MEDIA ISSUES AND DEBATES IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA

Media is synonymous with ‘life’ today. It is the fastest growing industry, worth over two- trillion rupees in India. Media research encompasses analysis of its growth and the impact that creative conceptualization, production has on the consumption of this content; through a variety of media available due to the advancement of technology in contemporary times. This includes re-looking at the traditional media formats such as the news, reality shows, and entertainment programs made for mass media; innovations in film making techniques and editing films in different durations, as well as creating and marketing a variety of attractive new media products like gaming format, OTT content and novel interactive products like chatbot. This necessitates aceing research techniques, technology, and Design Thinking, to predict future trends in media, market and consumers.Putting together this collection has been a unique experience for the editors as it gave us an insight into the variety of research issues and debates in the contemporary media, as well as the insight into the emerging trends in popularity of media content and new formats that was evident through the research findings. These papers cover a wide range of political and social issues and debates covered in the media, and highlight the media representation of categories, ideas and people today. New media analysis and contemplation on old media formats have also been discussed in detail. This book is a collection of select research papers presented online, in a National Conference Montage-21, held by the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Faculty of Media Studies and Humanities in Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies, Faridabad. These papers were selected for publication after a close consideration on the ideas and research presented here. These contributors from different universities across the country gave consent to update in this format.We are sincerely grateful to each of them.As editors, we have kept the flow of the book independent, so that each paper can be read in isolation and does not necessarily have bearing on other chapters.