About Me

My photo
I am a Professor in psychology at Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, University of Delhi with more than 20 years of teaching experience.I am a Doctorate in Psychology from University of Delhi. Taught BA Hons Applied psychology, MA applied psychology and Ph.D psychology to students of Delhi university. Executive editor Journal of positive psychology. Executive editor Academia (An international multidisciplinary journal on social science, humanities and languages) Successfully completed ICSSR major research project, UGC major research project and Innovative research project from University of Delhi. Monitoring committee member of a research project under the aegis of BSF (Border Security Force), Ministry of Home Affairs on stress management. Supervising 6 Ph.D researches from University of Delhi, 2 from Amity University, 1 from Jamia Millia Islamia. Member ICSSR research project committee. Selection committee memeber of Indian Oil, NTPC, GAIL India, Solar energy corporation. Authored a book on Criminal Psychology published by LEXIS NEXIS India. Delivered invited lectures at IIT Roorkee, IIM Lucknow, IGNFA Dehradun, IWST Bangalore. Presented my paper at ICAP 2014, Paris, France.

Dec 8, 2010

Role Expectations and Role Strain of the Elderly from the Perspective of Intergenerational Dynamics


Paper presented in 7th International Congress on Geriatric Care
12th to 14th November 2010
Venue: India Islamic Cultural Centre, New Delhi

Roles are certain positions in a group that are governed by rules and expectations.  In a family parent have certain roles, siblings had other roles and grandparents have still other roles.  In everyday life a fascinating interplay occurs between us and the people around us.  Enactment of roles for three generations i.e. young adult, parents and grandparents involves different sets of behavior and expectations.  Some roles are ascribed.  Ascribed roles are not much under personal control (male, female, sibling, parent, and grandparent) of a person.  Achieved roles are voluntarily attained by special efforts, such as spouse, teacher, scientist or doctor.  Roles streamline daily interactions by allowing anticipating what others will do.  For example, when a person is acting as a doctor, grandparent, parent, and police officer we expect certain type of behaviors from them.  People experience role-conflict in which two or more roles make conflicting demands on them.  Intergenerational relationships are interactions between individuals of different cohorts or generations (Bengston, 1982).  Gillon in discussing multigenerational families define “generation” as “cohorts of thousands of people who will share similar but not identical experiences because they are born live and die within a common historical period.”  Social support conceptualized as structural, functional, appraisal and normative components of supportive relationships (Antonucci, 1990, Oxman & Hull, 1997) has been linked with the wellbeing of elderly.
            Strong intergenerational relations contribute to the development of positive attitudes towards old age and help in combating stereotypes that promotes ageism and developing a more realistic outlooks towards ones own ageing process (Chadha & Mongia, 1997).  Important and valuable unique experiences are transmitted across generations through interaction among them.  Emotional glue binds the family as a happier unit.
            Young adults are a crucial link for fulfillment of expectations of both the preceding generations of parents and grandparents (Langer, 1990).  Older adults who are involved in intergenerational activities feel happier than older adults who do not share their feelings (Carlson Seeman & Fried, 2000; Glass, 2003).  Few studies also suggest that increased cognitive and social activity through intergenerational programme may help improve health for an ageing population and improve educational learning for children (Rebok et al., 2004).
            Role expectations and fulfillment are reciprocally related and enacted between a grandparent and young adult and between a parent and young adult.  The extent of trust, interpersonal sharing and emotional sharing between young adult, parents and grandparents provides an indicator of the degree of presence or absence of role strain.  Contextual variables of urban life, migrant population joint family / nuclear family, value-system, life-style change due to globalization, religious activities, gender, changes in family as an institution results in behavioral manifestations of gap between expectations and fulfillments across three generations.  The well-being equilibrium of each generation is affected by this gap but major affect of this process is felt by the grandparents/elderly generation.  Gerontologists like Prof. N.K. Chadha and works by Prof. S.C. Dube, Prof. T. Saraswathi, Shalini Bharat Janak Pandey is occupies significance in Indian context but major research work portraying the impact of inter-generational relations in the elderly has been paid only peripheral attention.
            The expansion of cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Calcutta came about with large number of people coming to cities in search of jobs, lack of opportunities, lack of infrastructure and law and order facilities in the rural areas.  The development of modern cities with its apparent advantages and attraction of cities had enormous impact not only on habits and modes of behavior but on patterns of thought and feeling.  As cities mushroomed in size for many it became an opportunity to maximize opportunities for economic and comfortable existence while others at the periphery continued to be marginalized in this race of in equal progress.  Health services, educational qualities, employment patterns, poor housing facilities, vote-bank politics and lack of government resources could not establish harmony among divergent cultures living together in a city.  Greater community cohesion essential to establish a common sense of identity could not be achieved.  Disadvantaged groups continued to live in alienation and resulted in further social exclusion.  Megacities offer expensive housing, high flow of production and finance but the concept of inter-community cohesion and ideal neighborhoods was at the receiving end in this process.  That is primarily the reason that a city like Mumbai which is financial capital of India also inhabits Asia’s largest slum at Dharavi.
            Many urban areas that have developed are over-crowded and under-resourced and existing resources are crumbling to meet the demands of sensitive social and health care.  It is no wonder that even in a city like Delhi many patients die due to vehicular congestion delays and doctors invest more time in commuting rather than attending and rendering quality attention to their patients.  This poses a double edged and contradictory picture of urbanization which on the one hand allows for certain opportunities but at the same time weakens the coherence of places, people, traditions and cultural networks.  Such centralized centre of economic growth has good place for productive competitive young work-force but it is also marginalizing the elders and underprivileged in an undefined fashion.  Everyone struggling to survive has less time to care for the elders and flexibility of our elders to move, interact and express their interests and concerns are compromised.  The American sociologist Talcott Parson’s (1960) argued that society needs to find roles for older consistent with advanced age.  Age-stratification theory looks at the role and influence of social structures, such as retirement policy, on the process of individual ageing and on the wider stratification of older people in society, one important aspect of age stratification theory is the concept of structural lag (Riley et al., 1994).  This provides an account of how structures do not keep pace with changes in the population and in individual’s lives.  Life course model considers ageing as a process from birth to death rather than a distinct stage.  This theory bridges micro and macro sociology in examining the relationships between psychological states social structures and social processes (Elder, 1974).
            Political economy perspective advocated by Estes et al. (2003) focuses on the role of economic and political systems as contributory factors of domination and marginalization of older people.  I do not intend to offer a comparison between families of today and families of the past.  There are lots of diversity across different societies in India from matrilineal, matrilineal joint family, nuclear family, neo-local (married couple moving into a dwelling away from both their families), live in relationships and so on.  But the core functions of a family has been structured around three central elements patriarchy, marriage and non-marriage in the regulation of sexual behavior and fertility and birth control measures in the production of demographic trends.  Despite many changes monogamy is still the most prevalent mode in India.  The orthodoxy of women as housewives, lack of education among girls and stereotype of women in natural domestic role have changed a lot and this has resulted in the development of plurality of norms in the family and society.  But the biggest challenge families are facing today is towards greater emphasis on nuclear and individual well-being concerns.  A higher rate of divorce, remarriage, teenager abortions and continuation of communication across generations has gone significantly down.  I appreciate equal opportunity for girls and boys becoming a cultural aspect of responsible parenting but getting disconnected to wisdom and maturity of our own grandparents can’t be an alibi of modern outlook.  We must try to recover a moral sense that does not breed antagonisms of interests across generations.  A return to the traditional family system seems to be a remote possibility because of lots of social changes but the value system that brings emotional communication in the family needs to be encouraged.  The development of science and matters of faith need not be contrary and a rationalist perspective can provide a coherent harmony across generations that transcend the debate of deepening modernity and traditions competing with each other.  Alienation of elders from day to day business to major aspects of decision-making has led to the rise of values which lacks humility and cohesion across generations.  The lack of interaction across three generations and various life style changes are also posing conflict of role expectations hence role strain to the older generation.  Young people growing up in an information age develop a growing sense of distance and constraint to share their feelings with the elder generation.  Continual discussion among grandparents, parents and grandchildren on issues of practical importance is on the decline.  It is pertinent to mention here the role of media in opinion making.  On average a teenager, is devoting much of time in watching television, doing internet which ultimately governs their attitude although they don’t admit it as part of attributional error.  Imitation is the direct mechanical reproduction of behavior.  Identification is a particular form of imitation in which copying a model generalized beyond specific acts, springs from wanting to be and trying to be like the model with respect to some broader quality (White, 1972, p. 252).
            The phenomenal growth of television channels, mobile telephony and internet has profound impact on our socio-cultural foundations.  More and more urban youth spent much of their leisure time with these technological gadgets have completely changed the cultural landscape.  While there is no sufficient data available linking the behavior pattern of teenagers and their dependence on technological gadgets but one can’t deny the changing shift of major time spent from traditional recreational activities to technocracy activities.  Young people are being more and more socialized away from parents, grandparents and the wife neighborhood.  Massive orchestration of communication through these technological gadgets involve transmission of information or ideas that might be right or wrong which discourage reflective thought and difficult to accommodate with our existing culture.  Belief in the miracle of market, the connection between wealth and happiness is hyped too much and concern about damages to our intergenerational well-being is excluded from the debate.  The corporate take over of public expression is so strong that alternative views are easily repudiated as conservative and less progressive.
            In a media dominated age meanings are created by flow of images and our world has become a sort of make-believe in which people are responding to media images rather than real persons or places.  The distinction between reality and scurrility gets blurred heavy outpourings of media images print, electronics and all of a sudden non-serious issues become a primary concern for all of us. 
            Recent IPL matches, commonwealth games gripped the mass-psyche and withdrawn our attention from the issues of real concern.  Our sense of self and sensitivity is in a state of transition and nightmare of seeing our machines taking control of our world we no longer have control for our social lives.  Trust within the family and outside family is lacking and uncertainties in relationships are on the ascendant.  The relationships founded on mutual respect, tolerance is lacking and everyday life is breaking free from the hold of tradition and custom without offering any good alternatives.  With the development of new technologies many obvious benefits come to us but many forms of manufactured risks such as enormous growth in vehicular traffic leading to pollution, genetically modified crops and its health consequences can’t be ignored.  If are simply concerns the transition from unmarried to married life several propositions have come into existence which does not offer any permanence in relationships.  Today many teenagers risk health problems, adopting relationships of living together without getting married, indulging in relationships that is based on temporary external attractions and likelihood of gaining external attractions and likelihood of gaining happiness and security has become more uncertain.  In a study of 200 samples of young generation of Delhi which analyzed the data from quantitative and qualitative methods several factors emerged as significant factors contributing the gap across inter-generational relationships.  This study by the researcher revealed factors of gender, interaction among family members, nuclear family/joint family dynamics as important contributing to the gap between expectations and fulfillment.  Other factors of religious habits, respect to elders, career pressure, economic pressure to perform, changes in the life-style lack of support from institutions of care-giving such as schools, government and many other factors were ascertained with the use of a questionnaire.  With the deliberations in this academic seminar academicians and researchers can throw light on new areas which can help us understand the dynamics of intergenerational relationship and its impact on elderly.

Sep 30, 2010

ADOLSCENT






Challenges and remedies from social – psychological & cultural perspective:
          Historians have described G Stanley Hall (1844 - 1924) as the father of scientific study of adolescence. According to Hall (1904) adolescence is the period from 12 to 23 years of age and it is characterized by considerable upheaval. The storm and stress view is Hall concept that adolescence is a turbulent time charged with conflict and mood swings. Anthropologist Margaret Mead (1928) studied adolescent’s on the south sea island of Samoa. She concluded that the basic nature of adolescence is not biological but rather socio- cultural. In cultures that provide a smooth, gradual to transition from childhood to adulthood which is the way adolescence is handled is Samoa , she found little storm & stress associated with the period. According to G. Stanley Hall inventions view adolescence is a socio historical creation. School work and economics are important dimensions of inventions view of adolescence. (Elder 1975, Fasick 1994, Lapsley Enright & Serlin 1985). Stereotype is a generalization that reflects our impressions and beliefs about a broad category of people. Stereotype of adolescent are plentiful “They want a job but do not want to work.” “Adolescent’s today do not have the moral fiber of my generation. Adult’s perception of adolescent’s emerge from a culmination of personal experience and media portrayals neither of which produces a genuine picture of adolescent’s development process. Each adolescent’s development occurs against a cultural backdrop of context that includes family, peers, school, religions and social traditions, region and its cultural & ethnic legacies. The cultural context for Delhi adolescent and a Gorakhpur adolescent will be certainly different. Adolescents in certain conservative area are not allowed to interact with other sex even at school level. Not accepting the parent’s choice of a marital partner for them is also regards as an act of immorality and less trustworthy to their parents in many parts of the country. Similarly majority of adolescents in low income group category do not have the exposure to latest technological advancement’s and other academic facilities. But in course setting for a Job from a small place to big metropolitan cities they are stigmatized for not speaking very good English and many metropolitan traits. The nation of morality, respect to the elders, freedom for pursuing certain careers and engaging in variance leisure act are different for male & female adolescents. There are far more restriction on male & female adolescents on sexual and irrational activity of male and female adolescents in different cast, region and cultural setting. 

       The nation of morality, respect to the elders, freedom for pursuing certain careers and engaging in various leisure act & female adolescents. There are far more restriction on male & female adolescent on sexual and interactional activity of male and female adolescent and cultural settings.
                Self – Esteem of an person refers to global self evaluation self concept to domain specific evaluation. An adolescents self – esteem might indicate a perfection about whether he or she are intelligent, attractive and realistic perception of one’s worth and one’s successes and accomplishments. Physical appearance is an especially powerful contributor to self – esteem in adolescence (Harter 2006). School performance and self – esteem are only moderately correlated and these correlation do not suggest that high self – esteem produces better school performance ( Brau Meisters & other 2003).
                  Social context such as the family, friends, school contribute to the development of an adolescents self – esteem (Duesk & McIntyre 2003) . in an investigation of self – esteem and parent child relationship a measure of self – esteem was administrated to boys and the boys and their mother were interviewed about family relationship (Copper Smith 1967).
Based on these assessments, their following parenting attribute were associated with boy’s high self – esteem.

·        Expression of affection
·        Concern about the boy’s problems
·        Harmony in the home
·        Participation in joint family activities
·        Available to give complete organized help when the boys needed it
·        Setting clear & fair rules
·        Abiding by the rules
·        Allowing the boy’s freedom within well prescribed limits.

                      In our practical day to day life also if parents allow liberal atmosphere at home then the adolescents share their true felling to them. But if a parent does not find time to share the feeling of an adolescents they try and experiment with friends which many situations parent consider the genuine expression of their child as humiliating and threatening conduct to their own ego’s and the static world view. But in reality the dynamics of change keep ushering myiads of change that adolescent face at a particular point of time but mostly parents experience great difficulty in adopting to those sensitive experiences of their adolescents. According to the great theories Erik Erikson adolescents Clamor for solution to question of identity. Identity is a self portrait that is composed of many pieces includes work identity, political identity, religions identity, relationship identity, achievement identity, interest identity intellectual identity and body image undeveloped and undeveloped societies the identity is perceived merely on singular track of intellectual and economic achievement while ignoring other important and diverse aspect of identity. Had it not been the case how we would have seen wizards like A.R, Rahman, Sachin ,Sania or the likes of him/her. Although we do appreciate such legends of their respective fields but we mostly want this happen i.e. becoming musician or players to the child of other not of our own.
    Eriksion was especially sensitive to the role of culture in identity. Throughout the world, he noted ethnic minority groups have struggled to maintain their cultural identities while blending in with dominant culture. A somewhat similar phenomenon can be observed in places like Mumbai and Delhi where a massive migration from purvanchal has taken place and majority of them are guided by their indigenous cultural identity and protecting a separate or inclusive identity within the large culture. Parents are influential figures in an adolescents search for identity. Democratic parents who encourage adolescents in the decision making are considered better than the autocratic parents. Joint family system and permissive family environments are helpful in encourage enabling behaviors. Cultural and ethnic identity also allows the formation of attitudes and feelings related to that membership. In recent years researchers have focused on big five factors of personality – openness to experiences, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism (Emotional Stability). If we create an acronym from these trait words, we get the words OCEAN. In one study, adolescents who were characterized by openness, conscientiousness and emotional stability were less likely to have a pattern of school absences (  Lorensbury & others 2004) many of ours not aware of their gender – biased attitudes. These attitudes are deeply entrenched in and supported by the genera; cultural. Same – sex education and Co-ed education research finding are not conclusive and there may be broad deviations in the outcome. Message carried out by the media (print electronics and advertisement) are extremely stereotype in their portrayal of the sexes. Men are portrayed as more powerful than women an many TV show. The extreme level social & religious bias at the parental level can be easily witnessed in most of the households despite a mild change in attitude. the adolescent female right from childhood is reared to be more compliant and passive where as  dominant ,aggressive and acting. Observation imitation, rewards and punishment are the mechanisms by which gender identity develops. Gender typing emerges as individuals gradually develop gender appropriate and gender inappropriate in their culture.   
                      Gender stereotype are broad categories that reflect our impression and beliefs that is loaded with over simplifications. So many charges at social, technological and cultural level are easily ignored and it is very easy for us to classify them two distinct categories of males & females.
                  It is far more important to think of traits and contexts rather than gender identity alone. So many rituals and many traditions also reinforce such discriminatory behavior patterns. Adolescents in general also are victimized verbally if they do not fit in the unidirectional expectation of their parents. During creative years of personality building parents spends less of quality time but do not forget to compare in discriminatory fashion their achievements in school or sports. Control over adolescents girls social relationships especially romantic at times taken to very dangerous consequences of physical beating and even honor killing are not a rare phenomena. Strong discouragement of accepting teenager’s romantic relationship and ask them to wait till they are married also compel the adolescents to adopt practices that has widespread mismatch with the expectation of parents. Regardless of social prescriptions & proscription the rate of urban adolescent abortion is increasing at an alarming pace. The dramatic increase in HIV/AIDS cases among adolescents is happing because of lack of proper sex education to our adolescents. Ignoring physiological and biological needs in the name of religious & cultural moralizing does not matches with the reality of needs being faced by adolescents. Authoritarian, neglectful and indulgent parenting needs to be sensitized and adolescents be given more autonomy, mutual respect, balanced communication and attunement to each others needs. It also a big mistake by some of the non working mothers that they fail to motivate their adolescents progress by not allowing them to participate in outwards activities some behavior patterns like pressurizing their child to study more and more at the time of examination and not paying attention to proper time management. Setting unrealistic goals without considering the ability of their children also poses a negative self – worth to the adolescents. Minimizing social comparison induces self – worth among the adolescent. It is also important to note that in many cultures some small events of non – performance of their adolescents invite strong prejudiced mark of failure. We have a tendency to compare our children only with the best one percent successful adolescents and instead of exploring solutions for their future success we easily tart blaming the adolescent for their incompetence in all other fields. A little more open cultural, social, generational and technological changes understanding is necessary for improving the lot of our adolescents and exploring solutions to their problems based on contextual and individual considerations of adolescents will be more appreciate on part of condominiums researchers and members of civil society. It will be more important to perceive their problems in a wholistic perspective.  

