Challenges for the Indian Media and Civil Society

Television News in India

“…The successes of India's democratic system are all the more profound, as many have pointed out, in the face of the considerable odds they continue to defy (Ahmad, 1999;Kohli, 2001). Not unlike many developing nations in a postcolonial era, India's social and political fabric is replete with contradictions and antagonisms between the 'new' and the 'old', the traditional and the modern -contradictions that are only exacerbated, some would argue, in these globalizing times (Giddens, 1990(Giddens, , 1994Joshi, 2002). Traditional and 'primordial' solidarities along the lines of caste, class, religion, ethnicity, language and region not only abound but are increasingly politicized (Ahmad, 1999;Kohli, 2001), while at the same time forces of modernization and globalization more widely mobilize new social movements and shared global concerns such as human rights, gender, ecology, development, terror and security (Beck, 1999;Beck et al, 1994;Castells, 1997;Giddens, 1990Giddens, , 1994).…”

“…Today's cacophony of conflicting interests in diverse civil societies, including India's, increasingly seek to mobilize their claims and aims in the media sphere. These same forces of change have given rise to a growing disenchantment with notions of democracy conceived in largely procedural and electoral terms, with calls for a 'deepening' and 'democratizing' of democracy within agonistic and pluralized civil societies (Ahmad, 1999;Dahlgren, 2000;Giddens, 1994;Joshi, 2002).…”