Indian Media Research Articles

Selective Isolation and Characterization of Phytophthora infestans from Potatoes Using Rye Agar Media in India

Phytophthora infestans is a pathogen that causes late blight, a major disease of potatoes. The isolation of P. infestans from infected potato plants using agar media has been challenging. This study investigated the use of Rye A and Rye B agar media for the isolation of P. infestans from infected potato tubers collected from the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu during 2022. The media were evaluated for hyphal growth, sporangial production, oospore formation, and long-term storage of P. infestans. Phenotypic diagnosis based on cultural and morphological characteristics confirmed the identity of P. infestans. The results were confirmed by a molecular identification test using primers specific to P. infestans. Pathogenicity tests were carried out to assess the virulence of the isolates. This study provides a useful protocol for the selective isolation and characterization of P. infestans, the potato late blight pathogen.

Empowering Voices: The Role of Community Media in Strengthening Democracy and Fostering Inclusive Development in India

Community media is widely recognised as a tool to give voice to the voiceless. This study investigates the transformative potential of community media in India as a vehicle for promoting inclusive development and enhancing democracy. The research aims to examine the distinctive ways that community media promotes diverse viewpoints, local content, and participatory communication, contributing to social change and community empowerment. It draws on secondary data and case studies of successful community media initiatives in India and other nations with comparable socio-political contexts. A thorough literature review and thematic analysis are used in the study's qualitative methodology to identify major topics, such as community participation and empowerment, local content and cultural preservation, solving development difficulties, and challenges and opportunities. The results show that community media projects like Radio Namaskar, Radio Mewat, and Radio Ada are effective in fostering community ownership, empowering marginalised populations, and involving community members in content development and decision-making processes. The findings also emphasise how community media may help with local development challenges and cultural heritage preservation. Community media initiatives in India, however, encounter a number of obstacles, such as legal restrictions, a lack of funding, and low media literacy among underprivileged groups. The findings of the study also provide policy recommendations for boosting community media efforts' efficacy in India, dealing with the problems they encounter, and utilising the advantages offered by digital technologies and social media platforms. The research adds to the current discussion about the function of community media in advancing democratic ideals, inclusive growth, and social transformation in India and elsewhere.

Representing Gender Equality through Advertisements from the Electronic Media: A Study in Discourse Analysis

Television advertisements play a significant role in shaping societal norms and values, particularly regarding gender roles and expectations. In India, where television is a major source of entertainment and information for many people, the portrayal of gender in television advertisements can significantly impact how gender is perceived and performed in society. This study attempts to understand and define the equality of gender roles in advertising, using select discourse analysis tools, including speech acts, deixis, politeness theory, modality, presuppositions, and vocabulary, to study the interplay of the verbal and visual effects. The study explores select advertisements from Indian media and finds that the theme of gender equality is gradually gaining prominence. The paper attempts to highlight that advertisements play a major role in creating and transforming gender stereotypes in society and in constructing a world of acceptability for those women who want to create their own identities. The study reveals that women now stand up for their rights against the societal norms and play a substantial role in influencing society, whereas men also participate in the tasks that are stereotypically assigned to women. The study also highlights that the verbal language in advertisements supports visuals in the text.

Coping with Hate: Exploring Indian Journalists’ Responses to Online Harassment

ABSTRACT In India, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) employs a digital army of right-wing supporters to harass journalists who are critical of the party's Hindu-nationalist ideology. As a result, the country's press freedom rankings have significantly declined over the past decade. While scholars have examined the discursive strategies used by online Hindu nationalists against journalists, how reporters cope with these attacks remains unknown. This study investigates how Indian media professionals perceive the personal and professional consequences of harassment for themselves and the coping strategies they use to combat digital hate. In-depth interviews with 24 journalists reveal that they employ mechanisms such as strategic social disconnection, formation of alliance networks, and working for non-profit news sites and international media organizations to overcome the effects of social media harassment. The analysis also highlights that commercial media that are subservient to the Modi government failed to protect their reporters, while independent media outlets provide much more support to their employees. The findings underscore the need for social media companies to promptly respond to content flagged by journalists and allocate additional resources to moderate hate speech in India's local languages to safeguard journalists from sustained online abuse.

