Mass media in India consists of several different means of communication: television, radio, cinema, newspapers, magazines, and Internet-based websites/portals. Indian media was active since the late 18th century. The print media started in India as early as 1780. Radio broadcasting began in 1927.[1][2] Today much of the media is controlled by large, corporations, which reap revenue from advertising, subscriptions, and sale of copyrighted material.
India has over 500 satellite channels (more than 80 are news channels) and 70,000 newspapers, the biggest newspaper market in the world with over 100 million copies sold each day.[3]
The French NGO Reporters Without Borders compiles and publishes an annual ranking of countries based upon the organisation's assessment of its Press Freedom Index. In its 2023 downgraded India by 11 points to 161st level out of 180 countries. Indian media freedom now stands below Afghanistan, Somalia and Columbia. It stated its reason saying "The violence against journalists, the politically partisan media and the concentration of media ownership all demonstrate that press freedom is in crisis in “the world’s largest democracy”, ruled since 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the embodiment of the Hindu nationalist right."[4] In 2022, India was ranked 150th, which declined from 133rd rank in 2016. It stated that this was due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party and their followers of Hindutva having greater exertion of control of the media.[5] Freedom House, a US-based NGO stated in its 2021 report that harassment of journalists increased under Modi's administration.[6] The English-language media of India are described as traditionally left-leaning liberal, which has been a point of friction recently due to an upsurge in popularity of Hindu nationalist politics.[7] According to BBC News, "A look at Indian news channels - be it English or Hindi - shows that fairly one-sided news prevails. And that side is BJP and Hindutva."[8]
Hicky's Bengal Gazette, founded in 1780, was the first Indian newspaper. Auguste and Louis Lumière moving pictures were screened in Bombay during July 1895, and radio broadcasting began in 1927.[9]
Where the norms are breached and the freedom is defiled by unprofessional conduct, a way must exist to check and control it. But control by the government or official authorities may prove destructive of this freedom. Therefore, the best way is to let the peers of the profession, assisted by a few discerning laymen, regulate it through a properly structured, representative, and impartial machinery. Hence, the Press Council of India was established.[10]
The traditional print media, but also the television media, are largely family-owned and often partake in self-censorship, primarily due to political ties by the owner and the establishment. However, the new media are generally more professional and corporate-owned, though these, too, have been acquired or affiliated with established figures. At the same time, the Indian media, viewed as "feisty," have also not reported on issues of the media itself.[11]
The first newspaper printed in India was Hicky's Bengal Gazette, started in 1780 under the British Raj by James Augustus Hicky.[12] Other newspapers such as The India Gazette, The Calcutta Gazette, The Madras Courier (1785), and The Bombay Herald (1789) soon followed.[12] These newspapers carried news of the areas under the British rule.[12] The Bombay Samachar, founded in 1822 and printed in Gujarati is the oldest newspaper in Asia still in print.[13] On 30 May 1826 Udant Martand (The Rising Sun), the first Hindi-language newspaper published in India, started from Calcutta (now Kolkata), published every Tuesday by Pt. Jugal Kishore Shukla.[14][15]
Even after independence from Britain in 1947, the English-language papers were prominent due to a number of reasons. The telegraphic circuits of news agencies used the Roman Alphabet and the Morse code, giving the English press an advantage in speed. The speed of typesetting was also much slower in Indian languages because of the Diacritics. Also, the press largely relied on advertisements of imported goods for revenue, and the foreign advertisers naturally preferred English-language media. The language of the administration had also remained English.[16]
Currently, India publishes about 1,000 Hindi dailies that have a total circulation of about 80 million copies. English, the second language in terms of a number of daily newspapers, has about 250 dailies with a circulation of about 40 million copies.[17] The prominent Hindi newspapers are Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhaskar, Amar Ujala, Devbhumi Mirror, Navbharat Times, Hindustan Dainik, Prabhat Khabar, Rajasthan Patrika, and Dainik Aaj.
In terms of readership, Dainik Jagran is the most popular Hindi daily with a total readership (TR) of 70,377,000, according to IRS Q1 2019. Dainik Bhaskar is the second most popular with a total readership of 51,405,000. Amar Ujala with a TR of 47,645,000, Rajasthan Patrika with a TR of 18,036,000 and Prabhat Khabar with a TR of 14,102,000 are placed at the next three positions. The total readership of the top 10 Hindi dailies is estimated at 188.68 million, nearly five times that of the top 10 English dailies that have a 38.76 million total readership.[18]
The prominent English newspapers are The Times of India, founded in 1838 as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce by Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd, a colonial enterprise now owned by an Indian conglomerate; The Times Group. The Hindustan Times was founded in 1924 during the Indian Independence Movement ('Hindustan' being the historical name of India), it is published by HT Media Ltd. The Hindu was founded in 1878 by a group known as the Triplicane Six consisting of four law students and two teachers in Madras (now Chennai), it is now owned by The Hindu Group.
In the 1950s, 214 daily newspapers were published in the country.[12] Out of these, 44 were English language dailies while the rest were published in various regional and national languages.[12] This number rose to 3,805 dailies in 1993 with the total number of newspapers published in the country having reached 35,595.[12]
The main regional newspapers of India include the Marathi language Lokmat, the Gujarati Language Gujarat Samachar, the Malayalam language Malayala Manorama, the Tamil language Daily Thanthi, the Telugu language Eenadu, the Kannada language Vijaya Karnataka and the Bengali language Anandabazar Patrika.
The Dispatch (Jammu and Kashmir) currently, operates from Jammu and Kashmir and covers all the happening in the Northern States of India focusing on Kashmir.[19]
Newspaper sales in the country increased by 11.22% in 2007.[20] By 2007, 62 of the world's best selling newspaper dailies were published in China, Japan, and India.[20] India consumed 99 million newspaper copies as of 2007—making it the second largest market in the world for newspapers.[20]
Radio broadcasting was initiated in 1927 but became a state responsibility only in 1930.[21] In 1937 it was given the name All India Radio and since 1957 it has been called Akashvani.[21] Limited duration of television programming began in 1959, and complete broadcasting followed in 1965.[21] The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting owned and maintained the audio-visual apparatus—including the television channel Doordarshan—in the country prior to the economic reforms of 1991.[22]
Following the economic reforms satellite television channels from around the world—including the BBC, CNN, CNBC, and other foreign television channels gained a foothold in the country.[23] 47 million households with television sets emerged in 1993, which was also the year when Rupert Murdoch entered the Indian market.[24] Satellite and cable television soon gained a foothold.[24] Doordarshan, in turn, initiated reforms and modernisation.[24] With 1,400 television stations as of 2009, the country ranks 4th in the list of countries by number of television broadcast stations.[25]
The Ind