Dev Vrat Singh, Ph.D.
Professor Dev Vrat Singh has been actively engaged in media profession, teaching, training
and research for the last 24 years. A professional-turned-academician, Prof. Singh earned his
doctorate in Mass Communication in the specific area of television news. He studied radio and
television journalism at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi in
1997. He was actively engaged in television journalism with many national channels before
joining media academics. At present, he is Professor of communication at the Department of
Mass Communication, Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi. Previously, he has also been
associated with Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism and Communication,
Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, Institute of Mass Communication and Media Technology,
Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra and Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana.
Dr. Singh has authored five books on Electronic Media History, Television Journalism, and
Television Content. His 20 research papers have been published by many reputed research
journals. He contributed chapters in 12 books and more than 50 articles in various newspapers
and magazines. He has supervised more than 100 Master Degree and M.Phil. dissertations and
two doctorates. He has been frequently invited as resource person by the national broadcasters
All India Radio and Doordarshan in its programs. His research interests are Indian Perspectives
of Communication, New Media and Visual Media
Phone: 9931960785
Address: Dean & Head, Centre for Mass Communication, School of Mass Communication and Media Technology, Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi
and research for the last 24 years. A professional-turned-academician, Prof. Singh earned his
doctorate in Mass Communication in the specific area of television news. He studied radio and
television journalism at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi in
1997. He was actively engaged in television journalism with many national channels before
joining media academics. At present, he is Professor of communication at the Department of
Mass Communication, Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi. Previously, he has also been
associated with Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism and Communication,
Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, Institute of Mass Communication and Media Technology,
Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra and Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana.
Dr. Singh has authored five books on Electronic Media History, Television Journalism, and
Television Content. His 20 research papers have been published by many reputed research
journals. He contributed chapters in 12 books and more than 50 articles in various newspapers
and magazines. He has supervised more than 100 Master Degree and M.Phil. dissertations and
two doctorates. He has been frequently invited as resource person by the national broadcasters
All India Radio and Doordarshan in its programs. His research interests are Indian Perspectives
of Communication, New Media and Visual Media
Phone: 9931960785
Address: Dean & Head, Centre for Mass Communication, School of Mass Communication and Media Technology, Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi
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Papers by Dev Vrat Singh, Ph.D.
communication. Theatre is one of the unique ways of human communication in which society participates and shares
its culture and tradition. Theatre is a live form of communication where there is a sharing of multiple cultural aspects through different modes. Theatre does not only disseminate the message through stories but also constitutes other elements which are useful in enhancing the effectiveness of the message. Both verbal and non-verbal modes of communication are experienced and expressed vibrantly in theatre.
In the age of ubiquitous digital disruptions, theatre is playing a significant role in connecting humans. It also enables sharing of culture from abstract to concrete. In a very subtle way, theatre gives exposure to connect and understand one’s own culture and it also allows one to get exposure to unknown cultural values and beliefs. The ancient Indian Sanskrit scripture Nāṭyaśāstra is a significant text which provides a detailed blueprint for theatre as well as communication practices. Interestingly, the scholarship looking for the Asian perspective of communication has explored Nāṭyaśāstra extensively. However, empirical research is rarely found in this area. The present paper aims to study the social relevance and contributions of theatre by way of promoting and protecting traditional values in the age of mass media. The qualitative research approach has been used in the present work in order to explore the values of theatre leading to the promotion of culture and traditions. The researchers have employed interviews as a tool for data collection. The data has been gathered from 65 theatre practitioners and theatre audiences during five prominent theatre festivals organized in five major North Indian cities.
Keyword: Asian perspective, Nāṭyaśāstra, Theatre communication, Promoting tradition, Cultural values.
The findings of the research show that contemporary theatre practitioners have personal aspirations as well as social obligations to practising theatre. Contemporary theatre practitioners also believe that theatre is a medium of entertainment as well as sensitizing people which aligns with the principle of Nāṭyaśāstra
evolved significantly since the dawn of the Internet era, from social media to chat rooms and instant messaging. Social media
has become a vital aspect of political communication during election campaigns during the previous two decades. During
India's 2014 general election, all political parties and candidates made substantial use of social media to rally voters. Social
media has emerged as a critical campaigning tool in India's electoral system. These new media platforms are expected to play a
vital role in attracting voters, particularly the new generation of young adults.
