-educated who are more or less attuned to the modern political culture. Caste, however, provides channels of communication and bases of leadership and organization which enable those still submerged in the traditional society and culture to transcend the technical political illiteracy which would otherwise handicap their ability to participate in democratic

(P2-39) Public Health Safety for Traditional Mass Gatherings in India: A 10-Year Analysis

IntroductionIn the past decade, India has witnessed many lapses in crowd safety during mass gatherings. The high casualty rate in stampedes during traditional mass gatherings has prompted the study of these events. Wide variations exist in casualty rates for similar events, and key issues in healthcare services in these special situations were addressed in the Indian context.MethodsFrom 2001–2010, Mass gathering data were collected from news items reported in the archives of newspapers, “The Times of India”, “The Hindu” and “The Indian Express”. The keywords used were: “stampede”, “mass gathering”, “mass-gathering events”, “mass-gathering incidents”, “crowd”, and “crowd management”. The study included triggers for the incident and the number of casualties (dead and injured) in each incident.ResultsIn 27 separate mass gatherings in India, there were 936 dead and 540 injured casualties. The unique characteristics of mass gatherings in India included a predominance of old and vulnerable people in traditional mass gatherings, in contrast to the young and middle-aged groups who gather for music and sporting events elsewhere. Further, alcohol/substance abuse, brawls, and violent behavior were absent at traditional Indian mass gatherings. Non-traditional mass gatherings accounted for a lesser number of incidents in India, and were located in movie theatres and railway stations.ConclusionsIn a populous country like India, traditional mass gatherings predominate, and ensuring the health, safety, and security of the public at such events will require an understanding of crowd behavior, critical crowd densities, and crowd capacities in the Indian context. However, planning for mass gatherings can be developed using the existing body of knowledge of mass-casualty preparedness, food safety, and health promotion.

The Marketing Strategies of Unit Linked Policies in India

With an expanding Middle class in developing India, there has been a visible change in the consumption pattern for all types of goods, including financial products. The liberalization policies have made the Indian financial sector witness entry of various global players, who are trying to attract the Indian consumers with well designed products and benefits. However the concept of unit-linked insurance policies, being new to the Indian mass, the investors still suffer from unknown inhibitions. So it is entirely on the strategies taken up by the insurance companies so as to market the product as a beneficial investment scheme, even for the middle-class. If the companies can make the Indian customer aware of the fact that, if monitored properly, unit-linked plans can earn them huge repayments as compared to traditional policies, it would in turn help the insurance sector to make enormous profit and steady growth.

Mass Media and the Reconfiguration of Gender Identities: The Bharatiya Nari in the United States

This article examines the role of US and Indian mass media in maintaining and/or refuting the Bharatiya Nari (Indian Woman) stereotype for middle-class immigrant Indian women in the US. In-depth in...