Role of media in socio, economic development: Media and education
When we talk about ‘Media education’, the first and foremost important question which strikes our mind is what is media?
The word ‘media’ is the plural form of ‘medium’, which refers to any channel or source through which a message is sent. The term media became popular in the late 1920s when several sources of news emerged. Until then the only means of communication with masses were journals, newspapers and other such written modes. With the advent of radio and television the level of media has increased. Today we even have ‘New Media’. Education means to educate someone i.e. to bring a change in oneself education is a key. It is imparting and sharing of ideas, thoughts, talking useless also sometimes find a bridge in conservation whether it’s between two people or more and make them think about it.
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Therefore media education is the process through which individual’s become media literate- able to critically understand the nature, techniques, and impact of media messages and productions. Media education also means that being a journalist it is your prime responsibility to gather masses and to make them aware as to what they can do on their behalf for the betterment of our country. Media education isn’t about having the right answers: rather, it’s about asking the right questions. Because media issues are complex and often contradictory and controversial, the educator’s role isn’t to impart knowledge, but to facilitate the process of inquiry and dialogue. Today, the chief challenges are to locate and evaluate the right information for one’s needs and to synthesize what one finds into useful knowledge or communication. Media education – with techniques of critical thinking, creative communication and computer, visual and aural literacy skills at its core – is a key part of a 21st century approach to learning. One possible meaning of media education could also be to educate people about the different- different mediums of media, for example- Print media, electronic media, Social media, New media. We also need to explain what exactly the terms print, electronic, social stands for and what role do they play in today’s era. Students pursuing their career in the field of Media, for instance doing the bachelors in BJ(MC) means they are studying about media and mass communication, moreover the difference between the two terms, journalism and mass communication.
Journalism is the practice of investigating and reporting events, issues and trends to the mass audiences of print, broadcast and online media such as newspapers, magazines and books, radio and television stations and networks, and blogs and social and mobile media. People who gather and package news and information for mass dissemination are journalists. The field includes writing, editing, design and photography. With the idea in mind of informing the citizenry, journalists cover individuals, organizations, institutions, governments and businesses as well as cultural aspects of society such as arts and entertainment. News media are the main purveyors of information and opinion about public affairs.
Besides this different- different definitions of journalism has been given by the renowned people. According to the famous reporter Curtis D. McDonald – “Journalism is news gathering, fact finding and reporting. It is important anywhere at any time. It is indispensable in a democracy as people cannot govern themselves without being informed”.
According to Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Chairman of New York Times (1963) “Journalism’s ultimate purpose [is] to inform the reader, to bring him each day a letter from home and never to permit the serving of special interests.”
On the other hand Mass communication refers to the means of communicating with large numbers of people. A number of different elements make up mass communication media: images, colours, lighting, and a variety of other techniques are used to communicate messages and obtain particular effects. Trained professionals of organisation particularly belonging to private entrepreneurs or public, autonomous or government bodies that invest heavily for the hardware and software needed for production and dissemination of those messages. The universal appeal rapidity, ubiquitous and attraction to people irrespective of education, age, gender differences and social status. Today, mass communication has attained an all time high attention because of its need and importance. It is only because of the impact of mass communication that the world has been reduced to a global village. Today, life is so much involved with media that not an hour goes by when we do not speak about, refer to, or plan for the use of media. It is pervasive like air.
About 2500 years ago, Aristotle came out with the ‘ Rhetoric”, a celebrated and highly regarded book on the principles of public speaking that holds great relevance even today. He exalted communication to the level of study. After him, several scholars came up with their own sets of definitions on communication, communication models, as a specialised branch of study, is as old as civilization. Study of communication disapproves the general notion that “good communicators are born” and indicates that the skills of effective communication can be acquired through conscious effort and practice.
Media educators base their teaching on key concepts of media literacy, which provide an effective foundation for examining mass media and popular culture. These key concepts act as filters that any media text has to go through in order for us to respond. Before moving further, the claim people do that Is media only interested in negative stories?
