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ACADEMIC PAPER Impact
of
Karnataka
government
What is India News Service The concept of development has acquired significance especially after the World War II. The world’s poorest countries show no signs of catching up with the developed countries, despite the promised benefits of globalization. Progressive redressing of these inequities remains an important challenge in the new millennium. India is prominently a rural society. About 75 per cent of the people reside in the rural areas. The importance of rural development forming the core of national development strategies is being increasingly recognized.
Planning for better development communication both at urban and rural areas has until now been a rather haphazard process. Especially, the rural areas still remain malnourished from development communication point of view. New approaches call for procedures, which systematically identify and select relevant policy instruments, communication resources, media intervention programmes and widely participatory networks in relation to development communication system in Karnataka State in particular. The intervention of the state government in planning and executing meaningful and purposeful development communication programmes assumes new significance in the present times. DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATIONThe Department of Information and Publicity was started as a microscopic wing of the Karnataka State Government. It has now been renamed as 'Department of Information’. The Department has different branches like press and news, photo and film, exhibition, commercial publicity, song and drama, which are responsible for disseminating development information through publicity, advertisement, propaganda and other tools and techniques. The Information Department covers the entire State of Karnataka, which has 175 talks, 26,800 villages and 4,37,63,691 population 1991 (census report). The department has been functioning like a bridge between the government and media on the one hand and between the government and people on the other hand. The specific objectives of the department include:
The department employs various multi - media namely Press Release, Pamphlet, Brochure, Poster, Periodical, Song, Dance, Slide, Film Show, Photo, Exhibition, Seminar, Conference, Public Meeting and so on. The Minister of State heads the Department. There is a Director who supervises all the activities of the department. Joint Directors, Assistant Directors, Deputy Directors, District Information Officers, Assistant Editors, Information Assistants, Staff Photographers, Technicians and many other staff assist him. SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDYThere is a need to have multi – media packages and produce low cost media materials for grassroots communication and development. Communication support is crucial for development programmes. In reality, the Department of Information has series of limitations in extending adequate communication support to innumerable development projects of the Government of Karnataka. Prominent among them includes inadequate budgetary allocations, manpower, resources and activities. Advertisement is an integral part of modern society. There have been revolutionary changes in the advertising scenario in the last few years. Today advertising is used not only to sell the products but also to popularize the beneficial effects of various development projects launched by the government and non- government organizations. Modern advertising includes not only stimulating demand, but more importantly disseminating information, creating awareness, enlisting the active participation of the beneficiaries and activating implementers to ensure the success of the development projects of the government and non – government agencies. Few researchers in Karnataka State have assessed the role of Information Department in facilitating participatory and balanced development. The major deficiency observed in their works was the lack of emphasis either on the advertising media intervention for integrated development or government advertising management for development programmes. Further, past studies did not indicate the factors contributing to the efficient management of advertising as well as the media or methods of improving the role of advertising in development. Grassroots level development advertising scenario of Karnataka State is less understood due to the lack of comprehensive and systematic communication investigations. Therefore, the primary tasks of the present study is concerned with understanding the role of Information Department in disseminating advertisements and enlisting the active participation of the people in various development projects of the Government of Karnataka. The study primarily answers to several questions in the area of communication between development projects and beneficiaries. A need was seen to investigate Karnataka State Government advertisements as an integral part of development process and not independent of it. It was felt necessary to actually fit the advertising process into the development context of Karnataka State. Hence, “ An Evaluation of the Impact of Karnataka State Government Advertisements on People” was conducted with a view to scientifically assess the status, drawbacks and opportunities of State Government Advertising as an instrument of development. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDYThe specific objectives of the study include:
METHODThe flow of development project support communication that occurs through the advertisements disseminated by the Information Department of Karnataka State especially at the grassroots level was the chief focus of this study. The primary objective of the present study, as has been made clear in the earlier paragraph, requires investigating the socio – economic influence of advertisement on people. The researchers also investigated the forms of advertisement, which link the grassroots to the mainstream of development. Thus, it is a two-way traffic how the people at the grass root level reciprocate from the micro level to the macro level development system. The survey method was adopted for the study. A questionnaire / interview schedule was administered. It consisted of questions on various aspects of Karnataka State Government advertisements disseminated by Information Department. It was designed to explore the understanding of these respondents have of the advertising system, process and impact. A total of 432 respondents from both urban and rural areas of Hassan, Mysore, Mandya and Chamarajanagar districts were randomly selected for the purpose of the study. However, the sample respondents were selected from the town and villages where the Information Department had conducted advertising campaigns recently.
Besides survey method, non – participant observation, informal
discussion and review of secondary sources of information were also used
as other methods to study the status, drawbacks and opportunities of
Karnataka State Government advertisements.
Using percentage analysis method did the analysis of data.
