If you thought digital age would displace radio, better you change your idea. AZ Research report tells us that over 64 per cent population in India listens to FM Radio every day.
According to Nielsen, leading global information and ‘measurement’ company, “broadcast radio touches over 90 per cent of all age groups.” The enterprise, which provides market research, insights and data about what people watch, listen to and buy, documents that “young people touch it (the radio) for less time than older groups, but the reach is nonetheless mighty.”
But there is an interesting fact that Infinite Dial opens us to! The longest-running survey of digital media consumer behaviour, Infinite Dial (2016) reveals that radio ownership among consumers in America has seriously decreased. “From 2008, the percentage of Americans who don’t own a radio has grown from 4 per cent to 21 per cent. Narrow it down to the 18-34 group and the non-ownership of a radio is 32 per cent.”
When it comes to Kashmir, the number of radio listeners (non FM) seems to be declining. Whether the space is gained by the TV or the FM radio is a question for the researchers to find an answer to. However, the FM radio has emerged and is emerging as a robust loquacious medium, where the listeners are not just passive hearers, but feel to be part of the programme.
The challenge for the FM radio nonetheless is that whether it will be able to maintain its distinctive position from that of the TV, or it would become an oral version of our entertainment TV? To preserve its originality, the FM radio would have to resist the temptation of copying entertainment TV. Apart from the promoting more active participation of the listeners in the informative programmes, the FM radio need to slightly cut down the volume of the crass Bollywood entertainment that pointlessly goes into inane details of who wears what and who eats what in the glamorous world.
The unappeasable appetite for TRP arguably has robbed our entertainment TV of its originality. In the current times, Bollywood gossips and below the mark — if not cheap— entertainment shows (largely addressed to a small elite class of the country) consume the primetime on almost every TV channel with programmes historically significant, politically informative, morally edifying, culturally useful and aesthetically refreshing fast going off the air.
The trend indeed is dangerous particularly for our children. In the face of little compulsory program standard adherence by the electronic media, our children are exposed not only to violence, wittingly or unwittingly glorified on the TV screens, but also to a content not apt for their wholesome nourishment. It seems the on-screen media has by and large ignored its primary responsibility to ensure that TV programs reflect community standards.
Countries economically and scientifically far advanced than we are, strictly ensure TV content separation so that the children get programmes that help shape their development. Children of the modern age spend at least three to four years a day watching television. Certain studies conducted in the United States showed that children there spend at least three hours a day watching television. That is the reason that Congress determined that “broadcast television stations – both commercial and non-commercial – have an obligation to offer educational and informational children’s programming. In addition, television licensees, cable operators and satellite providers in the United States must limit the amount of commercials aired during children’s programs.”
The Congress made rules in America mandate providing parents and other members of the public with more information about educational television programming. This information helps parents guide their children’s television viewing.
Similarly, under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (the ACMA) is responsible for making standards for children’s programming on commercial free-to-air television. All commercial television licensees are required to broadcast 130 hours of material classified as preschool (P) and 260 hours of material classified as children’s (C) each year. The content of programs and advertising broadcast during the designated children’s viewing times when C and P material is broadcast are strictly regulated.
But our on-screen dissemination has been indiscriminate bothering little about content separation. In our part of the world, TV has perhaps stopped serving the educational and informational needs of the children.
Children’s watching the TV programmes meant for adults can prove dangerous. With TV serials mostly featuring concepts like divorce, crime, family feuds, love failures, murders, crimes, etc, watching such programmes by the children can have an unhealthy impact on their mind. Such content besides distracting them from their studies can force them to do undesirable things, which could create disturbance in child’s life and make his or her life stressful.
Our entertainment media— be it visual or oral— has a great impact on the psyche of our children— the way they think and the way they want to behave. That any irresponsible approach of the media could prove harmful for our children is not hard to understand. Let our entertainment media raise the amusement to the dignified level.