Regulated Social Media in India: A Study of Media User Perception

Regulated Social Media in India: A Study of Media User Perception

Securing a Sustainable Future: A Path towards Gender Equality in the Indian Agricultural Sector

The Indian agricultural sector is the world’s largest producer of pulses, milk, and jute, and the second-largest producer of rice, wheat, vegetables, fruit, and cotton. Climate change threatens food security worldwide and has severely impacted the Indian agricultural sector. As a result of the unpredictable climate and low profits, economic uncertainty has forced men to seek employment in non-farming sectors. Under the deepening crisis, the farming landscape has transformed into a female-majority workforce. To identify pragmatic solutions to the deepening agrarian crisis, we employed a qualitative triangulation approach to our investigation of the feminisation of the farming sector, which was conducted in 2020. Our analyses of Indian media narratives, archive stories, responses to an online story completion task, and in-depth expert interviews show that, despite their developing role and increasing contribution, women remain marginalised and discriminated against in a culturally male-dominant sector. Supported by a long-term field ethnographic experience, we used Installation Theory to identify three domains in which policymakers can intervene to promote the interconnected issues of social sustainability, gender equality, and sustainable economic development in this sector.

Authoritative Populism and the Media: Perception Control and Narrative Building in India

The article analyses the interrelationship between authoritarian populism and the media in India. It explores the core question of political authoritarianism under the rule of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and whether it has exercised control on media. The article explores two main questions: First, what are the dynamics of media control in India, if any? Second, whether media control has played any role in the polarisation of the Indian society. The article employs the theoretical framework of authoritarian populism, using content analysis, to explore whether media has any role to play in the recent upsurge of right-wing Hindu nationalism. The article’s empirical evidence suggest media’s complacent and partisan role, favouring populist political agenda in India. The article highlights that the bulk of Indian media works under the state control, with major newsgroups towing the ruling BJP’s line on exclusivists right-wing ideology. Furthermore, the groups which do not comply have faced governmental repression and clampdown for independent reporting and objective journalism. The article’s original contribution rests in the analyses of authoritarian populism and right-wing nationalist control of the media and the health of democracy in India.

Decoding the star system: Twitter and its impact on journalism in the global South

AbstractChanges brought about by the digitalisation of journalism in the global South have implications for the role that the press plays in politics and governance, particularly in terms of giving a voice to those on the margins. This paper presents original evidence from India to consider how Twitter is reshaping the hierarchies within journalism and how it contributes to a ‘star system’ in Indian media institutions whereby national journalists as well as celebrities have gained more influence over journalists working in the regional press. Drawing on public profiles of over 50 journalists, while anonymizing individual identities, we computationally map their follower‐following networks on Twitter and analyse the resulting structures to show how they intensify the historical divide between the Delhi‐based legacy institutions and the vernacular language media. Besides using network graphs, we develop topic models of the biographies of journalists from different social cohorts and find a divergence in the way celebrity‐seeking journalists use Twitter more effectively than those working in the regional press, with the latter not able to match the strategic use of the network for personal branding by the former cohort. We conclude that this divergence can also be contributing towards a star system like structure of journalism online with readership and influence flowing to those at the centre. We conclude with recommendations for editors, journalists as well as technology developers on how to avoid such outcomes.

Understanding post-pandemic travel intention toward rural destinations by expanding the theory of planned behavior (TPB)

This research intends to understand post-pandemic travel intention toward rural areas by extending the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Social media use (SMU) and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) have been incorporated into the original TPB model as additional constructs to increase its predictive power. To date, no study has measured post-pandemic travel intention in the Indian context utilizing a modified model of TPB taking the studied variables; thus, this study fills this void. A sample of 305 respondents was collected on a convenience basis via an online questionnaire. The targeted population of this study were the Indian social media users who follow the web pages of travel agencies. “SPSS 20” and “AMOS 22.0” were used for the statistical analysis. The results reveal that attitude (AT), subjective norm (SN), perceived behavioral control (PBC), social media usage (SMU) and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) all have a beneficial impact on post-pandemic travel intention toward rural destinations. These factors explained approximately 53% (R2 = 0.529) of the variance in the post-pandemic travel intention toward rural destinations. A number of theoretical and managerial ramifications can be deduced from the findings of this study. The novelty of this research lies in its integration of SMU and eWOM into the original TPB framework to assess individuals’ post-pandemic travel intentions toward rural destinations.

