Global Compulsions and Local Visions: Shifting Media Terms in Multicultural India.

The transformation of community values and objectives through exposure to foreign programming remains a primary concern for several media observers. However, an analysis along unilinear lines cannot explain the ramifications of global media?s entry into areas previously protected from such forces. Deeply institutionalized domestic values may manifest in the new competitive environment as global media strive to become a platform for local expression. I show this by examining the national cohesion, an objective considered essential goal for a modern-state. Historically, national media participated by providing a practical channel for diffusing this value. The current opening of this national communicative space to global players appears to present a significant threat to this objective. As several observers note the global integrative forces increase the possibility of linkages between national communities and extra-national networks that may undermine national unity. Foreign media may also impress upon national cohesion by introducing different concepts that influence sentiments of national belonging. In multicultural India, early strategies of national development highlighted the importance of national cohesion. At the same time, several contending approaches for achieving this objective appeared on the scene. In the decades following independence in 1947, the institutionalization of this objective with its different manifestations influenced national television?s infrastructural expansion and programming. Surprisingly, one finds these differing notions of national cohesion also present in the productions of diverse transnational and subregional enterprises. Furthermore, few of the transnational productions get involved in presenting different nationalisms as part of their strategy for acceptance in the new region. The state, local institutions, and the audience perform a critical role in shaping transnational strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]