Dr.

Gopa Bagchi

Media education in the

era of globalization :
A study of India

EDUCATION IS THE KEY TO ANY

NATIONS development process. Education makes
the citizens conscious of national problems and ways
to overcome them. Education not only provides us job
and livelihood but also develops our personality. It
shapes our character. It makes us mannered and
cultured. It expands the intellect of mind. It takes us
from darkness to light, from untruth to truth and from
wrong to right.
Needless to say that higher education is very
essential for the shaping of the society. That society is
really developed where higher education is more
qualitative. In countries like India, the quality of higher
education has always been in question. The quality of
education is influenced by the teaching-learning
process. When the teaching-learning process is
effective, quality of education becomes positive. In
the higher education sector, the quality concerns
assume greater importance as they play multiple roles
for knowledge generation, assimilation and
dissemination for producing knowledge workers and
eventually knowledge society. Enhancement of quality
education completely depends upon methods of
teaching.

Need for media education

Since education is the soul of democracy, so,
media has a vital role to play for its universalisation.
But media gives very little time or space to educational

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Dr. Pradosh
Kumar Rath

issues, educational policies and strategies and

importance and relevance to education.
Media is both mirror and torch of the society.
News media, whether it is newspaper or news magazine
or news bulletins or news channels, works like a mirror.
But a mirror should work like a plain mirror which
should reflect the exact picture of the society. But many
a time media works like a concave or convex mirror
which reflects the enlarged or reversed or imaginary
picture of the society. Media is turning away from
mission to profession, Today, the theory of commerce
is more applicable to media than the theory of
journalism and mass communication. So media is
deviating from its main objectives. Today,
developmental aspects are neglected in media whether
it is print media or electronic media or web media.
Media is, no doubt, a mirror. But it is very much
influenced by the western media. It often copies the
critical and negative style of the western media. To
bring back media education into the mainstream of the
education system, there is a need for proper application
of media in education

AIR largest network

In India, about 45,000 newspapers, journals and
periodicals are now brought out in 105 languages and
dialects. There are over 4000 daily newspapers and
magazines. India also produces the largest number of
feature films and newsreels in the world. All India

Radio is known as the largest radio network in the

world. It runs 195 radio stations (including 183 fullfledged stations) and 302 transmitters (144 MW, 55
SW and 103 FM channels). All India Radio covers
97% of the geographical area and 99.2% of the total
population.
The scope of media education has enlarged a
lot during the last quarter of the twentieth century. The
history of media education
shows that the first journalism
course was started in Madras
in 1920. It was started by the
founder of the Home Rule
Movement, Dr. Annie
Besant. The Adyar University
started the bachelors degree
under the Faculty of Arts in
the Department of English.
Gurudev Rabindra Nath
Tagore was the first pro-tem
Vice Chancellor of the
University. After Independence, the University of
Punjab restarted a journalism
course followed by Banaras
Hindu University. After that,
a number of universities
started the course of Journalism & Mass
Communication.
Journalism education got a tremendous boost
with the emergence and proliferation of electronic
media during the 1990s. During this period, not only
the government promoted media education, private
organizations also started media education in their
respective organizations.
Media education not only needs theory
education but also practical education for the students
to build their career in different aspects of journalism
and mass communication. The field of journalism
includes reporting, editing, advertisement, public
relations, event management, content writing, cyber
journalism and other branches.

Presently, media education is one of the most

growing disciplines in the academic scenario of India.
When newspaper was the only mass media, media
education was going at a snails pace. But with the
emergence and proliferation of electronic media and
new media, demand for advertising, growth of
corporatization in the backdrop of globalization made
the discipline most sought after.
Presently in India, some 60 universities, 25
agricultural universities and 100 private
institutions annually train more than 5000
students in various aspects of mass
communication and journalism including
reporting, editing, photography, videography,
printing, designing, advertising, public relations
and so on. Especially, agricultural universities
are imparting training on farm communication,
extension education and development
communication.
Most of the universities and colleges have
provided infrastructural facilities and manpower in
audio-visual communication field also to some extent.
But there are lot many problems related to the field of
media education. Some of these are:
i)
The main problem is absence of quality teachers
in the field. The teachers are either strong
academically or professionally. There are very
few teachers who are experts in both. They are
not trained to teach practical - oriented courses.
ii)
The courses are not practical - oriented. The state
universities generally fail to provide a fullfledged media lab for the students. There are
few private institutions which provide practicaloriented education, but they collect heavy
amount from the students in the name of
donation which becomes unreachable for the
poor students.
iii) There are sizeable number of mass
communication and journalism departments in
the country which are managed by one or two
teachers and couple of part - timers. This is
indeed a pathetic situation with respect to mass
communication teaching in the country.
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There are sizeable number of mass communication and journalism

departments in the country which are managed by one or two teachers
and couple of part - timers. This is indeed a pathetic situation with
respect to mass communication teaching in the country.
iv)