GENDER STEREOTYPING MALICE: CAMOUFLAGING IN STOCK CHARACTERS AND ARCHETYPES

Archetype and stock/generic characters have exhibited an enormous presence in almost all ages, forms and genres of literary texts. The booming evolution of media forms over time caused these types of characters to transition to the newer and popularity-attaining media forms including theatre, cinema, games and most recently the meta-verse. As the norm goes, these characters in return have contributed immensely to the creative arts providing them with a stock medium of expression readily available for narration. However, these characters at the same time have contributed to both, the creation of new gender stereotypes and strengthening of the previously existing ones. Over time, these gender stereotypes have, in multiple ways, consciously or unconsciously contributed to the conditioning of the society at large through media consumption and have also rendered considerable impact on several important domains of human life including education, professional space, society and the people encompassing various disciplines. Modern Indian media, too inculcated these types of characters in their chosen narrations leading to a borrowing of the imbibed gender stereotypes as well. Witnessing shifts of trends, these characters too have undergone updates leading to a variety of changes and alterations with regard to gender stereotypes. However, these newer modifications are not yet so significant than the initial cultural impact of the same while accompanying with them is again a newer baggage of gender stereotypes. The present paper aims at understanding such prevalent gender stereotypes that have been nurtured, strengthened and formulated as a result of the archetype and stock/generic characters thereby enabling identification of such for a wider audience especially those linked to the educational space. Thus, nurturing the underlying aim of helping them (educational professionals) understand the influences hence generated through these recurring character types in multiple media. The paper favours a rather critical outlook upon the roles and impacts of such characters in gender stereotyping and/or their strengthening along with the key issues that they have given rise to considering the population and/or society at large. It aims at a thorough examination of selected and abundantly prevalent archetype stock/generic characters as such including the action hero, chosen one, Christ figure, dark lady, Damsel in distress, dumb blonde, folk hero and the French maid to name a few. It will facilitate an understanding of the sources, backing and flow of gender stereotypes as is lent through these characters. The paper seeks to examine these with regard to Indian Media citing examples ranging from literary works and motion pictures to internet media like memes and short videos. The present paper has employed qualitative approach. Under qualitative approach, it is narrative research examining the various imprints of such characters in various media and their role. The outcomes thus help not only understand, but also trace, segregate and relook towards the inculcation of gender stereotypes lent by these character types.

Legal Challenges in Digital Media

The rapid growth of internet users in India has ushered in the internet era, transforming the landscape of digital media consumption. This surge in internet users has been accompanied by an alarming increase in legal challenges related to digital media. From online data breaches and copyright issues to privacy threats and data loss, these challenges have become a frequent occurrence in India. This article explores the various legal challenges in digital media and their impact. It highlights the significance of intellectual property rights, including copyrights, trademarks, and patents, in the digital realm. The article also addresses concerns related to hate speech, defamation, privacy invasion, and ways to mitigate the negative impacts of digital media. By understanding and addressing these legal challenges, it becomes possible to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of digital media in India.