Aug 29, 2010

Cognition in the age of virtual reality – From cultural contextual & developmental perspective:-


Microsoft cofounder Bill gates told his audience at the 2004 electronics shows that convergence, the erasure of distinction among media does not happen until you have everything in a digital from that the consumer can easily use on all the different devices. What  becomes of the distinction between newspapers, magazines, radio and television when all can be accessed anywhere, anytime on a single handed device and when each medium can combine graphics, video, printed text, sound, music and interactive to satisfy our entertainment and information needs?
                               We are in the midst of a revolution in communication that is transformating social orders and cultural order around the world and in our country. For many of, the consequences of this revolution have been both pleasant and benign. Powerful tool of mass media invades our privacy, shapes our views of the social world and whether it enriches our thinking and creativity or it further alienates us from gaining a holistic perspective need Careful analysis by the academia of different disciplines and psychology in particular which claims to be critical nourishes and preserver of our behavioral repertoire. Certainly people can apply idiosyncratic interpretation to the context of media before them, and they can choose to direct however much attention they wish to the screen. They can choose to actively seek meaning from media content or they can choose to passively decode it. But their control and involvement can’t directly alter the message being transmitted. Political leaders across the world exploit and manipulate the power of new media technology to alter public attitudes and beliefs.
                                    Lazarsfeld (1941) argued that it was not enough to merely speculate about the influence of media on society. It was not enough to assume that political propaganda is powerful- hard evidence was needed to prove the existence of such effects. Lazasfeld’s most famous efforts the “voter studies” actually began as an attempt to demonstrate the media’s power. During 1950’s limited effects notions about media gained acceptance within academia (Campbell- 1960 Deutschmann & Danielson 1960). This theory views society as a number of interlocking pluralistic groups led by opinion leaders who rely on media for information about politics and the social world.
                                   In a controversial essay, Bernard Berelson, who worked closely with paul lazarsfeld, declared the field of mass communication research to be dead (Berelson 1959). Ironically he wrote his essay just before the field of media research underwent explosive growth. Neo- Marxist left – wing social theorist believe that media enable dominant social elites to maintain their power – media provide the elite with a convenient, subtle yet highly effective means of promoting worldviews favorable to their interest.
                                      When we are use media to serve certain purposes gain information manage moods and seek excitement it is called “meaning making perspective” ability to induce desired experience. But at the same time we are caught in a process that brings unanticipated and unwanted consequences. For example if you are to catch a train and you get a message about its running behind the schedule it saves your time and energy but even if you are praying suddenly an hyper active caller call’s many a times to your mobile and the land line number it appears horrible  interference in your private space.
                                    Social – psychological and cultural research must be carried out a number of levels from macroscopic to the microscopic. How far socially constructive and creative behavior patterns are finding it difficult to survive as a means of our enriched intellectual and cultural existence. Most of the significant and interesting forms of human traditions are on the verge of extinction such as story telling, deep relationship sharing folks the gap of success & failure, classical music, interpersonal discussion, tolerance and countless other habits that brought more satisfaction for a quality living. We do not want to be guided by elders explaining us our behaviors. We say we think critically and media has the least role in deciding my preferences. Ironically we are also convinced that other people are much more likely to be influenced by media (the third person effect – Tewksbury, Moy and weis 2004). Scientists physical or social deal in theory. Theories are stories about how and why events occurs: - scientific theories begin with the assumption that the universe, including the social universe created by acting human begins, reveals certain basic fundamental properties and process that explain the ebb and flow of event’s in specific processes. (Turner 1988 P.I.).
                                       As communication theorist Katherine Miller explained “Different school of thought will define theory in different ways depending on the needs of the theorist and beliefs about the social world and the nature of knowledge’’ (2002 p.i.g).
                                         Scholars have identified four major categories of communication. Theory – post positivist, hermeneutic theory, critical theory and normative theory and they share a common and increased understanding of social and communicative life but they also differ in their goals, their ontology- their view of nature of reality their epistemology – their view of how knowledge is created and expanded and their axiology – their view role of values in research & theory building.
                                                 Thus definition of social science in mass – communication theory is so ambivalent that it requires more merging to a super ordinate goal of better explaining and analyzing behavioral perspective. The goals of post – positive theory are explanation, prediction and control. Its ontology accepts that the world even social world exists apart from our perception of it; human behavior is sufficiently predictable to be studied systematically. They might believe and explain which commercials will be more effective to control behavior of targeted citizens. Hermeneutic theory is “the study of understanding, especially by interpreting action and text (Little John – 1996p. 208). But in a given social context how people interpret their own lot is called social hermeneutics. Ethnographer Michael Moerman (1992 p.23) explained social hermeneutic theory tries to explain how event’s “in the alien world make sense to the alien’s how their way of life coheres and has meaning and value for the people who live it.”
                                                    Any product of social interaction – a movie the president or Prime Minister Address to its citizen’s a love letter, can be a source of understanding. The ontology of social hermeneutic theory says that there is no truly measurable social reality. Instead reality can’t be understood except through a consideration of the mental & social processes that are continually constructing that reality (Katherine Miller 2002 p. 52) personal and professional values are a lens through which social phenomena are observed. Critical theory starts from the assumption that the social world is deeply flawed and in need of transformation. Most critical theories are concerned with the conflict of interest in society and the way communication perpetuates domination of one group over another. What is real, what is knowable in the social world is the product of the interaction between structure (the social world’s rules norms & beliefs) and agency how human behave and interact in that world. Reality then to critical theory is constantly being shaped and reshaped by the dialectic (the two structures agency).critical theories see media as an essential tool employed by corporate elites to constrain how people views their social world and to limit their agency in it.
                                           
