Role of media in social change: a case study on rural health in a Tribal village of Birbhum district, West Bengal

The term media is meant of various channels of communication by which news, educational, health and promotional messages, programs, etc. are disseminated to a large number of people in a very short span of time, especially through utilization of print and electronic media such as newspapers, magazines cinema, radio, television and the internet. The word Social change refers to any significant alteration or modification that occurs in a situation over a period of time in the social order of a society. Communication helps to bring social changes in the society in various ways. Here, social changes are taken place in terms of getting better health outcomes of tribal communities with the effect of media. The present study has been conducted in a less connected tribal village of Birbhum District, West Bengal, through the application of observation and interview techniques. The main objectives of this paper is (a) to study the impact of media on tribal society (b) to examine what are the social changes are found in tribal society with special references to health. The result of the study depicted that instead of taking the help of ethno medical practitioner like witch doctors, tantric, ojha's for getting health care treatment, the tribal communities are going to take the treatment from rural medical practitioners, qualified doctors, and also from the hospitals, because of dissemination of health oriented messages scattered by the media