Remapping the Indian Mediascape: News and Globalization in New Delhi

Miami University, Oxford OH

Investigators

Abstract

Dr. Mark Allen Peterson, of Miami University in Ohio, will study a particular instance of how globalization affects local culture and society. He will undertake a longitudinal study of news media in New Delhi using data from a 1992-93 study of the Indian press as a baseline. The earlier data revealed a "logic of responsibility," which required that reporters only provide the news that the editors and government thought would best nourish a growing nation. The "logic of responsibility" both sustained, and was sustained by, a particular economic, legal and political framework. Over the past fifteen years, however, these structures have changed dramatically, in part because of the opening up of the Indian economy and expanded foreign direct investment, as well as new understandings of what it means to be a nation. In addition, newspapers have faced rising competition from electronic news media and the availability of new information technologies. The researcher will undertake a systematic investigation of the consequences of these changes for the role of news media. Using surveys, interviews, and participant observation, he will track the ways that shifts in media technology, privatization of electronic media, changes in foreign direct investment and other transformations resulting from globalization have affected the cultural practices through which people produce and consume news, and, ultimately, how they use news to construct identities for themselves as part of the nation and the wider world. This project will contribute to social science theory of globalization. It will improve understanding of the interactive roles of news media in shaping perceptions of global-local relations, even as newsmaking institutions are being shaped by these dynamics. The research is important because there are few social science investigations of news media in developing nations, despite the critical role media play in local and international relations. The project also will contribute to local capacity building by employing Indian graduate students in the research.