The teachers are in the dilemma of using old as

well as new methods of technology in mass
communication. With the emergence of new
media, the teachers are not equipped with the
technology and are unskilled in the matter. They
are also unaware of the software for journalism.
Further, the volatile character of new media also
makes the teacher undecided about the future
course of action.
v)
The syllabus does not cater to the social needs
or development needs of the nation. The course
curriculum is theory/lab based or caters to the
profession of journalism only. But there is dearth
of study material in the field of mass
communication.
vi) The socio-economic status of the mass media is
completely neglected. The role of media in the
society and comparative analysis of media and
society is being neglected in the curriculum.
vii) The institutions also give least importance to
science or agricultural communication which is
the basis of study for an underdeveloped country
like India.
viii) There is dearth of quality books on journalism
and mass communication in India. The students
have to depend upon books from foreign authors
for their studies. The Indian authors lose
credibility in publishing quality books. Many
academicians write books for their personal
development and publishers also become
market-oriented and publish only those books
as are saleable.
Thus, there are a number of problems as far as
the status of media education is concerned. But the
situation is going to be different as more and more
institutions, particularly the central universities,

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promote the communication education by including

the subject in their curricula. With the emergence of
new media technologies, the teachers also try to adopt
the technology for their study.

Technology in media education

Whether public or private organizations, the

main job of the media institutions is to provide right
education for the
students. For this
purpose, the students
need good teachers
who can solve their
day -to-day problems.
For this purpose, the
teachers should be
well equipped with
knowledge as well as the skills of teaching. The
teachers should always be up-to-date. They should also
follow all the modern technologies of teaching not only
for teaching but also for other journalism skills
including reporting, editing, page make-up and related
activities.
With the emergence of globalization, the need
for proper media education becomes a necessity as the
education is being internationalized. There are a
number of reasons why it is imperative for the teaching
community to adopt new technologies. The need to
introduce new methods has gained new urgency in
teacher training, the foremost reason being the need to
provide students with the latest skills in the era of rapid
technological transformation and innovation.
Being global, their information and
financial networks need specialized skills that
require an army of spcialised knowledge
workers. These knowledge workers need to
possess flexibility, adaptability and the ability

(and interest) to constantly re-skill or update

their knowledge based on the development of the
productive forces in the market economy.
For the purpose of teaching, a number of
technologies have emerged in recent years. The first
transformation was from black board to white board
with the use of marker pens instead of chalks. After
that, the introduction of Overhead Projector (OHP)
facilitated the teaching process. The emergence of new
Information & Communication Technologies (ICT)
brought about a revolution in the process of teaching.
The Information and Communication Technology
gives access to information at the touch of a mouse
bottom. In an interdependent world, it makes global
communication a reality. Advances in computing,
advent of the Internet and Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi)
means that information can be distributed and accessed
almost instantaneously. Peculiarly, however the
adoption of these technologies to the sphere of
education and classroom teaching-learning
methodologies has been slow (and in some cases almost
non-existent) in India.
The teachers could be drawn from both fields
of mass communication and computer science.
Initially, the role of experts from the computer science
may be more and as the teachers from the field of mass
communication get trained and accustomed to the
computer usage, the instruction and training will
become all the more effective. The teachers involved
should play the following roles and act as multifacilitators to the learners:
The teachers who are not accustomed to the
use of ICT should be properly trained. For this, the
following infrastructural facilities are required:
l
At least ten computer terminals with multimedia
capabilities
l
Internet access with possible ISDN connection
for faster access
l
Instructional media kits to prepare as well as to
access the knowledge resources.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that media education

should cater to the needs of all the people of the

country, which is multi - lingual and multi - cultural

in character. Further, the course structure should
be commensurate with the present needs of the world.
The new technology should be properly used in media
education for the smooth functioning of the teachers.
Such an exercise effectively blends and exploits the
use of various tools in information and
communication technology to create a virtual
learning environment (VLE). A proper induction of
the trainees into the digital world will motivate them
to pursue their trials further for the benefit of their
students. Thus, media education has a bright future
as more and more qualified academicians and
professionals are getting interested to teaching media
studies. The modern teachers are armed with new
technological skills and qualities which will definitely
be helpful in the growth of media education of the
nation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Krishnamurthy, N. History of Indian Journalism,
Mysore, Prasaranga, 1971
2. Parikh, K. Technological Advances and Role of
ICT in Teacher Training and Higher Education,
University News, Vol.45, No. 26, June 25- July
01, 2007, pp 12-15
3. Jayanthi, N.L.N. & Padmanaban, T. E-Tutoring for
the Teacher Educators, University News, Vol. 46,
No.14, April 07-13, 2008. pp. 21-22.
4. Dayal, M.; Importance and Universalisation of
Education: Role of Media, University News, Vol.
46, No. 28, July 14-20, 2008. pp. 17-21
5. Murahari, B. & Kumar, V.V. New Technologies
for Teaching and Learning in the Information Age;
University News, Vol.46, No.40, Oct. 06-12, 2008.
pp 1-8
6. Kumar, Keval J. Media education, regulation and
public policy in India; www.kevalkumar.pdf
7. Guru B.P Mahesh Chandra & Madhuri Veena
M.L.; http://www.whatisindia.com/univpubs/
wis20050221_mys_journalism_education_in_
india_ a_quality_perspective.html
The writers are known media educators.
(email ID : drgopabagchi@gmail.com)
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