The usual limitations of the method, namely, time, the researchers
experienced human and resource inadequacies, recollection and
communication. DATA ANALYSISPrimary data were gathered from the respondents on vital aspects namely – Media habits, access to government advertising, sources of Government advertising, utility of government advertising, understandability of Government advertising, ideal media mix for government advertising and alternative methods of disseminating government advertising. STUDY AREASTABLE 1: DISTRIBUTION OF STUDY AREAS AND RESPONDENTS
TABLE
2: PROFILE OF RESPONDENTS
MEDIA HABITS OF RESPONDENTS TABLE 3: RESPONDENT’S VIEW ABOUT NEWSPAPER READING
The data reveals that a vast majority of the respondents (84.26%) read the Newspaper while a small percentage (15.74) does not read. There are a large number of male respondents who read the Newspaper (78.30%). However, more number of female respondents (57.35%) does not read them. It is evident from the data that a large number of young and middle aged respondents read the Newspaper Among the respondents who read the Newspaper, a majority (36.26%) of them belongs to the age group of 18 – 27, followed closely by respondents (31.86%) aged between 28 & 37. The data also reveal that a majority of the respondents who have studied upto matriculation (46.98%) read Newspapers. They are followed by graduates (18.41%) and pre-university group (13.74%). Thus, a vast majority of educated sections of respondents read Newspaper. It is evident from the data: a vast majority of educated sections of the respondents (84.26%) read Newspaper. This group mainly includes male respondents, young and middle-aged respondents, matriculation and degree level respondents. TABLE 4: RESPONDENTS VIEWS ABOUT READING VARIOUS NEWSPAPERS Click here to see Table 4 The data reveals that more number of respondents (39.12%) read Prajavani, a leading Kannada daily in the state. After Prajavani, two popular local dailies in Kannada, Andolona (18.75%) and Mysooru Mithra (18.75%) are widely read. Along similar line comes Kannada Prabha (18.15%) followed by Vijaya Karnataka (16.16%). The least number of respondents reads Samyuktha Karnataka (5.09%). Other newspapers that do not belong to the popular mainstream dailies in Kannada also enjoy sizable readership (20.37%). They include Udayavani, Janavahini, Prajanudi, etc., It is true that more number of respondents with higher educational background prefer prominent regional dailies. Most male respondents read Kannada Prabha, Vijaya Karnataka, Mysooru Mithra, Prajavani, and Andolona respectively. More number of female respondents read Andolona, Samyuktha Karnataka, Mysooru Mithra, Prajavani and Vijaya Karnataka. Surprisingly, women respondents read local dailies in good number while male respondents read regional dailies in large number. It is also true that most of the respondents belonging to younger and middle age groups read the prominent regional and local dailies namely Prajavani, Kannada Prabha, Andolana and Mysoore Mithra. Few respondents read other newspapers. Respondents with matriculation background read maximum local dailies like Andolana (70.13%) and Mysooru Mithra (67.5%). While the respondents who are graduates, prefer to read regional – dailies like Vijaya Karnataka (31.50%) Prajavani (22.48%) and Kannada Prabha (22%). More number of respondents reads prominent regional and local dailies. Surprisingly, more number of male respondents and well-educated respondents prefer to read prominent regional dailies. More number of less educated and female respondents prefers to read local dailies. MAGAZINE READING TABLE 5: RESPONDENTS VIEWS ABOUT MAGAZINE READING
The data reveal that more than half of the respondents (54.17%) do not read Magazines, while only less than half of them (45.83%) read magazines. More number of male respondents (70.51%) read Magazines, when compared to female respondents (24.75%). This is an interesting finding because, women in spite of having apparent leisure, do not seem to consider magazine reading as a worthy activity. A majority of the young and middle age group of respondents read Magazines. Interestingly, more number of old age groups of respondents have not found reading Magazines a worthy exercise. As usual, more number of respondents with matriculation and degree level educational background read Magazines. Surprisingly, there are no takers among highly educated respondents in this regard. A majority of male, young and middle age group and matriculation and degree level respondents read Magazines. PROMINENT MAGAZINESTABLE 6: RESPONDENTS VIEWS ABOUT READING VARIOUS MAGAZINES