                                    A normative media theory explains how a media system should operate in order to conform to or realize a set of ideal social values. Its ontology argues that what is known is situational or knowable only for the specific social system in which that system exits. Its epistemology is based on comparative analysis- we can only judge (and therefore understand) the worth of a given media system in comparison to the ideal espoused in which it operates. Its axiology by definition is value laden. Mass society theory made several basic assumptions that media are a malignant force which has a power to reach out and influence the minds of average people. Once people’s minds are influenced by media it can bring sort- term and  long term consequences. Average people are vulnerable to media because they have been cut off and isolated from traditional social institution, debasing higher forms of culture and a bringing a general decline in the individual & social well – being.
                                        Among the originators of mass society notion was a German sociologist Ferdinand Tonnies. He proposed a simple dichotomy – gemeinschaft or folk community and gesellchaft a modern industrial society. Gemeinschaft “consisted of a dense network of personal relationship based heavily on kinship and the contact that occurs in a small closed village. Norms were largely unwritten and individuals were bound to mutual interdependence that touched all aspects of life (Fukuyama – 1999 p. 57). In addition a collective has the character of a gemeinschaft insofar as its members think of the group as a gift of nature created by a super natured will (Martindate – 1960 p. 86).
                                       In contrast the gesellschaft represent the frame work of laws and other formal regulation that characterized large, urban industrial societies. Social relationships were more formalized & impersonal: - individual did not depend on one another for support and were therefore much less morally obligated to one – another (Fukuyama 1999 p.p. 57-58).
                                     French sociologist Emile Durkheim offered a theory with the same dichotomy but with a fundamentally diffrent interpretation of modern social order. In Durkheim’s conception people are bound to one another through consensus and traditional social role like the parts of a great engine – mechanical solidarity. In Durkheim’s theory people are like specialized cells of a body rather than like cogs of machine. He compared modern social orders to animals rather than to machines. He used the term organic solidarity to refer to the social ties that bind modern social order together. Remember that he has used the metaphor of folk cultures not modern society. Durkheim’s praise for organic solidarity has been echoed in the many theories that have extolled the virtues of new media and new technology. Proponent’s of new media usually argue that communication technology will permit the formation of important new social  bends. Frequent allusions to an internet fueled “electronic democracy” in which the people can directly communicate with their leaders. There will be “electronic town halls” where the people will be able to decide what they want government to do for them. Durkheim in hi book suicide (1951) documented rising suicide rates in those countries where tradition religions and social institutions had lost their preeminence. In his later work, Durkheim showed growing concern for the declining strength of common morality. (Ritzer 1983 p. 99) .people is no longer bound by traditional values in which greed’s are replacing our needs and passion our replacing our compassion. In the name of globalization moral virtue included is on the sale, fantasy replacing the real and everyone wants an objective world of him self or herself. We are mostly unwilling to accept the peaceful co-existence of others. It is far easier to take refuge in surrogates, which neither inhibits, us or our cravings.
                                            Moral and emotional knowledge is being replaced with pop culture that provides easy going forms of social cohesion. We have been easily replacing the harmonic, rhythmic texture of classical music and aesthetics with a grammarless murmur of repetitious noise. There is a rising gap across the generations and the young generation has spontaneously acquired a culture which has increased the gap ever before between a teacher and the taught. Our traditional, social, political and cultural institutions are facing a threat to their status quo and phenomenal rapid diffusion of interest and worldwide web is facilitating the formation of multinational alliances that is challenging the existing elites as well. The rapid technological challenges effected massive media industry mergers. According to journalist and media critic Ben Bagdikian (2004), the numbers of corporations controlling most of the country’s news papers magazines, radio and television stations, book publishers and movies studio’s have shrunk from fifty, when he wrote the first edition of his classic The media monopoly to five today. This concentration of owner ship of media industries led him to comment as follows:-
                                             Left to their own devices a small number of the most powerful firms have taken control printed and broadcast news and entertainment. They have their own style of control not by official edict or state terror but uniform economic social goal. They have their own way of narrowing political and cultural diversity not by promulgating official dogma, but by quietly emphasizing ideas and information congenial to their profits & political dereferences. Although they have a disproportionate private influence over the political authorities and over public today. (1992 p. p 239 -240).Bagdikian, a strong proponent of media freedom is not mass theorist. Mass mediated propaganda is spread throughout the world which deeply affects our politics and culture. Propaganda freely uses lies and deception to persuade. Propaganda has also been classified as black, white and gray (Snowball 1999). Black propaganda involves deliberate and strategic transmission of lies. White propaganda involves intentional suppression of potentially harmful information and ideas and promotion of ideas that distract attention from problematic events. Gray propaganda involves transmission of ideas that may be true or false. Propaganda then and now live in an either/or good/evil world. Even concept’s like truth consent and justice are manufactured through engineering consent of people a term coined by father of modern public relation Edward L. Bernays by mastering techniques of persuasion & communication. Harald Laswell’s propaganda theory (1934) referred to the concept of master or collective symbols associated with strong emotions and   possess the power to stimulate beneficial large scale mass action if they are used wisely. It is no wonder our eating habits, reading habits, recreational habits and even interpersonal sharing are becoming subject to manipulation by propagandists. The discrepancies that exist in our head is ever widening. Pictures of outside world are being projected that India is growing in terms of overall economic indicators but the well being of an average man on the street is so pathetic that Supreme Court has to intervene to provide shelter to the people in the national capital and what to talk of other remote areas. Average man are becoming prisoners of this dilema of benevolent technocracy and economic liberalization on one hand and conducting a balance in managing everyday friction of their livelihood. Even a person whose monthly income is not more that five to six thousand rupees the parent and his family is expending one thousand rupees to meet their mobile expenses. Ideas are floated that every average person is rational to judge good ideas from bad is nothing but crucifying and glossing harsh realities. Media market place is a bit more complicated than the market place for refrigerators or tooth paste. Its ideas are traded freely among people it is not necessary best ideas will prevail. The meaning of individual messages can vary tremendously from one person to the next. If people lack discriminating ability it is very likely bad messages distributed freely are accepted and in the end message producer earns a profit. With the increase in mobile and internet density there was a mushrooming growth of cyber cafes and how far these are adding to the creativity of our youth is potential case of critical analysis. Safety, security. Inter – community sharing and social emotional well being is degrading.
                                      Social responsibility should not be something that is discussed in the classroom or academic debates but how far it unites cultural & social well being must correspond to the reality of the day. Whether dramatization more in the investigation of truth and portrayals of public good is generating barriers to freedom or enhancing our diverse ethos. A movement of sort is needed to steer mass – media towards reinvigorating public life which does not satisfies the appetite of a selective few and exclude the common ordinary citizens. Social cognitive theory assumes that observer can acquire symbolic representation of behaviors and mass – media provide information on which they base subsequent behavior.
                                     Writing in 1994 Bandura summed the accumulated knowledge of social cognitive theory to conclude that television viewers “acquire lasting attitude, emotional reactions and behavioral proclivities towards person’s places or things that have been associated with modeled emotional experience. W. James Potter (1997) identified Reward/Punishment, consequences motive, realism, humor, identification and arousal as encouraging factor of acquisition of mass – media behavior through modeling. Development perspective assumes that children undergo extensive and varied cognitive growth between birth and adulthood that is extremely rich complex and multifaceted. Logically, older children will read television differently than will younger children. This developmental perspective seeks to describe and explain the nature of the communicative differences between four year older six years’ olds & adults. Research indicates that although even children as young as seven can tell the difference between commercial and other televised content, they might not understand the commercial selling intent and that much advertising especially premium advertising cos that promise a gift or toy with purchase can cause conflict between parent and children.
                                                 A process called spiral of silence needs special attention of the researchers. Because of people’s fear of isolation or separation from those around them, they tend to keep their attitudes to themselves when they think they are in minority. If various viewpoints about agenda items are ignored, marginalized or trivialized by media reports, then people feel reluctant to talk about them. It is noteworthy to highlight and explore the possibilities where intra – personal, interpersonal inter group identities grow in terms of confidence harmonious co-existence creative climate of collective and pluralistic living. We should engage ourselves in research and discussion that may result in participated without fear of exclusion and infuse elements of social, cultural & cognitive inclusion of all. This is an attempt to uncover the all encompassing cover that is how virtual reality is affecting us and it needs more the attention of psychologists from an interdisciplinary approach.   

