Communication Research
in India: A Status Evaluation
Prof. K. V. Nagaraj
Head,Department of Mass
Communication,
Assam University,
Silchar, Assam
Journalism education in
India, for all practical purposes, is as old as independent India.
Before Independence, the press with its obsession with political
issues had little or no time to conduct even readership surveys.
Circulation figures were the only source of information as to the
readership. The departure of the British from India provided the
press both challenges and opportunities. Industrialists took over the
ownership of major newspaper groups and as a result journalism
acquired the overtones of business profit and power were the twin
motives behind these acquisitions. Not much importance was attached
to readership research. On the other hand, the government owned All
India Radio already had the listener survey or audience research unit
that later paved the way for more expansive research into the field
of broadcasting. Professional research organizations came into the
scene only in 1970s. the ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation) was
perhaps the only source of circulation data considered authentic.
Historically, academic research in journalism per se was not a
phenomenon till 1970s. some research efforts in journalism could be
seen in other social sciences, which were basically
inter-disciplinary in nature, either in history or political science
or English literature. In fact, many of the early teachers who took
interest in teaching journalism were from the background of English
literature.
With a steady
process of Professionalisation, importance of journalism education
was realized. However, as was in the United States and other western
countries, the classroom-news conflict syndrome raised its head, and
the working professionals often lampooned the theory loaded
instruction in academic institutions. Unfortunately, most teachers in
journalism were and are not from the profession and did not and do
not have any professional experience. In the same vein, most
professionals had learnt the skills by the trial and error method.
Unlike the West
which had a flourishing media market linked to the industrial
revolution, India started struggling to imitate the developing
countries, attempting devise a middle road between two competing
ideologies of capitalism and communism. Obviously, the media took,
especially the print, in delight in the triggering of
politico-economic blunder buss. The non-discriminate readership
supinely accepted the political rhetoric provided by the new bread of
journalist. The tradition still continues.
In the West,
especially in the united states, the university-industry linkage is
significant in the media sector professionals who have high academic
qualification join universities and help develop research programmes.
They also secure projects to produce high quality research output
while the newsroom-classroom hiatus has narrowed down with the
graduates in journalism hooding media houses and media houses in turn
opting for campus recruitment, the two-way traffic is not happening
professionals, except a few, do not have interest in academic
programmes including research. For some, research seems to be a
collection of information. (The National Knowledge Commission ) has
bemoaned the quality of Ph.D.s churned out by Indian universities and
suggested the production of Ph.D.s of more quality and quantity. The
quality of Ph.D.s in journalism does not meet the rigorous parameters
of international standards. Often the are products of ‘cut-and
post’ business drawn from the Internet sources. Original research
does take place, but here again the number of quality efforts are far
and few. When it come to quantitative techniques and their
application, it is merely duplication or multiplication of what has
already been done. Even qualitative research is far from
satisfactory. There exists an urgent need to train a dedicated band
of researchers in universities.
In this context, we
should also remember the industry investment in its own R and D as
well as in academic institutions for research is abysmally low
compared even to china. On the other, the media revolution in the
form of television channel boom has prompted rating research, each
channel vying for a higher TRP for its programmes than others.
Obviously, several Indian and foreign players have entered the field.
Among Indian organisations mention must be made of ORG (Operational
Research Group), MARG, IMRB. A.C Nielsen has emerged a key player of
late. However, most research organisations follow the technique of
market research, different from media or communication research.
Academic research in India as already mentioned is shoddy irrelevant
and primitive. Imprecise application of methods and technique has
been the scourge of academic research in communication.
Intermedia
competition should encourage research in communication/ mass
communication as it happened in the West Unfortunately. We are slow
in catching up with them. The National Readership Surveys are a good
effort, but do need the participation of more number of newspapers
and magazines. The audience research units of both Doordarshan and
All India can employ more sophisticated tools for better results.
Though now under the control of an autonomous corporation, these
units have to come out of the bureaucratic hung over.
At the
application level, there should be a national debate on the relevance
of western tools and techniques in the Indian context. Unlike many
developed countries, the collection of primary data is not an easy
task in India Social and other factors have made collection of date
difficult. Most academic researchers depend upon secondary sources of
information for their output. The logistics, accessibility and
finance have been the main areas of deficiency for communication
researchers in India. While science gobbles up a substantial chunk of
government patronage, communication as a discipline is attached to
social sciences get very little financial attention. The private
investment in communication research is absolutely non-existent added
to the inertia of most academics in government funded universities.
The situation in private institutions disgustingly abominable. In
reality, there exists no research tradition or culture in the field
of mass communication in India.
The private
–public participation (PPP) model has not taken off mainly due to
the disinterestedness on both sides. The public institutions have
framed such rigid rules that even the most enterprising academics
back out when it comes to consultancy services including research. On
their part, private media houses have very little faith in the
quality of research work carried out in academic institution. It is
disgusting to see many teachers in mass communication departments
while away their time more in unproductive work than in research.
The authorities should introduce an accountability clause that
includes their research contributions that keeps on their toes. Added
to the misery is the absence of peer reviewed research journals many
a university department of mass communication makes a half-hearted
beginning to float a journal and after a couple of issues, these
journals make an unceremonious exit. In other countries, quality
journals have survived unlike in India, we cannot boast of a single
journal of standard let alone international. Some publications like
the vidura and the grassroots so not strictly fall under the category
of research journals.
It is also
amusing to go through some of the research titles. No serious thought
is given to the selection of the topics which appear mostly macro.
The textual intervention of media history even in quantitative
studies makes a mockery of the entire research process. For these
reasons, institutions like the ICSSR should conduct workshops
regularly on research methods to update and improve the knowledge
level of young academicians and researchers. The establishment of a
research institute the model of Institute of Socio-Economic change
only for mass communication research can a feasible proposition. In
the US Nieman fellowships are awarded to media professionals and
others to do research on any subject of their choice without any
strings attached. Similar arrangements can be thought of in India
also. The prosperous media organisations can carmark a small portion
of their profit for this purpose.
Advertising as
persuasive communication, is a fertile area of research. The story is
similar and it is left to the researchers in the management sector to
take care of it. Neither copy research nor the design aspects have
been researched upon. Advertising agencies do have research
departments, but for other purposes, public Relations firms have not
evinced much interest in research activities for reasons best known
to them only Likewise the new media sector calls for meaningful
research efforts. Other Asian countries like China, Korea, Malaysia,
Singapore and Japan have made enormous strides in communication
research, keeping India for behind. The Indian habits and impact
studies shows only the duplication of efforts and their lackadaisical
attitude towards the issue. The urgent need of the hour is to
introduce professionalism in academic research in the field of
communication. The inference drawn here do not mean that we have to
simply ape the western concepts and methodologies of communication
research. What is needed is an expansive development of Indian
contribution to methods of investigation. We have a strong background
in mathematics and statistic and should we not produce new formulas
of evaluation? Even our attempts at historical research are
inaccurate, incomplete and often biassed with personal affiliations,
ideological or otherwise. Time is ripe for a rethink on the issue and
a structural overhaul along with intensive intentions for a
corrective course.
We can replicate
the national knowledge network suggested by the National Knowledge
Commission in its report submitted to the union government for a
nation communication research network to connect media institutions,
university department, research organisations and other professional
institutions to create an environment of viable research. No doubt,
the reming masses of young men and women will have innumerable
opportunities knocking at their door.
References
National
Knowledge Commission Report, Government of India, 2009
Mass
Media Research: An introduction Roger D. Wimmer and Joseph R.
Dominick
Courtesy:
Mediamimamsa
