Mass Media and Communications - Test Papers

 CBSE Class-12 Sociology Test Paper-01

Part-2 (Ch-07 Mass Media and Communication)


General Instruction:

  • Question 1-5 carries two marks each
  • Question 6-8 carries four marks each.
  • Question 9-10 carries six marks each.

  1. What is ‘mass media’?
  2. When did the first modern mass media institution began?
  3. What is meant by ‘imagined community’?
  4. What is ‘transistor revolution’?
  5. What was the gravest challenge faced by the media in India?
  6. Explain the phenomenal expansion of mass media.
  7. Write a short note on the beginning of modern mass media.
  8. What was the role and functioning of mass media under the British rule?
  9. Describe the role of radio as a mass media in independent India.
  10. How did television grew as a mass media?

CBSE Class-12 Sociology Test Paper-01
Part-2 (Ch-07 Mass Media and Communication)


  1. The mass media include a wide variety of forms, including television, newspapers, films, magazines, radio, advertisements, video games and CDs. They are referred to as ‘mass’ media because they reach mass audiences – audiences comprised of very large numbers of people. They are also sometimes referred to as mass communications.
  2. The first modern mass media institution began with the development of the printing press. The first attempts at printing books using modern technologies began in Europe. This technique was first developed by Johann Gutenberg in 1440. Initial attempts at printing were restricted to religious books.
  3. Imagined community is a term suggested by the well known scholar Benedict Anderson to explain the situation on how people across a country feel connected and develop a sense of belonging or “we feeling” due to reading or hearing the same news through newspaper.
  4. The transistor revolution in the 1960s was about making the radio more accessible by making it mobile as battery operated sets and reducing the unit price substantially. In 2000 around 110 million households (two- thirds of all Indian households) were listening to radio broadcasts in 24 languages and 146 dialects. More than a third of them were rural households.
  5. The gravest challenge that the media faced was with the declaration of Emergency in 1975 and censorship of the media. Fortunately, the period ended and democracy was restored in 1977. India with its many problems can be justifiably proud of a free media.
  6. The phenomenal expansion of mess media has many aspects as below:
    First, like any other social institution the structure and content of mass media is shaped by changes in the economic, political and socio-cultural contexts. For instance, we see how central the state and its vision of development influenced the media in the first decades after independence. And how in post 1990 period of globalisation the market has a key role to play.
    Second, the relationship between mass media and communication with society is dialectical. Both influence each other. The nature and role of mass media is influenced by the society in which it is located. At the same time the far reaching influence of mass media on society cannot be over-emphasised.
    Third, mass communication is different from other means of communication as it requires a formal structural organisation to meet large-scale capital, production and management demands. Therefore, that the state and/or the market have a major role in the structure and functioning of mass media. Mass media functions through very large organisations with major investments and large body of employees. Fourth, there are sharp differences between how easily different sections of people can use mass media.
  7. The first modern mass media institution began with the development of the printing press. The first attempts at printing books using modern technologies began in Europe. This technique was first developed by Johann Gutenberg in 1440. Initial attempts at printing were restricted to religious books.
    With the Industrial Revolution, the print industry also grew. The first products of the press post industrial revolution were restricted to an audience of literate elites.
    It was only in the mid 19th century, with further development in technologies, transportation and literacy that newspapers began to reach out to a mass audience. People living in different corners of the country found themselves reading or hearing the same news. It has been suggested that this was in many ways responsible for people across a country to feel connected and develop a sense of belonging or “we feeling”. This was referred to as imagined community by scholar Benedict Anderson.
  8. Under British rule newspapers and magazines, films and radio comprised the range of mass media. Radio was wholly owned by the state and National views could not be, therefore, expressed. Newspaper and films were autonomous from the state but were strictly monitored by the Raj. Newspaper in both English and vernacular language weren’t widely circulated as the literate public was limited but it influenced the larger public. News and information was read and spread by word of mouth from commercial and administrative hubs like markets and trading centres.
    The print media carried a range of opinion, which expressed their ideas of a ‘free India’. These variations were carried over to independent India.
  9. Radio broadcasting commenced in India through amateur ‘ham’ broadcasting clubs in Kolkata and Chennai during 1920s. It matured into a public broadcasting system in the 1940s during the World War II when it became a major instrument of propaganda for Allied forces in South-east Asia. The AIR’s programmes consisted mainly of news, current affairs and discussions on develop-ment as media was seen as an active partner in the development of the newly free nation.
    Apart from All India Radio (AIR) broadcasts news there was Vividh Bharati, a channel for entertainment that was primarily broadcasting Hindi film songs on listeners’ request. In 1957 AIR acquired the hugely popular channel Vividh Bharati, which soon began to carry sponsored programmes and advertisements and grew to become a money-spinning channel for AIR.
    At the time India gained independence in 1947, All India Radio had an infrastructure of six radio stations, located in metropolitan cities. The country had 280,000 radio receiver sets for a population of 350 million people. After independence the government gave priority to the expansion of the radio broadcasting infrastructure, especially in state capitals and in border areas.
    Over the years, AIR has developed a formidable infrastructure for radio broadcasting in India. It operates a three-tiered – national, regional, and local – service to cater to India’s geographic, linguistic and cultural diversity.
  10. Television programming was introduced experimentally in India to promote rural development as early as 1959. Later the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) broadcasted directly to community viewers in the rural areas of six states between August 1975 and July 1976. These instructional broadcasts were broadcast to 2,400 TV sets directly for 4 hours daily.
    Meanwhile, television stations were set up under Doordarshan in 4 cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Srinagar and Amritsar) by 1975. Three more stations in Kolkata, Chennai and Jalandhar were added within a year.
    Every broadcasting centre had its own mix of programmes comprising news, children’s and women’s programmes, farmer’s programmes as well as entertainment programmes. As programmes become commercialised and were allowed to carry advertisements of its sponsors, a shift in target audience was evident. Entertainment programmes grew and were directed to the urban consuming class. The advent of colour broadcasting during the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi and the rapid expansion of the national network led to rapid commercialisation of television broadcasting. During 1984-85 the number of television transmitters increased all over India covering a large proportion of the population. It was also the time when indigenous soap operas like Hum Log (1984-85) and Buniyaad (1986- 87) were aired. They were hugely popular acclaim and attracted substantial advertising revenue for Doordarshan as did the broadcasting of the epics Ramayana (1987-88) and Mahabharat (1988-90)