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From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin )
Newsgroups: net.nlang.india
Subject: Re: India and the Media
Message-ID: <9226@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 14-Mar-85 16:14:02 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.9226
Posted: Thu Mar 14 16:14:02 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 17-Mar-85 01:35:39 EST
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Regarding "The Jewel in the Crown" -- what I find to be the most interesting
part of the program is the opening newsreel clips. I would really like to see a
program comprised of these and other newsreels, in uncut form, with narration
explaining all the little details and what is going on in the scenes,
not just the particular main event being pictured.

Something like this would probably still not reveal the real India of the time,
but it could explicitly be described as the journalists' and "official" view
of the events depicted. Some Indian historians could then describe what was 
REALLY happening in the background or in the surrounding culture.

Another aspect of India and the media -- one almost always overlooked -- is
shortwave radio: There are a lot of shortwave radio listeners who gain
insight (or at least information from the "official" government perspective)
into activites and events in other countries which are neglected or go
unreported in the usual US news media. It would be well worth it for India
to have a strong voice in this forum, to present the Indian point of
view. (Other countries who do this well are South Africa, with Radio RSA,
and Great Britain, with the BBC, to give a couple examples from many.)
However, India is practically unhearable on shortwave. I've been 
casually DXing for years and have never heard a listenable signal from India.

If there are any Indian nationals reading this who have any influence 
or a communications channel with the Indian government department that
runs All India Radio, let them know that there is an eager and ready
audience here in the US which would love to hear clear, listenable
signals from Indian radio. If technical issues of propagation will
prohibit a direct broadcast from India to North America with a high-quality
signal, look into time-trading with local-area shortwave broadcasters.
For example, Taiwan (Voice of Free China) trades time on its Asian
transmitters for time on the North American transmitters of WYFR, a
religious broadcaster which wants to reach Asian listeners. Everybody
benefits from this; a clear, strong signal gets to each broadcaster's
target area when they use each other's transmitters. Why couldn't
AIR do the same, with this or another North American station?

Regards,

Will Martin

USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin     or   ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA