Journal of Mass Communication & Journalism

This study has aimed to investigate the practices of development journalism in South Nations Nationalities and Peoples Regional state Radio and Television Agency. The study employed the combination of quantitative and qualitative research approach. The data collection method consist questionnaire, focus group discussion, in-depth interview, and review of sample broadcasted news and program documents (Archive) used as a tool for data collection. Purposive sampling is used to select informants and documents. The finding of study shows the misunderstanding of the concept of development journalism, by the majority of the journalists and media leaders. The pillars of Development Journalism are not clearly articulated in the editorial policy. As the finding revealed, the majority of the development issues focused on success rather than malfunction stories in the media. Event oriented reporting has dominated the long term development process in SRTA.

Media is also relevant as long as there is a human society. The curious tendency of human beings is important behind this. Man has been curious since the beginning. For this reason, he needed communication. He invented the first language. Then made information carriers like pigeons, messengers and hawkers. The evidence found in the excavation of Mohenjodaro, Harappa testifies that the media was in some form among us even in the beginning of civilization. Written information on the walls of the place is well appreciated. The inscriptions of Emperor Ashoka also appear to tell the story of the curious tendency of media and human society. However, since then, there has been a difference of ground and sky in today's era. With the increasing influence of information technology, new changes are being seen in the media.

In the 90s of the past century, there was like never before a great political and entertaining communication. A new reality of the political content is becoming obvious through a form of a public and mass media delivered communication in which political actors, themes, processes and meaning, identities are created. This new reality constructs the sphere in which normal citizens realize politics and where citizens are becoming more and more part of the political culture. Politainmnet has gained importance in the age of mediatization, digitalization, globalization, and Americanization of politics. TV shows and tabloids were first to include Politainment. Conventional formats of political magazines and news programs needed to change to win more attention.

In the one month following the abrogation of Article 370, there are major discrepancies in the reporting of the two largest English newspapers, i.e., The Hindu and The Times of India. These distinctions are viewed in the light of gate keeping theory, as well as the paid news phenomenon to understand the streamlining of information. Gate keeping is utilized to streamline information on accounts of political ideologies or appeasement of investors. The paid news phenomenon is also used to understand the same. The unit of analyses is the news items and the headlines. Tabulation of this news on the basis of the positions is done. Positional scoring on the basis of circulation is carried out and frames are decided upon, to highlight the predispositions of the newspapers. Moreover, this analysis is accompanied by the Chi-square test to determine the newspaper’s statistical association with the ruling party, with Article 370, and local political parties of Jammu and Kashmir.

Mostly television channel’s commercials were flooded with the trend of product-centric advertisements. We have observed that the commercials in general, laud the product specifications and its features, which repeat the same product features again and again. Interestingly, in the last decade commercials have been shifted moreover from product-centric ads to more creative ads that talk about an idea, which is close to the brand values. Some popular television commercials talk about certain ideas and take up deeper consumer insights instead of harping on the product solely. Television Commercials (in short i.e. TVCs) are going beyond the product features’ details by setting with a new advertising communication strategy. TVCs are being used for the social approach along with their commercial motives. Therefore in this study, we have traced these changes of television commercials and analyzed also the television commercials’ aesthetics values, the presentations style, and the social content behind it, which made this type of commercials worth watching.