The development and validation of the Indian social media addiction scale

PurposeMillions of social media users over the last two decades have become dependent on social media that has negatively affected their lives, both physically and mentally. Earlier attempts on social media addiction (SMA) scale development have not been made in India which makes it essential to undertake such a study in this region. One of the objectives of this study was to explore and identify the relevant dimensions of the SMA in the literature. The main study objective was to develop and validate a scale on SMA in India.Design/methodology/approachThe research design applied in this work was both qualitative and quantitative. Based on the literature review, some themes of SMA were recognized that were used to conduct semi-structured interviews with the concerned subjects. The interviews conducted were then transcribed, and using NVivo software application, content analysis was carried out. This helped in the identification of relevant themes that were used for preparing the questionnaire. After that an exploratory study was conducted to explore the factors of SMA. This was followed by a confirmatory analysis on a different sample that validated the instrument.FindingsThis work developed and validated a six-factor measure of SMA. The total numbers of items in the final instrument are 22. Salience, Tolerance, Mood Modification, Relapse, Withdrawal and Conflict are the six factors of the final scale.Practical implicationsThe current designed instrument can be exceptionally functional for evaluating the occurrence and level of the SMA. This can also serve to assist in the handling and management of such online addictive behavior. A lot of productivity is lost due to the unwarranted time spent on the social media. By better understanding the dimensions of SMA, one can limit one's time on such networks.Social implicationsThis work can provide valuable insight into this domain and help in understanding and treatment of this malaise. It can also help parents and other stakeholders at large to comprehend the danger linked with the excessive social media use and therefore, contribute towards the society. These dimensions can also help counsellors and psychologists to better understand the addiction behavior and accordingly counsel the concerned individual.Originality/valueAlthough many instruments have been developed in the past by researchers to measure SMA,still some aspects of the concept remain under-researched. Moreover, most of such research has been confined to the developed world regions.

Book Review: Childscape, Mediascape: Children and Media in India

Numerous forms of electronic media are intricately woven into the fabric of a child’s existence nowadays with television, movies, videos, music, video games, and computers vital to both learning and play. The way youngsters react to interactive technology and instructional content supplied through it has an immediate and long-term impact on them. Corresponding to these benefits of media is an unfortunate reality that young children are more susceptible to the adverse effects of media usage, resulting in problems such as corpulence, aggressive behaviour, nervousness, and insomnia, among others, which have lately become an existential danger.

Primetime Nationalism: Analysing Monologues on India’s Republic TV and Times Now During Indo-China Border Conflict

ABSTRACT Several studies exploring the sociology of news have identified and established a range of factors that influence journalism and shape media narratives. However, little has been known regarding the narrative construction in the English language broadcast media in India. Therefore, this study investigated the relationship between (re)emerging right-wing nationalism and English language television journalism in India. A qualitative thematic discourse analysis was conducted on the monologues on Republic TV and Times Now’s primetime debates during the India–China border conflict, 2020. The study reports a major shift in the nature of TV journalism in India: far from being passive observers of right-wing nationalist ideology in the 1990s, TV journalists in contemporary India are acting as active participants in propagating them. The study complements existing works on sociology of news by demonstrating how journalism is shaped by dominant political sentiments.

Content Analysis of Gift Advertisements

The objective of this study is to conduct a content analysis of gift themed advertisements that appear in the Indian print media. It seeks to contribute to the neglected area of gift advertising by seeking to understand the practitioners use of the gift theme. Three coders were trained to analyse advertisements on select criteria culled from gifting literature viz., type of product, type of relationship, gift-giving occasion, type of emotional appeal, verbal and visual cues and gender portrayal. The study reveals the limited popularity of the gift theme as a complete years vigil on two popular media vehicles resulted in only 53 usable advertisements. On the elements of type of product featured and gift giving occasion the results are as expected but they are contrary to literature on all the other variables. There is evidence of lack of variety in the use of the gift theme in advertisements. This theory- practice gap in yet another area of marketing is potentially worrisome and the possible reasons for it forwarded in this research need to be verified by future researchers.