The data reveal that more number of respondents read popular Kannada magazine ‘Sudha’ (21.99%) followed by another popular magazine ‘Taranga’ (16.43%). Statistically speaking, other magazines namely Hai Bangalore, Lankesh Pathrike etc., enjoy significant readership (25.92%). This indicates the respondent’s choice of a variety of magazines instead of limiting themselves to popular and mainstream magazines. The table also shows that a more number of male respondents prefer Taranga (78.87%), where as more number of female respondents prefer Sudha (23.15). A majority of younger and middle age group of respondents also read other magazines namely, Hai Bangalore, Lankesh Pathrike etc., Taranga and Sudha are the widely read magazines. More respondents belonging to the Matriculation and Higher educational categories prefer Sudha, Taranga and other magazines. Thus, a vast majority of the respondents regardless of their age and education prefer prominent Kannada magazines of our times. Surprisingly, prominent English magazines are not read by a considerable number of respondents because of limited local coverage, high cost and other factors. RADIO LISTENING TABLE 7: RESPONDENTS VIEWS ABOUT RADIO LISTENING
The total percentage of those who listen to Radio is 53.70, whereas those who do not are 46.20. There are more number of men who listen to Radio (77.16%) as compared to that of women (22.84%). There are more number of respondents who listen to Radio belonging to the age group of 18 – 27 with a percentage of 32.76, followed by the age group of 28 – 37 with a percentage of 27.59. The least number of respondents were from the age group of 48 – 57 with a percentage of 8.19. Thus, a majority of young and middle age groups of respondents listen to Radio. A majority of listeners are those who have studied upto matriculation (46.55%), followed by the graduates (19.83%). Thus, a majority of men, younger group and matriculation level respondents listen to the Radio programmes. PROMINENT RADIO CHANNELSTABLE 8: RESPONDENTS VIEWS ABOUT PROMINENT RADIO CHANNELS
The data reveal that more number of respondents listened to AIR Mysore (43.75%), followed by AIR Bangalore (37.26%), Vivid Bharathi (11.34%), AIR Dharwad (8.56%) and BBC (3.93%). The male respondents preferred the Akashvani Bangalore (81.98%), Akashvani Dharwad (78.38%), Vivid Bharathi (79.60%), Akashvani Mysore (76.92%) and BBC (70.59%). Interestingly, BBC is very popular among women with higher percentage of listening (29.41), followed by AIR Mysore (23.28%), Vivid Bharathi (20.41%), AIR Dharwad (18.92%) and AIR Bangalore (16.15%). It is clear from the data that Akashvani Mysore programmes are preferred by the age group of 18 – 27 (32.27%) while the age group of 28 – 37 opted for Akashvani Dharwad (35.13%), followed by the age group of 38 – 47, which listened to Vivid Bharathi (32.65%). There are more number of listeners of AIR Bangalore (56.21), AIR Mysore (52.38%), Vivid Bharathi (37.50%), AIR Dharwad (36.11%) and BBC (23.53%) with matriculation background. Interestingly, graduates prefer to listen to BBC (41.17%), followed by AIR Dharwad (27.02%), Vivid Bharathi (26.53%), AIR Mysore (16.93%) and AIR Bangalore (17.39%). Thus, a majority of the respondents regardless of their gender, age and education prefer regional programmes. Surprisingly, more number of women and well-educated respondents prefer overseas programmes. TELEVISION
VIEWING
TABLE 9: RESPONDENTS VIEWS ABOUT TELEVISION VIEWING
Going over to Television, the total percentage of viewers constitutes 93.75%, while that of non – viewers are only 6.25%. Once again the male respondents outnumber the female viewers with 73.09%, followed by female respondents (26.91%). Largest number of viewers is between the age group of 18 – 37 years with 68.40%, followed by other age groups. More number of viewers are from the Matriculation category (46.42%), followed by the Graduates (16.05%) and PUC group (11.85%). It is also noted that about 7.65% of the illiterates also watch Television. Thus, Television medium, which has grown over the years as the masses of all media, has attracted large number of respondents including male respondents, educated sections, and young age group of respondents. TABLE 10: RESPONDENTS VIEWS ABOUT VIEWING VARIOUS TELEVISION CHANNELS Click here to see the Table 10 The data reveal that Udaya channel has the maximum viewers (90.97%), followed by E – TV (59.72%), Chandana (49.30%), DD 1 (47.37%), Ushe (45.37%), Sun TV (31.71%), Kaveri (30.76%), Suprabhatha (22.91%) and BBC (11.57%). The regional Kannada channels have been accessible to a majority of the respondents. More than 70% of the male respondents have access to Udaya, Chandana, DD 1, and E –TV (Kannada). Kaveri, Ushe, and Suprabhatha channels are catering to the needs of more than 60% of the respondents. In case of female respondents, Suprabhatha, Sun TV, Ushe, Kaveri, DD 1, Chandana and Udaya channels are more accessible. Sun TV, Ushe, E – TV and Kaveri channels are found more accessible to the younger age group of respondents. The respondents with matriculation background view Suprabhatha, Kaveri, Sun TV, E - TV, Chandana, Udaya and DD 1 Channels in large numbers. Thus, the Kannada programmes are found to be more accessible Television channels, rather than other channels to majority of respondents irrespective of gender, age and educational categories. CINEMA VIEWING
TABLE 11: RESPONDENTS VIEWS ABOUT CINEMA VIEWING
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