Impact of Television on the Political Awareness of the Rural Masses

The radio and television regularly present national and international political information to their audience. The programes such as The News focus, election broadcasts, group discussions and features are part of the information service. But how much do our people, particularly the poor rural folks, receive the political broadcasts and telecaste? How many realise the importance of their own participation in the national, regional or local scene? How many of them have the basic political knowlege about the functioning of the government? How many are aware of the political system on which a decmocracy functions? How many have the bare minimum political background to understand the nuances of politics? These and many other such questions have no be answered if one wants to gain an insight into the impact of the mass media on political communications. This study is an attempt to assess the impact of Doordarshan on rural folks and to see now far the present political programmes on television are useful to the masses in creating political conciousness among them.