The view that the media is only interested in negative stories is hard to digest. One of the basic factors responsible for making such an impression is that in today’s highly globalized economy, corruption has permeated over all sections of the society, resulting in frequent incidence of corruption and crime. It is but natural for the press to bring these facts before the public. Secondly, a lot of mud slinging takes place because of envy and vengeance among the wrongdoers. This type of accusations when reported in the media, occupy a lot of space, raising the percentage of negative stories. The claim of the press that it has to adjust with the taste of readers, viewers and advertisers is a contentious issue. However, it remains a fact that with the growing competition and over enthusiasm to be the first in so-called ‘breaking news’ there is often an extra dose of negative stories or exaggeration of realities. At times, we are shown more than what happened in reality and that too repetitively.
There are a number of key concepts to choose from. Some of the current ones used by media educators are as follows:-
Media are constructions
Media are constructions generally means that media is such a powerful tool that it even has the power to set agendas. They construct path and compel people to think, to accept what they are showing. What media highlights, people gets involve in it. For instance, Nirbhaya’s rape case of 16th December 2012. In a country where it seems that cases of rapes, sexual abuse etc. would ever get vanish and also when in every 2 minutes a girl gets rape brings out the unlettered people of our country. Nirbhaya’s case got immense coverage because media highlighted it a lot because it was somewhat different from the other rape cases, more atrocious and brutal. People pay tribute to the brave girl, did candle marching and much more. Therefore, media are constructors as whatever they show or write in Newspapers viewers and readers believe.
Audiences negotiate meaning
We all bring our own life experience, knowledge and attitudes to the media we encounter. Each person makes sense of what he or she sees and hears in different ways. Using their sense many accept the facts or whatever is shown they accept it, but still many argues but ultimately they have to eat humble pie because media is so powerful and has the tendency to make people think and accept the facts they want from people to accept.
Media have commercial implications
Today almost everything is commercialised and so is media. For instance what we called as ‘paid news’ is one of the example. Daily in newspaper we find a lot of advertisements, any company or people who want to communicate with the larger mass use the print medium by giving the full information whether it is any new product or scheme. This is something which benefits both the entrepreneur and the newspaper.
Role of Media in education sector
Today media’s functions are not limited to disseminating information and entertaining the masses. Media is an important actor of the civil society. It possesses immense power in its hands. It can effectively help in the formation of public opinion. Notwithstanding this media also plays an important role in education sector. First of all, media keeps people aware about their rights and responsibilities from time to time. For example, we can vote if we are 18 years old. This is our right- Right To Vote. People know about it because all forms of media must have shown this or told about this right of people. Had media not shown this, then people definitely won’t know about their this right even today. Media educates people in all the ways they can. For example, “That one famous line which you will see in every theatre before the commencement of the movie “Smoking is injurious to health” and Mukesh’s ad also. If we talk in terms of electronic then daily we will find so many ad in tv catering to the hazards of smoking or drink. Similarly Print media also keeps on alerting people about the effects of smoking and drink. In newspapers, their articles are their power. They have got that power in their hand which has the potential to motivate people not to smoke.
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Mass Media is a potent educational force in India, which serves to maintain and expand unjust systems and violent attitudes.Like schooling, the mass media is used to support the coercive power structure of a techno-industrial elite (be they corporate or governmental). Like schooling, the mass media undermines our existence as complete and unique human beings, and tells us instead that we are needy, deficient and homogenous.
Prominent figures of our country doing ad also aims at educating people. For example, the polio ad of Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan show ‘Satyamev Jayate’ and through campaigns also media educates people in all form. . Over a span of time development support programmes have been launched effectively by media organizations. An example can be the AIDS awareness campaign of Uganda, where media ran advertisements free of cost. According to some media analysts in third world countries media should play a developmental role. The research will also try to explore this fact. How well have awareness campaign been run in different parts of the world trough the media and if media can take the role of the “TEACHER” in the society.
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