Migration from a psycho – social and cultural perspective in the context of global economic slowdown


Paper Presented in National Seminar Shyamlal College Univ. of Delhi on 5th of Feb 2010                

 India’s history has been one of great invasions and migration, with much circulation of population from one place to another. Rural to urban migration in India and abroad and migration in the past two decades had been phenomenal. The global economic liberalization, visa rules, work – permits and major incentives in information technology sector and lack of opportunities in India are some of the contributory factors to this rapid pace of migration. Demographic characteristics of different states of India have changed dramatically in past two decades or so and intensity may vary depending on the opportunities but most of them have undergone this process and it is a process that is still on. New discovering in the field of computer’s and IT profession, huge urbanization processes in the Arab world improved mode of transportation and communication networks have been the major factors of migration. This process of migration in some situation was either due to push factors of social discrimination, starvation lack of Information, and lack of infrastructural facilities or due to pull factors of better place for learning, employment motivation to affiliate with the powerful nations and citizens to derive more material benefits and perceived better living conditions. Access to city life is considered a mark of social prestige and upward social mobility, rural scholars, artists; artisan’s, sports person, women and even unskilled workers aspire to move to cities. Role of Industrial work force increased with advancement in Industries and better employment opportunities. Migration is not only to big cities but also to medium and small cities. The process of migration is not only masculine in character but a large number of women have also moved out of their geographical and cultural place of origins. It is indeed difficult to propose that great dominance of village life in India is either an exaggerated compulsion or a conscious choice. Even deficient amount of statistics is perpetuated to maintain this pluralistic and diversified existence of India.
                                The purpose and objective of this paper is to highlight the issue of migration more in Indian context less in International context and the consequences of psycho – social and cultural manifestations in context of global economic slowdown.
First I would like to highlight the cultural object. The process by which cultural elements are borrowed from another society and incorporated into the culture of the recipient group is called diffusion. Diffusion is extremely common Linton an anthropologist has set its impact at the rate of 90 percent. That is not more than 10 percent of traits of most advanced cultures can be attributed to each society’s own unaided efforts. The far reaching effects of diffusion can be understood with the help of an example of a Mumbaikar conservative Hindu citizen. This man awakens in the bed built on a pattern which has been originated in sandalwood furniture of karnatka, his bed covers made from cotton of Gujrat. Silk kurta and pajamas spun and woven by muslim artisan’s from Lucknow, and washes with soap Mysore sandal originated in south India. Before going out for a breakfast he glances through glass window for which materials and manpower used are from Bihar and UP his knife is of steel made in Muradabad and main entry of his house is decorated with Madhubani paintings. The newspaper through which he forms much of his opinions is The Hindu and N. Ram is its Editor or chief Moderator of the views published in it. For his sports entertainment he glues to the television set Samsung (Made in Korea) and in the one – day match against Pakistan Tendulkar is out on Zero and M.S. Dhoni hits a century. His feeling of Mumbaikar gets frustrated and he wants to watch a movie in which actor is Amitabh Bacchan and music composer is A.R. Rahman. As he encounter these dosages of alien culture as a conservative citizen he goes to the temple to be considered a hundred percent Mumbaikar Lord Rama Temple who was also born in Ayodhya.
                                            History is full of examples where new inventions have spread farther and farther depending upon its utility. Diffusion takes place either with direct contact or through intermediaries. The invention of paper is attributed to the Chinese Ts’ailun in A.D. 105. First it was imported from other countries and now every place has become its local manufacturer. In stimulus diffusion knowledge of trait belonging to another culture stimulates the invention of local equivalent. Whole range of western music industry borrows heavily from Indian Classical music. The practice of Yoga, Aahram’s and spiritual enters are far more equipped in western countries than it is in India. While there is a temptation among the scholars to view the dynamics of diffusion similar to a stone sending concentric ripple over still water, this would be an oversimplification of the paradoxical nature of diffusion actually works. Element of material culture such as mechanical processes and Instruments, traits of sports and good health, academic produce are easily selected or rejected on its utility factor. But a real difficulty lies in the transfer of social values and social structure that has long term psychological implications. The practices of drinking wine, playing cards failed to diffuse into Muslim cultures. The basic region behind this is lack of utility of such behavior patterns. Marriages other than its own caste, drinking by women in large numbers could not become a social reality India however selective harmonizing traits of dining discrimination of upper castes with lower castes changed in the urban living conditions and spread of education. When a group or society is in contact with a more powerful society the weaker group is often obliged to acquire cultural elements from the dominant group. This process of extensive borrowing in the context of super – ordinate subordinate relation between societies is usually called acculturation. In contrast to diffusion which involves the voluntary borrowing of culture elements, acculturation or the wholesale borrowing of culture traits comes about as a result of some sort of external pressure. The loss of prestige of established authority is perceived by the host community in case of massive migration population coming in to their place. They also consider a threat to their economic and culture freedom. Social tension is generated through state of mind in which an actor finds uneasy in his environment, apprehensive of future event, worried for the fulfillment of needs restless of assumed resource space occupying by the migrants and uncertain in life because of increase in competition over resources.     
                                     Tension and conflict are both inclusive and exclusive state where one influences the other. Tensions may be both an index as well as aftermath of conflict. The justification and rationalization regarding the functional value of tension depend on ideology, placement and position of the beneficiaries or the losers in a given social order. Tension may also depict a state of misperception conditioned by various personal and situational factors – the roots of which may be in a variety of factors such as prejudice/ stereotype/ discrimination and changing social realities. Stereotype about groups (Us & them) concern the beliefs and expectations that we have concerning what members of those groups are like. Stereotypes can include more than just traits, physical appearance, activity preferences and likely behaviors are common components of stereotype (Biernat & Thmpson 2002). The tendency to perceive  persons belonging to groups other than one’s own as all alike known as out group homogeneity effect ( Linville etal 1989). “They are all the same” or are they? Some illusory correlation can also be formed that does not exist in reality. As an attitude prejudice is reflected in the negative feeling or emotions experienced on the part of prejudice person.
                                        Prejudice originates when members of certain groups perceive material or symbolic threat to their self – esteem. People want to see their own group positively (Tajfel & Turner 1986). According to realistic conflict theory (Bobo - 1983) prejudice develops out of the struggle over land, jobs, adequate in policy making bodies and other desirable outcomes. When such experiencing competition escalates both sides begin to experience hostility and come to view each other in increasingly negative terms. They may label each other as “enemies” view their own group as morally superior and draw the boundaries between themselves and their opponents more firmly and under extreme conditions they may come to see as opposing groups as not even human (Bar. Tal 2003).
                                           The direction of these tensions in moderated or exaggerated by people in power and the Mass – Media. These processes not only determine the direction of social tensions but also influence the mode of their manifestation. The psychological modes of expressing social tensions are signs, gestures, mistrust, apathy aversion, fear, arrogance non co-operation sabotage and at times physical attack. A culturally rich person exercises considerable restraint tolerance and understanding in interacting with other. Since the process of migration has assumed a sizable pace and they also want legitimacy, respectability and it is also motivated by the local leaders vote – bank politics. Those parties or leaders who help them in their settlement process do not forget to perpetuate this us and them divide to strengthen their vote – bank. Interesting aspect of this evaluation is to highlight that social tensions are not always dysfunctional and it has a positive side too that may lead to introspections, invention, creation of idea and cultural synthesis.
                                         These factors of discrimination can be reduced on learning not to hate. One crucial factor to reduce inter group prejudice is the experience of working together. Increased contact between people from different groups can lead to growing recognition of similarities between them. Even in case of interdependence between groups of us and them can favor group equality conceptions. It is noteworthy to understand that had migration been a major problem it would have got strong support of the host society as a whole. But reality suggests that these factors of us and them divide are well orchestrated by of greed, vote – bank politics and other factors. Once these factors of divide is sown its seed the manifestations are not in the hands of those who are its originators and its spreads to the common mass who become victims of such negative prejudice manifestations. No need to mention the creative appetite of media flash with breaking news of such trivial comments. Which acts as reinforcer? The process of global economic slowdown has also resulted in the loss of job inside and outside India. But its impact on Indian scene has not been as severe as it was in case of other western countries. The behavior pattern of an average Indian to save major part of their earning and it has been a great relief in this time of crises. Some of our cultural traits to adjust in two extremes of misery and luxury with equal ease have also been a major factor of relief. We have a behavior pattern of co-existence of the both hardship and easy going life attitudes at the same time. The final contention of this paper is to mention the fact that migration as such is not a problematic phenomenon and if proper mechanisms are in place that of governance most important and other traits of diversity in unity takes the center stage it can be an enriching process. Economic slowdown has also to do a lot with the attitudinal propositions which we can withstand with our values of need based and not greed based consumption pattern. It we are guided by our indigenous value system not copying the behavior pattern or life styles of western countries I strongly believe even impact of such crises will be negligible. What is more needed is selective adaptation of reasoned behavior and qualities and what is not at all needed is the rejection of priorities preferences based on unrealistic prescription of others. Both at a societal and Interpersonal level there is a need to harmonize our values to extend our feeling of togetherness and well being.




