It is true that, unlike in many other countries, the press in India remains a relatively independent, diverse and pluralistic media institution. But a broad overview of trends in the growth and structural change of the press over the four decades since the 1960`s does throw up many critical issues relating to its role and functions as a key democratic institution. For instance, it is often argued, especially in the context of the western press, that commercialization of journalism leads to de-politicization or popularization of messages. A popular press would only seek and construct areas of consent, and not of conflicts. This it does by simplifying the language of politics through symbols and stereotypes. The number of people who buy newspapers may have increased over the years; but the newspapers they read do not necessarily represent their views. In other words, a commercialized press cannot be an arena of meaningful public debate, as its crucial roles - the credible informational and adversarial - get modified to address only the day to day crises rather than any fundamental ideological issue.
The concern about popularization of the press becomes all the more serious in the context of the language press in regions stricken by low level of social and economic development, especially the Hindi-speaking states. It needs to be noted that, primarily due to their low level of literacy, the press in these states (Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar) had played only a limited role in shaping public opinion or in forming a participating and informed citizenry. But starting from the late 1970`s they witnessed an unprecedented expansion in newspaper out-turn and circulation. Rise in literacy, emergence of a new elite class (comprising wealthy farmers, small industrialists and government servants) and the coming in of micro-electronics-based technology must have provided the Hindi press with the necessary base for this expansion. However, studies have pointed out that the phenomenal rise in circulation of Hindi news dailies can be singularly attributed to their success in popularizing 'Hindu nationalist' sentiments in the wake of the Ram Janmabhoomi issue. Interestingly, though circulation figures of Hindi dailies rose sharply since 1990, only a few papers could gain any reputation for accuracy and fairness. The Press Council of India had to censure many papers for slanted coverage of communal issues or utterly false reporting. The moot question is in what way a commercially oriented popular press impacts the larger process of consolidation of Indian democracy.
In other words, the press has the maturity and prowess to hold on to the values of democracy in the face of increasing fragmentation of the media market and convergence of technologies. It is important to note that the Indian media system has been fast undergoing changes over the past decade, especially after the coming in of cable and satellite television (privately owned and largely unregulated), and the new media 'spawned by the revolutionary chemistry of personal computers, digital technology and the Internet' . While the social and political implications of the latter are yet to be understood fully, the possibility of cross-ownership of different media institutions has made the question of control of media power all the more relevant in Indian media studies. This indeed is an important aspect of growth of the contemporary press that needs to be explored in greater detail.
Obviously, a popular or depoliticized commercial press positioned within a globalizing media and communication industry is a matter of concern. In India the globalization debate with respect to the print media has seldom gone beyond the issue of allowing foreign equity participation in the print media. There have been occasional outcries, especially in the last decade, against insulating the presses from foreign capital while the economy in general, and electronic media, in particular, was being opened to foreign investment. However, all the governments have stayed away from tampering with the recommendation of the First Press Commission (1954) that ownership of the media should be in Indian hands, and the following Cabinet Resolution in 1955 that barred foreigners from running newspapers. Also, a number of big national and regional media houses have been campaigning hard to keep the foreign investor out of the print media. However, the union cabinet took a decision in June 2002 to allow up to 26 per cent foreign direct investment in the news and current affairs segment of the media and 74 per cent in the non-news, non-current affairs segment. While this has unleashed a fresh spurt of debate on the pros and cons of foreign equity participation, both the proponents and the opponents of the move have largely come to terms with the changing rules of the game. The Indian Hindi press, it appears, is moving towards a fresh phase in its transformation.
