Untitled - socium.ge

Community mediation in multicultural India 403and caused the national media to decentralize along community lines, shiftingfrom a long-standing national policy of control. Ironically, the decentralizationoccurred at a time when nationalism occupied crucial space in the media dueto the mobilization strategies of the Hindu nationalist party. Media enterprises,including external players, responded to this in various forms, illustrating acontinued association between media activities and the domestic setting.The television sector in India is studied utilizing an institutional analysisthat places the media within the context of the social and political frameworkof democracy and its institutions. 1 As an embedded institution, the mediareflect the dominant norms and trends in society. The media may also play animportant role in providing space for communicative action among communitymembers. According to Jürgen Habermas (1996: 360–3), the publicsphere provided by the media serves as a link between institutions seeking toaddress social and political issues. Although Habermas does not address representationalinequalities in the public sphere, an historical consideration ofcommunities, their popular movements, and the political institutions thatimpress upon production and distribution may help delineate the asymmetry inrepresentation. Furthermore, the recent use by transnational media of selecteddomestic symbols and themes in framing programs also underscores the needto study institutions that emphasize selected symbols.A discussion of dominance requires us to approach these new televisionnetworks from the reception aspect as well. The processes of communication,as several scholars illustrate, do not flow in one direction. John Thompson(1999) argues that there is a structured break between production and reception,which allows spectators to determine messages in their own context.Although the relationship is not equal, the audience brings specific preferencesto the viewing setting (see Hall, 1980; Morley, 1980). An examination of thepolitical relationships at the reception setting delineates these preferences.LIBERALIZING INDIAN TELEVISIONIn 1991, restructuring processes initiated by the Indian state deregulated thestate-dominated television sector. The entry of the foreign media into theregion instituted a transformative decade. CNN and Star TV, initially ownedby Hutchinson-Wampoa of Hong Kong, and later by Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorporation, began their transmission immediately after the announcement ofexpected reform. In 1992, Star TV included BBC and MTV segments whichtargeted English speakers in the Asian sub-continent. In 1995, SonyEntertainment entered the region using Hindi-only programs. During thisphase of transnational expansion, the Indian government made no seriousattempt to re-regulate this media space.