Antisocial, Unsocial and Prosocial Effects of Media Content – A Critical Understanding from Psychosocial and Cultural Perspective


Paper Presented at CPDHE Refresher Course in Psychology

6th December 2010



      The impact of viewing television, motionpictures and internet is one of the newer area that has drawn the attention of policy-makers, sociologists, psychologists and even the common man of our society.  Underlying psychological principles of learning, motivation, perception, values, ethics and group processes are experiencing spontaneous changes with a pace that has not happened in the past.  Media as an industry has a different perspective and priority and academic researchers are hardly aware of the agenda setting objective of media.  Social cognition theory suggests that repetitive and redundant portrayals of trivialized social reality does leads to new intrapersonal and interpersonal topics of importance.  Desensitization accounts for people who are heavily exposed antisocial acts and become less conscious about the consequences.  Drawing upon the concepts of cognitive new associationism, priming effect analysis suggests that elements of thought or feeling or memories are parts of a network connected by associative pathways.  Thus for some time after a concept is activated there is an increased probability that it and other associated parts of the network will come to mind again thus creating the priming effect.  There are many antecedent variables such as media structure, media technology, social circumstances, psychological variables, needs, values and beliefs that all related to gratification pattern of the audience.  Media content can spin social reality in terms of your eating behaviors, educational preferences, dress, recreational preferences by cultivating of perceptions of new social reality.  Reality shows, different T.V. serials highlight the selective aspect and focus it to be the topics of reality.  Learning from media environment results in perception of real social environment.  T.V. viewing of programmes of paranormal activities such as palm-reading, vastu, previous life experiences, astrology, tele-kinesis does help in creating a belief in paranormal experiences.  Valentine day celebrations, new year parties, excessive use of internet chatting, frequent SMS messaging for any trivial communication and message exchanges an each festivities such as Diwali, Dusshehra, Raksha-bandhan, Independence day, Republic day, Father’s Day, Daughter’s day, are slowly and gradually becoming a ritual part of our behavior.  A new pattern of cognitive framing is taking place consciously and unconsciously among heavy viewers and heavy users and consuming much of their time.  The generation gap is also increasing in disproportionate manner because of cultivation of a new social reality.  It will erroneous to assign the same degree of impact without taking into consideration the demographic and cultural context variables.  Psychological dependence on internet causes person’s to onlineaholics who ignore family, work and friends as they devote most of the time to surfing net.
            Through this paper an attempt will be made to understand various psycho-social and cultural variables affecting prosocial aspect of behavior-affilation, well-being and antisocial and unsocial aspect of behavior.  Of being violent, selfish lack to concern with family and society.

