The Role and Success of Local Media Stations in Kargil
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FOCUSING ON THE LOCAL, CONNECTING TO THE GLOBAL: THE ROLE AND SUCCESS OF LOCAL MEDIA STATIONS IN KARGIL by Abdul Nasir Khan A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, FL August 2015 Copyright 2015 by Abdul Nasir Khan ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to express sincere gratitude to his advisor, Dr. Fred Fejes, and committee members, Dr. Chris Scodari and Professor Shane Eason, for all of their guidance and support during the writing of this manuscript. He would also like to thank all of the professors and staff members at FAU who helped him along the way to completing this degree. The author is grateful to the following individuals for contributing to this study, including Anayat Ali Shotopa (Correspondent, All India Radio Kargil), Basharat Hussain Ladakhi (Cameraman, Kargil Today; Correspondent India TV), Gulzar Hussain Munshi, Ghulam Nabi Zeya (News reporter, ETV Urdu), Hussain Khalo (Editor-in-Chief/Owner, Kargil Today), Mohd Ali Wahid, Nasir Hussain (Director/Owner, S TV Ladakh), Noor Ul Islam (Owner, Al Noor News Network Ladakh), Sajjad Hussain (Correspondent, Sahar Urdu TV), and Zakir Sengey. He would also like to thank all the anonymous participants of the survey for their contributions. Last but not least, the author wishes to thank Dr. Jacqueline Fewkes, Mr. Ramzan Khan, Ms. Attiya Kousar, Ms. Rubina Kousar, Amina Khan, and Zayd Khan. iv ABSTRACT Author: Abdul Nasir Khan Title: Focusing on the Local, Connecting to the Global: The Role and Success of Local Media Stations in Kargil Institution: Florida Atlantic University Thesis Advisor: Dr. Fred Fejes Degree: Master of Arts Year: 2015 This thesis is a study of the role of local television stations in Kargil (India), which investigates whether the success of local media in Kargil is a result of fulfilling the needs and desires of the local community, using the methods of content analysis, interviews, and surveys. Kargili local television stations have adopted global media technologies for disseminating their programs, but at the same time have changed some of the television convention to feed their needs and expectations of local viewers. The forces of globalization have not only exposed places like Kargil to new technologies, but it has given them an opportunity to participate in new discourses, to create a local media that is being used to address the specific concerns and problems of the local community. v FOCUSING ON THE LOCAL, CONNECTING TO THE GLOBAL: THE ROLE AND SUCCESS OF LOCAL MEDIA STATIONS IN KARGIL FIGURES ......................................................................................................................... viii I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1 Thesis Question ............................................................................................................... 2 Television and Broadcasting in India .............................................................................. 3 The Kargil Region ......................................................................................................... 13 II: THEORY AND METHODS........................................................................................ 21 Literature Review: The Significance of Local Television ............................................ 21 Literature Review: Language in Indian Local Television ............................................. 24 Literature Review: Globalization and Localization ...................................................... 28 Literature Review: Media Convergence ....................................................................... 32 Methods ......................................................................................................................... 34 The Local Stations of Kargil ......................................................................................... 39 III. CONTENT AND TEXT ANALYSIS OF KARGILI LOCAL TELEVISION PROGRAMS ON YOUTUBE .......................................................................................... 42 The Programs on YouTube ........................................................................................... 44 The Viewers on YouTube ............................................................................................. 45 Categorizing the Programs ............................................................................................ 48 The Languages of Kargili Stations ................................................................................ 55 Program Content ........................................................................................................... 63 Images and Visual Styles .............................................................................................. 65 Conclusions ................................................................................................................... 70 IV. MEDIA CONVERGENCE: THE USE OF “WHATSAPP” BY LOCAL STATIONS ....................................................................................................................... 74 vi Existing Research on WhatsApp ................................................................................... 78 WhatsApp and Local Television Stations in Kargil ...................................................... 81 Using WhatsApp: A Participant’s Experience .............................................................. 86 Case Study: “Stranded at Sonamarg” Story Unfolds on WhatsApp ............................. 91 Conclusions ................................................................................................................... 96 V. AUDIENCE SURVEY ON LOCAL TELEVISION IN INDIA ............................... 100 Profile of Survey Respondents .................................................................................... 101 News Sources and Choices ......................................................................................... 104 Media Technologies .................................................................................................... 108 Languages and Viewers .............................................................................................. 110 The Significance of Local TV ..................................................................................... 112 Conclusions ................................................................................................................. 121 VI. CONCLUSION......................................................................................................... 123 Meeting the Needs of a Community ........................................................................... 125 Balancing the Global and Local in Kargili Television Stations .................................. 129 Directions for Future Research ................................................................................... 131 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................ 132 WORKS CITED ............................................................................................................. 135 vii FIGURES Figure 1: Percentage of households that own televisions in Kargil .................................. 18 Figure 2: Percentage of households that own televisions in Jammu and Kashmir ........... 19 Figure 3: Percentage of households in India that own televisions .................................... 19 Figure 4: Interview Questions ........................................................................................... 35 Figure 5: A list of the types of information collected for the television program content analysis ..................................................................................................... 36 Figure 6: Content sections 1 and 2 of the online survey. .................................................. 37 Figure 7: A screen shot from Kargil Today station’s WhatsApp group page. ................. 38 Figure 8: Total number of YouTube viewers for the three stations 2011-2015 ............... 46 Figure 9: Average number of views per month, by year .................................................. 46 Figure 10: Percentages of different categories of shows selected and posted for showing on YouTube ............................................................................................ 49 Figure 11: Average number of viewers for an episode on YouTube ................................ 49 Figure 12: Screenshot from Face to Face Talk with Thupten Tsewang ........................... 51 Figure 13: Screenshot from “Aawam Ke Aawaz” documentary ...................................... 52 Figure 14: Screenshot from “Umeed Ki Kirn” documentary ........................................... 53 Figure 15: An advertisement screenshot from Munshi Habibullah Mission School ........ 54 Figure 16: Screenshot from Al Noor News Ladakh ........................................................ 56 Figure 17: A chart detailing the number of episodes using the different languages in spoken form .......................................................................................................... 56 viii Figure 18: A chart of the number of episodes using spoken vs. written forms of the various languages .................................................................................................