The countryside campaign of All India Radio on new food crops, launched in 1967, reflects which view of the media in the early decades after independence?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Media as a partner in national development
Option (1) Media as the watchdog of democracy — Incorrect. A watchdog media keeps a check on those in power and exposes wrongdoing. A farm campaign run by the state broadcaster to spread new crops was not a check on power.
Option (2) Media as a money-spinning channel for sponsors — Incorrect. Money-spinning describes Vividh Bharati, which earned through sponsored programmes and advertisements. The farm campaign served farmers with advice on new crops and had nothing to do with earning money.
Option (3) Media as a tool of entertainment-education — Incorrect. Entertainment-education puts a social message inside a story or a show. The farm campaign gave farmers direct information and first-hand accounts from other farmers, with no story or show around it.
Option (4) Media as a partner in national development — Correct. In the early years, the media was seen as an active partner in the development of the newly free nation. AIR's long campaign on high yielding crops served this goal of national development.
NCERT (2026-27): “Radio … “In the 1960s, when the high yielding varieties of food crops, as a part of the Green Revolution, were introduced for the first time in the country. It was All India Radio which undertook a major countryside campaign on these crops on a sustained day-to-day basis for over 10 years from 1967. …” |