As the 2014 Indian Lok Sabha election campaign shows, political players can successfully use social media platforms such as
social network sites (SNSs) and microblogging services to broadcast information to voters and connect and discuss with them.
Through hand-coded content analysis of tweets, this study aims to obtain insight into the extent of usage of Twitter by both
parties (BJP & INC) in the political process and communication techniques during India's 2017 state legislative election
campaigns in seven states, also examining how their strategies varied by the state to state. The statistics indicated that BJP
candidates were likelier to utilize Twitter than INC candidates, tweeting twice as frequently on average. Additionally, the BJP
was more likely to embrace Twitter's multimedia capabilities.
According to Census 2011, Oraons are the second largest tribal population in Jharkhand. Scholars believe that there have been vast changes in the life style, traditions, community habits and communication patterns of the Oraon tribe during last two decades. But how far these changes have been caused by the mobile phones is yet to be traced out. Moreover, how does mobile phone transforms communication habits and patterns in a village community and eventually how these changes result in to silent transformation of the socio-cultural, political and economic sphere is a question yet to be answered.
The main objective of this study is to find out how mobile phone is contributing to the transformation of communication patters among Oraon community as whole and family and individual in particular. This study also endeavours to trace the emerging new digital culture in Oraon community of Jharkhand. A survey through interview schedule along with focus group is carried out among 400 mobile users with equal gender representation in 20 villages of two districts in Jharkhand. Outcome of this research helps understand about the changing ways and means of communication of marginalised tribal community living in socio-economic backwardness and information poverty.
Key words: Digital Culture, Mobile Communication, Oraon Community, Mobile phone, Marginalized Community, Tribal Society
This research tries to explore the nature of programs and audience participation in the production of these programs along with an enquiry about the usefulness of programs for the target audience. Doordarshan Ranchi is a unit of public broadcasting at regional level and study is an effort to evaluate the current scenario of feedback-mechanism and to discover various problems and challenges faced by this one of the oldest regional centres. While doing a case study, with the help of primarily structured and unstructured in-depth interviews, overview of the programming content data have been collected. Besides this secondary data such as annual reports, program schedules and files have been analysed.
The results show that the way Doordarshan Ranchi, as a Public Service Broadcaster, has been taking up feedback mechanism and audience research leaves room for much improvement in the content. The participation of audience in content selection is almost negligible. However, the indication from the experts suggests that there is usefulness of content being delivered by Doordarshan. These regional channels are continuously under pressure to earn revenues because of increasing expenses and lack of proper funding from Central government. Doordarshan is aiming to increase its revenues more now days. Participation of farmers and rural audience is less. Being the only public service broadcaster in Jharkhand state, relay of programmes is limited to a certain district not entire Jharkhand.
This paper attempts to answer several questions related to this complex and less debated issue in India. Critically analysing the visual advertising, television news and serials, and preferences of film directors while casting, this paper argues that visual media does not only reinforce the existing social stigma about the dark skin tone in India but also it largely creates an unrealistic and an entirely un-Indian myth of beauty among the young impressionable minds. Moreover, media’s excessive inclination towards fair skin is causing many serious social problems like suicides, low confidence and low self-esteem among dark-skinned people, growing dissatisfaction among spouses, increasing rejection cases of prospective marriage partners and limiting opportunities for dark-skinned people.
This paper strongly asserts the need for a pro-active role from the government, professional organisations and the civil society to ensure inclusion and celebration of all skin colours in visual media without any bias and prejudice.
Whereas across the world acquisitions and mergers among media companies are taking place resulting into media ownership highly concentrated in few hands. Paper argues that concentration in media ownership reduces healthy market-competition and that result in to increased price of information. When few dominant players rule the media market, audiences get lesser choices in content affecting the democratic public sphere adversely.
Paper addresses the issue of relationship of increasing media concentration with the diversity available in media reach and access. Analysing the present state of regulations it is found that Indian government has no clear-cut stand in this regard as there is no general policy on cross-media ownership. Its hesitant steps towards policy framing show that it will take more time to decide on this matter. Paper states that if the present trends in media growth continue in the coming decade media would be controlled by fewer business conglomerates, families, brands and chains. However at present situation is not very serious as the Indian media is passing through the expansion stage.