Read the passage carefully and answer the following questions from
Mass Media And Communication
It is obvious that there has been a phenomenal expansion of mass communication of all kinds in recent years. As students of sociology, there are many aspects to this growth which is of great interest to us. First, while we recognise the specificity of the current communication revolution, it is important to go back a little and sketch out the growth of modern mass media in the world and in India. This helps us realise that like any other social institution the structure and content of mass media is shaped by changes in the economic, political and socio-cultural contexts. For instance, we see how central the state and its vision of development influenced the media in the first decades after independence. And how in the post 1990 period of globalisation, the market has a key role to play. Second, this help us better appreciate how the relationship between mass media and communication with society is dialectical. Both influence each other. The nature and role of mass media is influenced by the society in which it is located. At the same time the far reaching influence of mass media on society cannot be over-emphasised. We shall see this dialectical relationship —(a) the role of media in colonial India, (b) in the first decades after independence and (c) and finally in the context of globalisation. Third, mass communication is different from other means of communication as it requires a formal structural organisation to meet large-scale capital, production and management demands. You will find, therefore, that the state and/or the market have a major role in the structure and functioning of mass media. Mass media functions through very large organisations with major investments and large body of employees. Fourth, there are sharp differences between how easily different sections of people can use mass media.
After 1990, the mass media was shaped by which phenomenon?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Globalization
Option (1) Globalization — Correct. In the first decades after independence the state and its vision of development shaped the media; in the post 1990 period of globalisation, the market has a key role.
Option (2) Liberalization — Incorrect. Liberalisation is the economic policy since 1991 of removing rules on trade and finance. It opened the way, but the period that shaped the media is named by globalisation, the stretching of social and economic relationships across the world.
Option (3) Modernization — Incorrect. Modernisation is the path of development taken by west Europe and North America, beginning with improvement in technology and production. It is not the phenomenon named for the media after 1990.
Option (4) Secularization — Incorrect. Secularisation is the decline in the influence of religion; it has nothing to do with the market’s role in the media.
Note: The passage of Q46-Q50 is the opening of the NCERT chapter ‘Mass Media and Communications’, reproduced by NTA; Q50 then goes beyond it. Even a chapter’s first page can carry a whole passage, so read the openings too.
NCERT (2025-26): “…This helps us realise that like any other social institution the structure and content of mass media is shaped by changes in the economic, political and socio-cultural contexts. For instance, we see how central the state and its vision of development influenced the media in the first decades after independence. And how in the post 1990 period of globalisation, the market has a key role to play.…” |