Full Description
Television is probably the most important mass medium in India today. In this pioneering volume of television studies reputed scholars from across the globe address a series of questions that help us gain a deeper understanding of its nature and function within contemporary Indian society: What makes television occupy a pivotal place in India's public and private cultures? How has television changed from the early days of Doordarshan to the current age of set top boxes and hundreds of channels? What makes news, soap opera and Reality TV an integral part of our daily lives? Why is our popular culture so orchestrated by the 4 Cs (cricket, crime, cinema and celebrity)? Why is television indispensable at times of crises like a 'terrorist' attack? How different is regional television from its national and global counterparts? By analyzing different aspects of content, policy, and broadcasting philosophy, the volume enables the reader to arrive at a deeper understanding of the role television plays in representing and constructing Indian modernity.
Contents
Foreword by Peter Ronald deSouza - Pending ; Acknowledgements ; Introduction by Biswarup Sen and Abhijit Roy ; 1. TV after Television Studies: Recasting Questions of Audiovisual Form ; Abhijit Roy ; 2. Televisual Temporalities and the Affective Organization of Everyday Life ; Purnima Mankekar ; 3. Television, Narrative Identity and Social Imaginaries: A Hermeneutic Approach ; Sanjay Asthana ; 4. From Clients to Consumers: The Missing Citizens among the Indian Television Audience ; Dipankar Sinha ; 5. Spaces of Television: Rethinking the Public/Private Divide in Postcolonial India ; Shanti Kumar ; 6. Television News and an Indian Infotainment Sphere ; Daya Kishan Thussu ; 7. Live News Was Too Dangerous: The Early History of Satellite TV in India ; Nalin Mehta ; 8. NDTV 24X7 Remix: Mohammad Afzal Guru Frame by Frame ; John Hutnyk ; 9. Big Brother, Bigg Boss: Reality Television as Global Form ; Biswarup Sen ; 10. The Saffron Hues of Gender and Agency on Indian Television ; Santanu Chakrabarti ; 11. Sange Thakun: Bangla News Channels and Media-citizenry ; Nilanjana Gupta ; 12. Tears, Talk and Play: A Window to Gender and Sexuality on Tamil TV ; Uma Vangal ; Afterword by Arvind Rajagopal ; About the Editors and Contributors ; Index
