Global communication and television development: Community mediation in multicultural Indi

This dissertation examines a system that resists the dictates of more resourceful media corporations and encourages the emergence of community-oriented television in the globalizing economic system. The leading question asked here is how is it that the opening of national spaces that appeared to present transnational media with opportunities to dominate, turned into possibilities for community expression through autonomous communication channels. What are the institutional frameworks that leverage community enterprises in a less-regulated space to create television targeting cultural groups? And what are the wider implications of this community-oriented communication space? I use selected theories of globalization, communication, democratization, and multicultural development.;In seeking answers, I identify dynamic internal factors and institutions that guide media development as well as cultural consumption in a community. I argue that their influence on the domestic competitive structures compel the economically and technologically superior transnational players to turn to local resources for production of appropriate cultural products.;I present evidence from three communities in India, where the television sector transformed from a national system to a decentered community-based commercial system comprising external and internal players. The decentering that occurred in television is a product of dynamic interaction between coordinating domestic institutions, economic and political elite, and community members. These links ensure that community culture and its symbols are part of general production and consumption processes in a community, which tend to reinforce community cohesion. The transnational media may select specific cultural target groups, but their products depend upon domestic social and political processes.;I conclude that the changing dynamics of the relationships between the national political center and cultural communities determine how these community channels will function. Global players also respond to these community-nation interactions. The presence of plural communication at different levels may also aid democracy by providing spaces for better understanding between communities thereby increasing coordination between different cultural groups.