Television Viewing Behaviour of Women: A Study in Uttarakhand

Watching television has become a favourite pastime of the people. However, most of the TV offerings are cosmopolitan in nature, oriented towards middle/upper middle class and lack diversity and ethnic flavour. Realising that women are a distinct social entity having their own information and communication needs, various television channels have allotted a separate regular chunk for women in their transmission schedules. They regularly broadcast different programmes targeted especially at women of different social class. This study is an attempt to find out the pattern of television viewing behaviour of women in a university township, where the population is highly educated and displays diverse and varied lifestyles. The study findings reveal an interesting pattern of their viewing behaviour as well as choice of programmes and have implications for future policy considerations.