Impact of modern media in rural society and culture: A study in the village

Modern media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content anytime, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community formation around the media content. Another important promise of new media is the "democratization" of the creation, publishing, distribution and consumption of media content. What distinguishes new media from traditional media is the digitizing of content into bits. There is also a dynamic aspect of content production which can be done in real time, but these offerings lack standards and have yet to gain traction.

Modern media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media (also known as electronic media) transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles. Alternatively, print media uses a physical object as a means of sending their information, such as a newspaper, magazines, brochures, newsletters, books, leaflets and pamphlets. Photography can also be included under this subheading as it is a medium which communicated through visual representations. The term also refers to the organizations which control these technologies, such as television stations or publishing companies. Mobile phones, computers and Internet are sometimes referred to as New-age Media. Internet media is able to achieve mass media status in its own right, due to the many modern media services it provides, such as email, websites, blogging, Internet and TV. For this reason, many mass media outlets have a presence on the web, by such things as having TV ads which link to a

website, or having games in their sites to entice gamers to visit their website. In this way, they can utilise the easy accessibility that the internet has, and the outreach that internet affords, as information can easily be broadcast to many different regions of the world simultaneously and cost-efficiently. Outdoor media is a form of mass media which comprises of billboards, signs, placards placed inside and outside of commercial buildings/objects like shops/buses, flying billboards (signs in tow of airplanes), blimps, and skywriting.[5] Public speaking and event organising can also be considered as a form of mass media

Rural society, society in which there is a low ratio of inhabitants to open land and in which the most important economic activities are the production of foodstuffs, fibres, and raw materials. Such areas are difficult to define with greater precision, for, although in no industrialized nations the transition from city to countryside is usually abrupt, it is gradual in industrialized societies, making it difficult to pinpoint the boundaries of rural places. A second, related problem is that governments do not use the same statistical criteria for rural and urban populations; in Japan, for instance, any cluster of fewer than 30,000 people is considered rural, whereas in Albania a group of more than 400 inhabitants is regarded as an urban population.

In the past, rural societies were typified by their adherence to farming as a way of life. Such cultures were not goal- or achievement-oriented; their members sought subsistence, not surplus. Marked by a high regard for intimacy and traditional values, farming communities were often regulated by kinship customs and ritual, and, in particular, the ownership and care of productive land was strictly guarded by tradition.

Concerning our topic we went to a nearby village named Bali Para, near Santiniketan, which was mainly a Santhal village.The Santhal, one of the important tribe of Eastern India are distributed at Birbhum district in West Bengal. They are now-a-days influenced by the Hindu Religion. They belong to Scheduled Tribe. They worship Hindu gods. They use their language besides the Bengali language. But they have their own script known as ‘’Ol Chiki’’. But they also use the Bengali script. The present work is to attempt at the modern media impact on Santhal people of Balipara village of Birbhum District in west Bengal.

Map of Balipara

Village Demography

POPULATION – 152 Families

SCHOOL – 1 ICDS school

EDUCATION RATE – 60%

OCCUPATION – Daily Labour

Balipara a small tribal adjacent to Santiniketan, long time back Rabindranath Tagore had invited the tribals here. Visva-Bharati support the village initially. Balipara was name after the first sardar of the village BALI MAJHI.

We the students of CJMC, Sem- III We interacted with the villagers and came to know that they use mobile & cable television in their home. But they do not use radio at all. Though they are economically weak, but they use new media rapidly.

We talk with Chanu kisku, who use mobile for different purpose like talking, playing song, see videos. We also found that some people of Balipara used Bluetooth head phone. We meet with a girl, who loved to watching Tv and listening hindi song than santhali song. Maximum People of Balipara love to watch Cable Tv than National. They have not proper sanitation but they have a mobile. They use CD-DVD also. They are not use magazines, Internet etc. 

Santhals tribal culture and language is an invaluable national glory and asset. Disruption of the habitat has forced them to dislocate and get displaced. It has seriously affected their cohesive socio-cultural systems. There has arisen a dangerous threat that they could be turned into a human group with lost identity and dead language. The culture is on the verge of disintegration.When our societies are developed by using modern media. Santhals are failed to do this, these changes, that have failed to allure the Santhals, and have added to their misery, have had far-fetched ramifications on their life, otherwise harmonious and happy.