Apr 9, 2010

Strings Behind The Curtain

Question of whether and how media influence self concept self identity and self evaluation as well as their impact on beliefs; attitude and behaviors underlines much research. Who is represented in media and how, groups and situation are portrayed and how they are excluded needs serious attention of the academic community who professes, preach and practice media in different capacities. Why one prefers to analyze the dynamics of mainstream media [electronics print] is because it influences the most of our lives yet we are rarely find time and space to express our attention in they way as it deserve the attention. We talk a lot about the quality of school, college, courses in order to provide the best education to our children by asking and diagnosing a lot, we send our wards to hospitals once we are sure of the quality and creditability of it, similarly we apply much of our time in selecting quality food products but at the same analytical and careful about the products and message media transmits to us which has far reaching consequences on our ways of thinking, decision-making in each and every aspect of our life. With their power to frame define and select aspect of the social world the mass media are a principal social and cultural institution.
The central position of media in everyday life ensures that symbols disseminated through the media became points of focus and interaction in the population. Interpretive approaches to media research focus on the premise that meaning is created in interaction with other.
Researcher’s talking these approaches imply that effect’s are contingent on the meaning is created and that these meaning are located not in media messages.
Qualitative researchers analyzing media processes have emphasized at least two issues. One is the notion that cultural meaning are not fixed in product’s but vary according to cultural, historical and social group context [Bloomer 1969]. Fish [1980] argues that reader’s crated meaning but do so the basis of interpretative community to which they belong. A second important issue in interpretive approaches to media focuses on the understanding that individual’s are not passive recipients of media. Years ago mill’s [1963] observed that people do not simply internalize dominant ideological messages but sometime resist them. He argued that people can resist by comparing alternative message in different media, comparing media message with their own life, or theirs message with the beliefs and behaviors of people in their social networks. Through this process people may denounce or rejects media message they contradicts their own experience. In the recent past one decade there has been phenomenal growth of media industry world over.
But does this growth have percolated to every section of society and do they have been portrayed that it can play the role of eye opener for all. Do they have been successful to do the justice to have-not’s of this country. Either it is the problem of rural India which constitutes nearly 70% of our population, children, uneducated youth, senior citizen, problems of the women and other disadvantaged groups. This symbolic annihilation of the disadvantaged groups have to struggle to project a publics self definition that is positive. [COLLINS-1991, ZOOMEN-1994].
A unique quality of media is their public’s pervasiveness and people’s knowledge that the images or ideas they see are also seen by many others, often millions of others. I addition individual’s believe that others are more strongly affected by media portrayals then they themselves are [Davison 1983, Perl off – 1993].
This believes reflects either a misperception of how other’s views are influenced by media or as Davison points out, perhaps an underestimation of the media influence on the self evidence for this belief – Known as the “third person – Effects” includes studies that people belief that other people’s children are affected by commercial more strongly than their own. How does belief that media images are powerful for other’s matter for individual? The third person effects suggests that effects of media in which content directly influences the self attitudes or behaviors may not be the only kind of influence. A complex indirect effect may also occur as people account for the effects of the pervasive imagery in media on other in their social network and are themselves influenced by perception of the way others see the media distorted world.
Media images play a big role in altering ideas of what is normative or ideal or what one thinks other believe is normative or ideal while offering additional pervasive standard of comparison that goes beyond local cultures.
Does the social responsibility of media as fourth pillar of democracy is being fulfilled? Does common man know that media is an industry run mostly by the capitalist where their sole motive is profit. The new capitalist class owns media to serve its business interest as it surround the power system more closely than any other institution. Propaganda agency manufactures consent and attitude of people at large to serve their business motive. They are in a better position to over power the thoughts of disadvantaged by alienating their voice from the mainstream media hence the already deprived is getting marginalized. They don’t care for you if you are obedient and subordinate and they care for the people who are trouble makers. They don’t care for people for people who are very poor who are potential care for people but silently and creative lead their lives. There are all sort of Craziness that sales high on the agenda of media pundits either it is power corridor, sex scandal, advertisement rich sports like tennis, cricket and sensationalism of all kinds. Expression of hate gets major attention than love, hostility [lingual, Ethnic] and aggressiveness gets more attention than the works of integration. Intimate relation gets less attention in comparison to deviant relation. Fundamentalists occupy the centre stage of media more than the spiritualists as the whole of network of terror market thrives its business prospects. Intolerance, Stress, Aversion is more suitable than calm, creative and unity. This sounds byte journalism has reached to a stage where even families of dead person of their loved ones are not left hounded. A remark by the father of a kidnapped boy that I am more traumatize by the question from media than to the sad limitation that one repeatedly teaches in media that if a man bites a dog only then it’s a news in media not the vice- versa. Selective omission and creating breaking news or unnecessarily dragging a marriage , love – affair too long and finally leading to very less curiosity to that news by the common- mass. If accountability of any institution can be analyzed why can’t be a serious effort be made to understand the stated and masked objective of the practicing media which affect us the most. How long we can continue with gospel truth media connotation if so many aberrations have percolated in this institution. Is not better to introspected from sociological, political, psychological, spiritual and media person perspective to achieve better in this Profession as what we are getting from it today. Is it not better to diagnose some of the pressing dilemma’s the media faces for the society at large rather than glorifying our dichotomies or anomies? Can there be a spiritual face of the media which express more in terms of unifying potential than the disintegrating. Can media reach to the last man in the society instead of celebrity – centric reporting. If one has to find solutions such queries there is an urgent need to come out with a holistic approach comprising intellectual’s from different stream put forward theirs views on an unified canvas so that our understanding of media can be richer than what it is now, of course this will be a tip of iceberg of this whole issue and a humble effort and further more such sincere attempts are needed to get a wider perspective of this whole issue. For this we need to conduct a seminar on this subject exchanging views from the cross-section of intellectuals.

Few question like,
1. Advertisement market share.
2. Growth of media as an industry.
3. The reach of media rural urban.
4. Issue in media capitalistics, social, moral, spiritual myth.
5. Research in media sector and other issue need a bit of highlight on your part.