Television Publics in South Asia

Television has a prime role to play in the formation of discursive domains in the everyday life of South Asian publics. This book explores various television media practices, social processes, mediated political experiences and everyday cultural compositions from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Autorentext

S M Shameem Reza teaches media and communication at the University of Dhaka. He held Asia Fellowship at the Institute of Malaysia and International Studies (IKMAS), University Kebangsaan Malaysia. As adjunct and guest faculty, he has contributed to a number of universities and academic programmes including the Regional Masters in Media Communication and Journalism, in collaboration with the University of Dhaka, Nepal College of Journalism, University of the Punjab, and Oslo University College. Dr Reza's recent publications include Revisiting Children's Participation in Television: Implications for Digital Media Rights In The Routledge Companion to Digital Media and Children. London: Routledge (2021), The Politico-commercial Nexus and the Broadcast Policy Reform in Bangladesh In Media as Politics in South Asia, London: Routledge (2017). Some of his articles and chapters also include A Political Economy of Television in Bangladesh In Bangladesh's Changing Mediascape: Form State Control to Market Forces. Bristol: Intellect (2013), Governing Bangladesh Broadcasting System: Scopes for Policy Reform, Social Science Review. Vol. 29, No. 1 (2012), From Elite Perceptions to Marginal Voices: Community Radio in Bangladesh In Community Radio in the 21st Century. Oxford: Peter Lang (2012), View from Bangladesh: Preparing for Community Radio In Peoples' Voices, Peoples' Empowerment. Singapore: AMIC (2012), Campaigns on Local Environmental Issues in Bangladesh Newspapers, Media Asia, Vol. 38, No. 4.

Ratan Kumar Roy is Assistant Professor of the School of General Education at BRAC University, Bangladesh. He is a Charles Wallace Bangladesh Trust Postdoctoral Research Fellow at LSE South Asia Centre, UK. Dr Roy worked as a Research Fellow at the Centre for Culture, Media & Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He was a residency research fellow in Asia Culture Centre, Korea in 2018. He received Doctoral award from the Department of Sociology, South Asian University (A University Established by SAARC Nations), New Delhi. His book titled Television in Bangladesh: News and Audiences has been published by Routledge, London, 2021. Besides, he has authored some book chapters and articles in reputed journals. Currently he is working the Chief Coordinator of International Research Center, SIMEC Institute of Technology, Dhaka. Dr. Roy's research and teaching interests are anthropology of media, visual culture and communication, media and social movement, communication research methods, media and culture in contemporary South Asia, media ethnography and digital media culture.

Inhalt

List of Figures vii

List of Tables viii

List of Contributors ix

Acknowledgements xiii

1 Introduction: Imagining South Asian Television Publics 1

S.M. Shameem Reza and Ratan Kumar Roy

PART I

Television Viewership and Localizing Publics 19

2 Social Realms of Audiences: Women's Collective Viewing of Mega Teledramas in Sri Lanka 21

Shashini Gamage

3 The Dramatic Escape From Pandemic Life: Everyday Experience of Watching Television During the Lockdowns 38

Rashmi Kumar

4 Televised Sexuality and Public Perception: Voicing the Taboo in Pakistani TV Dramas 51

Wajiha Raza Rizvi and Maheen Imran

5 Indian Television and the Rise of the Local: Televised Realities of Localized Sociocultural Experience 74

Raj Sony Jalarajan and Adith K. Suresh

PART II

Consumption and Construction of Reality 91

6 OTT-Based Digital Sociality: An Exploration of the Viewership Among Urban Youth in Bangladesh 93

Moiyen Zalal Chowdhury

7 Television News and Public Perception of Death in India: Case of Covid-19 Pandemic 111

Deepu Pratheep

8 Television Viewership and Engagement in Rural Kashmir: From Cathode Ray Tube to Smart TV 123

Syed Aadil Hussain and Ruheela Hassan

9 Emergence of Television Publics in Nepal: Intense Participation of Audiences as News Sources, Critics and Fans 137

Harsha Man Maharjan

PART III

Mediatizing Politics and Constructing Publics 159

10 Live Public: Television and Mobilization in Post-Liberalization India 161

Abhijit Roy

11 The Everyday Nation of Indian News Television 178

Maya Ranganathan

12 Reproducing the Truth: Television News in Sri Lanka 195

Pradeep N' Weerasinghe

13 From Public Turn to Publicness in Media: Notes on Media Public in India 220

Biswajit Das and Ridhi Kakkar

Index 242