Media Education, Communications and Public Policy: An Indian Perspective

Media Education as an area of mass communication research is just beginning to be explored. Defining the subject is problematic because of diverse interpretations of 'media' and 'education' in different public policies and in different cultures and educational traditions; hence the varied approaches to media education as well as to research in the field. This study of Media Education, Communications and Public Policy: An Indian Perspective argues that media education should ideally be illuminated by a 'macrosocial' perspective which would take into account public policy on communications and related issues. At the 'microsocial' level, media education would take into account the media choices and interests of groups participating in its study. The conceptual framework employed is Reyes Matta's model of democratic communication, according to which media education is a vital element in the process leading up to the participation of organized groups in the development of public policy on communications. This is an exploratory study which focuses on media education for one such group - student in the high schools of Greater Bombay. At the 'macrosocial' level, the relationship between public policy on communications and media education at the formal school level is explored; also explored is the political economy of the media institutions and industries in India. At the 'microsocial' level, an historical analysis of the education and school system in Bombay sets the context for looking closely at the social background of the students, and their interests and preferences in the audiovisual, the audio and the print media. The study found that public policy on communications is highly centralized and that multinationals play an important role in the economics of the mass media in India. Our survey concluded that the main interests of the students were popular Hindi cinema, Hindi TV serials, film songs, general interest and film magazines, and Indrajal comics. The study, therefore, sees the need for media education to be made part of public policy, and also for an examination, along with form and content, of the role of the Central Government, private enterprise and multinationals in media operations.