1Assistant Professor, Amity School of Communication, Amity University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
The paper records the pre-poll content analysis of television programs before the Assembly polls of Uttar Pradesh in 2012. To validate how far such programs were impacting viewership, a survey was conducted to analyse the extent of the impact. First, the paper illustrates the data gathered and conclusively draws that it is only the intellectuals that is media literate to intercept media messages clearly. Second, the paper also exfoliates important conceptual theories put forth by researchers and restates them in Indian perspective. It is pertinent to point out that online discourses have displaced the ancient perspective of spiral of silence, which in the online discourses is surprisingly missing. Third, the agenda setting function of the press has been challenged and re-stated by the online discourses which have taken a lead to persuade media to look in the direction of the agenda put forth by them. The net conclusion is that public discourse does result in the rise of a civic society and public journalism goes a long way to prove that but in the current phase of transition the impact is limited and steps are needed to accelerate the penetration of public discourse into the psyche of the common man who needs to learn the art of media literacy to understand the clarity of news amidst the clutter of media agenda which is an evident fallout of the new trend of corporatisation of the media.
Public journalism, Public discourse, Indian TV data, Agenda setting challenged, Corporatisation of media, Content analysis, Political communication
