Read the following passage and answer questions that follow.
Considered from an urban point of view, the rapid growth in urbanization shows that the town or city has been acting as a magnet for the rural population. Those who cannot find work (or sufficient work) in the rural areas go to the city in search of work. This flow of rural-to-urban migration has also been accelerated by the continuous decline of common property resources like ponds, forests and grazing lands. These common resources enabled poor people to survive in the villages although they owned little or no land. Now, these resources have been turned into private property, or they are exhausted. (Ponds may run dry or no longer provide enough fish; forests may have been cut down and have vanished...). If people no longer have access to these resources, but on the other hand have to buy many things in the market that they used to get free (like fuel, fodder or supplementary food items), then their hardship increases. The hardship is worsened by the fact that opportunities for earning cash income are limited in the villages.
Identify how is mass media contributing to urbanisation.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → By showing the images of urban life style and patterns of consumption to rural people
Option (2) By showing the images of urban life style and patterns of consumption to rural people — Correct. Mass media and communication channels are bringing images of urban life styles and patterns of consumption into the rural areas. Urban norms and standards thus become well known even in remote villages, creating new desires and aspirations for consumption, and mass transit and mass communication are bridging the gap between the rural and urban areas.
Option (3) By changing the views of rural people — Incorrect. This is too general to answer the question. It does not say how the media acts or which views it changes; the way the media feeds urbanisation is by carrying the urban way of life and its consumption into the villages.
NCERT (2025-26): “2.6 Rural-Urban Differences … Mass media and communication channels are now bringing images of urban life styles and patterns of consumption into the rural areas. Consequently, urban norms and standards are becoming well known even in the remote villages, creating new desires and aspirations for consumption. Mass transit and mass communication are bridging the gap between the rural and urban areas. Even in the past, the rural areas were never really beyond the reach of market forces and today they are being more closely integrated into the consumer market…” |