Newspapers were trying their best to increase their readership and to reach the maximum number of people. There were changes in the reading habit of people. Readers have’ reading habits according to their age. Those who are old read the entire paper. The youth are interested in sports, entertainment and gossip columns.
Newspapers make their contents to meet the demand of different kinds of readers. In other words, newspapers give what the readers want.. There is now the new concept of infotainment. In this, there is no place for media morality or traditional values. The newspapers are produced not to work for social justice or preserving values. They have become another item for consumption like any other consumer item.
In 1991, there was only one TV channel Doordarshan controlled by the government. In 1998, there were 70 channels. 20 of them were broadcast by Doordarshan. The remaining were satellite channels owned by private companies. Increase in satellite channels was a feature of globalization. Viewers of private TV channels increased drastically. The homes with satellite TV connections also increased. Today in most homes there is satellite TV connection.
The Gulf War was in 1991. In that year Star TV (Hongkong), Red FM (Living Media) ad Radio City (Star Network) started operations in India. This marked the entry of satellite channels. CNN which gave live coverage of the Gulf War became very popular. The programs of Star TV were much popular. In 1992 CTV also began its telecast here. In 2000, Forty private satellite cable channels were available. They included regional language channels like Sun TV, Eenadu TV, (udaya TV, Raj TV, Asianet and so on. In the meantime, CTV started many regional channels. There were telecasts in Marathi and Bengali.
In 2000, in nearly 70% of the homes of India, all India Radio Programmes could be heard. They were broadcast in 24 languages and 146 dialects. There were more than 120 million radio sets.
A main change in radio broadcast during globalization was the coming of FM Radio Stations. With this entertainment programmes multiplied. Private FM channels were competing among themselves to give maximum entertainment to their listeners.
Private FM Channels don’t have permission to broadcast political news. Most channels get listeners by broadcasting music programmes, especially film songs. Most famous FM channels are under the media houses. Radio Mirch is owned by Times of India. Radio Mango is owned by Manorama. With the onslaught of FM radio stations, independent stations like National Public Radio and BBC are slowly disappearing from the field.
Films like Rang de Basanti, Lage Raho Munnabhai, etc. used the radio as an active medium. The hero of Rang de Basanti, inspired by the example of Bhagat Singh, kills a minister and captures All India Radio and through it he sends his message to the people. In Lage Raho Munnabhai, the hero makes use of a radio station to save the life of a girl. The privatization of radio stations and the growth of radio stations in the ownership of communities resulted in the fast growth of radio. Demand for regional and local news is increasing. Regional radio stations are in greater demand now. Since they broadcast local and regional news, there are ready listeners in most homes.
