Media Education as a Development Project: Connecting Emancipatory Interests and Governance in India

Abstract

RESUMENLa reciente explosión de las herramientas y servicios de comunicación, durante las últimas dos décadas, ha planteado nuevas preguntas más allá de la comprensión de la pedagogía actual en los estudios de comunicación en la India. La sociedad india ha sido testigo de una muy extensa proliferación de tecnologías mediáticas, a tal grado que se han vuelto ubicuas en el entorno social. Sin embargo, la educación en medios en India sigue siendo un área de estudios casi inexplo rada. Esta contribución plantea la necesidad de una educación mediática desde una perspectiva no elitista al mismo tiempo que propone su posicionamiento como una nueva pedagogía aun reconociendo que los resultados de la investigación sobre la efectividad de la educación mediática son prácticamente inexistentes. ABSTRACTThe recent explosion of communication tools and services within last two decades has posed new questions that are beyond the comprehension of existing pedagogy in Indian Comm unication Studies. Indian society has witnessed a widespread proliferation of media technologies to such an extent that they have become ubiquitous in society. Media education, in In dia, however, remains an almost unexplored area of studies. This contribution puts forward the need for Media education far from a non-elitist point of view and proposes this Media education as a new pedagogy although its efficiency has not been proved convincingly yet.

Media Literacy and Education in India During Times of Communication Abundance

“…The nature of questions and resources that bear upon these three areas are different. However, all three encourage the normative objective of empowerment, progressiveness, participation, ‘development and liberation’ and ‘democratic communication’ (Das, 2009; Kumar, 2007) central to India’s democratic vision. The platforms for media education are scattered too ranging from academia, policy initiatives, practice-based to civil society engagements.…”

“…One could argue that a lack of clear definition could in fact work as strength to build inclusive, multi-pronged strategy of information and communication literacies. Both contemporary literacy interventions that articulate broad concerns like ‘democratization of communication’ and specific practice-based, bottom-up pedagogies for local socio-cultural settings are equally relevant here (Asthana, 2008; Das, 2009; Kumar, 2007; Nagaraj et al, 2014).…”

“…Entertaining formats like ‘infotainment’ dominate the press (Sonwalkar, 2002), while Television news is strongly influenced by polls, ratings, profits and middle class interests. Third, policy formulations transnational corporate media and economic concerns seem to weaken (Das, 2009, p. 68). Regulatory policies in broadcast, cinema and Internet and content regulation have not kept pace with technological transformations.…”

“…Also as Thomas (2011) contends, broader communication rights within the gamut of public sphere and rights is central, as people’s voice or the right to be heard is equally important notwithstanding the mediating influences of the state, the corporate sector, NGOs and other partisan interests. This mandates media education approaches that build ‘capabilities’ and ‘functionalities’ alongside rights (Das, 2009, pp. 72–73).…”

“…Therefore, participatory communication and community empowerment remains the media literacy agenda for emerging economies (Das, 2009; Kumar, 2007, p. 6). Renewing the focus on community, studies demonstrate entertainment-education programmes (like gender equality, family planning) meet the idea of pro-social change if it ‘sparks various forms of dialogue among audience members’ (Papa & Singhal, 2009).…”