Understanding Media - Class 7 Civics - Extra Questions

Radio, television, newspapers, Internet.

Title to the above diagram may be given like this - Media and Big Business Houses. Big Business Houses attract people to promote their products through media. It is the best and the cheapest means to reach people at large.

As the answer may vary, students should choose newspaper articles that catch their interest and accordingly answer the questions that have been asked. Take the help of an elder.

Radio, television, newspapers, Internet and several other forms of communication are collectively known as media.

Media plays an important role in a democracy. It provides news and discusses events taking place in the country and the world. It is on the oasis of this information that we learn how the government works.

• Media also criticizes the unpopular policies and programmes that the government takes.
  
• Media forms public opinion.
  
• Media acknowledges us with several current issues.
  
• Media provides awareness among masses.

Local media covers small Issues that involve ordinary people and their daily lives. It is usually started in local groups. Several people use community radio to tell farmers about the prices of different crops and advise them on the use of seeds and fertilizers. Others make documentary films with fairly cheap and easily available video cameras on real-life conditions faced by different poor communities and, at times, have even given the poor these video cameras to make films on their own lives. Khabar Lahriya is also a local newspaper. It is a fortnightly that is run by eight Dalit women in the Chitrakoot district in Uttar Pradesh. It is written in the local language, Bundeli. This eight-page newspaper covers the Dalit issues and cases of violence against women and political corruption. This newspaper is popular among farmers, shopkeepers, panchayat members, school teachers and women who have recently become literate.

The technologies that mass media use keep changing and so a lot of money is spent on getting the latest technology. The TV studio in which the newsreader sits has lights, cameras, sound recorders, transmission satellites, etc. All of these cost a lot of money. One thing more, it is not only the newsreader who needs to be paid but also a number of other people who help put the broadcast together. Due to these costs, mass media needs a great deal of money to do its various works. As a result, most television channels and newspapers are part of big business houses.

Television images travel huge distances through satellites and cables. This allows us to view news and entertainment channels from other parts of the world. We see cartoons on our television set which are mostly from Japan and the United States. We can be sitting in Delhi and can see images of Donald Trump's oath ceremony in the United States. Thus, television has enabled us to think of ourselves as members of a larger global world.

It is because media believes that this will make the story interesting.

It means that media will fail to give a balanced report.

Television has enabled us to think of ourselves as members of a larger global world.

They do so by writing letters to the concerned minister, organising a public protest, starting a signature campaigns and asking the government to rethink its programme, etc.

It is said that media is often controlled by business houses. Media does what these business houses wish. At times, it is in the interest of these businesses to focus on only one side of the story. The media is in constant need of money. Hence, it is essential for the media to get linked with advertising groups. In such a situation it is difficult for media to report against people who give them advertisements. Its close links to big business houses snatches away its independence. It has to do as per the wishes of these business houses. Media also tends to focus on a particular aspect of a story because they believe this makes the story interesting. One thing more, if they want to increase public support for an issue, they often do this by focusing on one side of a story. Thus, it is difficult to say that media as independent.

A balanced report is one that discusses all points of view of a particular story and then leaves it to the readers to make up their minds.