The first feature film made on the Indian soil is Raja Harischandra, directed by Dhundiraj Govind Phalke in 1913. It was based on the story of King Harischandra.

Television: The word television literally means seeing things from distant places. In April 1925 John Logie Baird of London had set up his television apparatus in a London department store and demonstrated the first crude functioning of television.

Television was started as a modest affair in India on September 15, 1959, when the AIR set up an experimental television service in Delhi. Later, it was converted into full-fledged TV station. In 1993, Asianet, the first private television channel in India began telecasting.

Radio: Guglielmo Marconi of Italy invented the mode of transmitting sound signals without using wires. By 1901, Marconi succeeded in creating a wireless communication link between Europe and North America. Later in 1906, Lee Forest and John Fleming invented a vacuum tube, which made clear transmission of voice possible. This led to the first-ever radio broadcast in 1906 in the USA.

In India, radio broadcasting was started by amateur radio clubs. In June 1923, the Radio Club of Bombay made the first-ever broadcast in the country. In 1927, the Indian Broadcasting Company (IBC) was formed. In 1930, the government took over their transmitters and formed the Indian State Broadcasting Service (ISBS). In 1935, Lionel Fielden of BBC assumed charge as the first Controller of Broadcasting in India. In 1936, the Delhi station started functioning. The same year the company was renamed as All India Radio (AIR). From 1956 onwards AIR got another name ‘Akashvani’. The Sanskrit word ‘Akashavani’ meaning ‘celestial announcement’ was coined by M.V.Gopalaswamy

Media Convergence is the process where several media channels or formats come together to exist and operate in synergy in a single device. It is a merger of different mass media. The convergence of media is visible in everyone’s life. For example, now we use mobile phones to talk to friends, listen to music, watch movies, send emails, surf the web, read newspapers, take photographs or videos and to do more. Earlier we used separate devices like a tape recorder, radio, newspapers, television, still cameras and video cameras for these activities

In a society like ours, mass media have a responsible role to play in fostering democracy, plurality and communal harmony through the functions listed below.

• Information and Education.
• Socialisation
• Entertainment
• Political awareness
• Cultural transmission
• Catalyst to development

After having a discussion on these ideal functions of mass media in any society, you will be able to analyse how our mass media perform their functions in our own society.

If mass media function in a perfect manner, socially desirable acts like cooperation, tolerance, sharing, communal harmony and patriotism will bloom in the society. But there are criticisms that mass media can provoke behaviours that violate the prevailing desirable social norms. For example, some communication media carry contents featuring pornography and violence.

• Research studies show that overexposure to media contents, especially visual media contents, featuring violence and criminality can provoke violent behaviour in viewers, particularly among youths and children.
• Media can reinforce sex-role and communal stereotypes that lead to sexism and communalism.
• Excessive advertising may manipulate people into buying things they don’t really want.
• Overexposure to media can have an impact on our most intimate and valued relationships since it consumes more and more of our available free time. Excessive use of television may reduce community involvement in various day to day issues and too much of social networking may displace face-to-face relationships. Communication media may affect physical health also.
• Over watching of television is associated with obesity in children. Cartoons with rapidly changing images and extreme colours may cause damages to the brain and eyes.