Chapter 14: The Media in India
Understanding the media in India and how it works was something I didn't expect to read about. I thought about skipping over the chapter because I didn't know how relevant it was in regard to my topic of study. I am actually really glad I read the chapter, because it really tied back with the chapter on corruption. I also learned a great deal about the importance of the media in India.
The literacy rate in India is about 60%, while the literacy rate in China is about 90%. 45,000 newspapers are published in India, while 2,000 on are published in China. That is clearly a lot more in India than in China. The author says, "India, despite its poverty and illiteracy, is a nation of exceptional readers." Even the illiterate population enjoys "reading" the newspapers--in villages a literate person will often read the newspaper to a larger group of people. Newspapers are everywhere in India, but corruption is also a large part of this industry. It is not uncommon for people to give gifts to journalists in order to influence their writing. The media is extremely powerful, and many people are fearful of the media, so gifts and other bribes are given in exchange for stories. The media is also free in India, which can be both a good and a bad thing. It is good because the media can cater to the market demand and determine it's own priorities. This is also bad because no agency can force the media to cover a story it does not wish to cover. This can lead to bias and a lack of true information provided by the newspapers and other media sources. Also, because India is so large and has so many poor people, along with many of the others issues discussed throughout the book (tolerance, faith, corruption, etc.), there is little space in the Indian newspaper for anything besides Indian news! Very little global/world wide news is provided by this form of media!
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