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Audience-Citizens:
The Media, Public Knowledge and Interpretive Practice Technology has gained accessibility in every sphere of our lives. The result—we are more attuned to the daily happenings around us and are capable of forming an opinion on issues that may or may not pertain to us. We, the audience have a voice and it matters. This is what the author of the work in question wants to convey. Ramaswami Harindranath is Associate Professor in the Media and Communications Programme at the School of Culture and Communication, the University of Melbourne, Australia. The work breaks fresh ground in analyzing the interesting yet unexplored relationship between democratic processes and media. In this age of globalisation politics, economy, culture and the thought-process of every nation has undergone a vast change. The media has become globalised, linking the local inextricably with the events on the world stage. This is proved by the author by giving the example of Murdoch-owned Star TV’s decision to air separate programmes for people of different languages and regions in East Asia. This was done keeping in mind the varied audience with diverse interests in mind. The audience is a witness to each happening that triggers off the spark to express and mould the future. In the context of India he says: "In the current climate of economic change, where the balance attempted in India’s experiments with ‘mixed economy’ has been rapidly transformed into a market-oriented economy, issues of globalisation ought to take centre stage." The audience has grown in number as well in awareness. That is why the present research. The author discusses the issue of consumerism "which seems to have burgeoned in proportion to the recent economic ‘reforms’ which have dovetailed the introduction of and dramatic increase in foreign cable and satellite channels." This brings us to the issue of culture imperialism which invariably happens because we are viewing incidents, events that appeals to the director of the shot. The answers of the respondents regarding the effect of documentaries are noteworthy. One of the respondents categorically replied that though the documentary is supposed to be objective, "...the very fact that you’re focusing a camera lens on something itself becomes a subjective kind of decision, because you think it’s valuable, it’s important and so on." India, because of its rich diversity in language, culture and religion, offers a remarkable and challenging field to study the media's relationship with its audience. The author himself feels that the people of his home-state, Tamil Nadu, "suffer an additional burden, since linguistic chauvinism has successfully kept Hindi out of schools." The researcher has to tread with care for the people understand a situation as it suits them and thus, interpret it according to their convenience. The work endeavours to shed new light on an untouched area. Fresh derivations make it valuable. For example, in India, the author says, higher education plays an important role in dividing India into a westernised and non-westernised one. Higher education plays a crucial role in opinion making, though it varies in the rural and urban areas. The writer has quoted relevant works in abundance, challenged several, refuted others and made some the base for further studies. The work comes across as heavy literature, bludgeoned with a rich vocabulary that sometimes takes time to register. Toning down the language would have guaranteed a wider readership. Students of mass communication would definitely benefit from this work. It is not a book that makes for casual reading; it taxes the reader’s mind and needs full concentration. The book is undoubtedly very good for reference for further studies.
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