Present Legal Framework to Regulate Social Media in India

Present Legal Framework to Regulate Social Media in India

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

INDIAN AGRICULTURAL POLICIES AND MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS DURING COLD WAR

The article examines the relationship between Indian agricultural policies and media representations during the Cold War. Drawing on archival research, the authors argue that the Indian government’s agricultural policies were shaped by a complex interplay of domestic and international factors, including the country’s growing population, the need for self-sufficiency in food production, and Cold War geopolitics. The authors suggest that the media played a crucial role in shaping public perceptions of Indian agricultural policies during this period. They argue that the media, both in India and abroad, often portrayed Indian agriculture as backward and inefficient, and highlighted the country’s dependence on foreign aid to support its food production. At the same time, the authors note that there were also alternative voices in the media that challenged these dominant narratives and called for a more nuanced understanding of Indian agriculture. These alternative voices included journalists, scholars, and activists who argued that Indian agriculture was undergoing a transformation, and that the country had the potential to become a major food producer in the world. The authors suggest that these diverse media representations had important implications for Indian agricultural policies. On the one hand, negative media coverage reinforced the Indian government’s commitment to self-sufficiency in food production, and spurred it to pursue policies aimed at increasing agricultural productivity and modernising the sector. On the other hand, the authors argue that the media also had a more critical role to play in holding the government accountable for its policies, and in promoting a more nuanced understanding of Indian agriculture. They suggest that this critical function of the media was particularly important in the context of Cold War geopolitics, which often shaped the international aid and development programs that supported Indian agriculture.

Use of Social Media by Indian Cabinet Ministers to Propagate Their Work and Connect with Masses

The political use of social media in India has assumed a whole new role, scale and meaning. While abundant research has been done on how social media is used by politicians for campaigning during elections, this research aims to go a step further and discover how social media is used when election is over and governance is on. This research will focus on the use of Facebook by cabinet ministers to connect with masses and inform them about latest political and administrative developments relevant to their departments, about their work and to provide interesting glimpses into their personal lives. Most of the cabinet ministers have their official Facebook pages. This research will analyze the content posted by them on their official Facebook pages with the help of Fanpage karma which is an online tool for social media monitoring and analytics.

PS08 Skin lightening product use among British Indian immigrants: a qualitative study exploring causes and consequences

Abstract Cosmetic, topical skin-lightening products (SLPs) containing steroids, hydroquinone and mercury are available to Indian consumers without dermatological supervision. The World Health Organization discourages such SLP use, recognizing scar tissue formation, skin atrophy, localized infection, chemical burn and renal/hepatic impairment as adverse effects. Despite legislation restricting the sale of unlicensed SLPs in the UK, they remain accessible to British Indians through illegal importation. The current literature focuses on the high prevalence of unsupervised SLP use in India, documenting its psychodermatological and physical harm. However, no research has explored the causes and consequences of its use among British Indian communities, despite notable variances in culture. This qualitative study addresses the research gap to inform future management of unsafe SLP use. After ethical approval was granted, 24 semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted. Participants were recruited using maximum variation and snowball sampling through national radio and social media advertising, to encourage generalizability. Transcripts and field notes were analysed using conventional thematic and deviant case analysis, using NVivo 12 software. Two interdependent sets of themes influencing SLP use emerged. The first set, titled ‘Causes of SLP use’, included the following themes: ‘British cultural influence’, ‘product accessibility’ and ‘Indian beauty standards’. The second set, titled ‘Consequences of SLP use’, included the following themes: ‘financial’, ‘social’, ‘intrapersonal’, ‘physical’, ‘societal’ and ‘psychological’. Participants felt the Indian beauty standard derives from caste, religion, colonialism, Ayurvedic medicine and Indian media, which together heavily depict fair skin as superior, encouraging SLP use. This was further facilitated by frequent advertising on Indian television channels and social media, and the abundance and affordability of SLPs in South Asian stores in the UK. Participants persistently used SLPs, despite experiencing burning and patchy dyspigmentation as common adverse effects. Open internalized racism within the community instilled shame and stigma against those with darker skin, encouraging SLP use. Participants believed this was less common among second- and third-generation British Indians, discouraging SLP use, due to increased assimilation into British culture and improved media representation of people of colour. Participants agreed that SLP use negatively impacts on personal identity but identified its potential to elevate social desirability. This study newly highlights the significant negative psychodermatological impact of unsupervised SLP use among the British Indian community. As a factor propagating internalized racism, this study identifies a need to control illegal SLP importation and provide community-wide education on unsafe SLP use. These management strategies should be evaluated in future research.