RCH Module- English
Given the need to reconcile with different priorities, a well-planned advocacy strategy is imperative for advancing the issue of reproductive and child health. In 2005, Akhila Sivadas, a media advocate and researcher and the current director of CFAR, prepared a module for conducting advocacy on reproductive health. Ground level interventions were documented and reproductive health issues in the media were monitored to prepare the module. Inputs from interactions with NGOs and groups dealing with reproductive and child health issues were used in the module.Audience Impact Study on Atmajaa 2005
Atmaja, a serial was produced in the edutainment format to convey the message on the rights of the girl child and the illegality of sex determination went on air in 2005. The study was conducted in two phases in selected cities that had an adverse sex ratio. The first, a baseline study was done pre-telecast to assess the prevailing attitudes while the second tracked the responses of the audience.Rape of the family
Written by Shailaja Bajpai, the study takes into account quantitative and qualitative analyses to look at the issue of rape and how this form of sexual violence against women is framed and treated in a family soap. For comparison, three serials which had an occurrence of rape were chosen. How the subject is dealt with in Hindi cinema was also analyzed. Apart from content analyses and audience response, the study does a critical review of the evolution of television soaps and looks at violence on television. The serials discussed are also analyzed against the overall context of the work of the producers and the profile of channel telecasting the show…Hear the People
For many years, CFAR carried out in-depth monitoring of television — from drama shows to current affairs and advertising. Quantitative and qualitative surveys helped analyze how the television impacted viewers’ attitudes. How, for instance, did the small screen portray women, what was the level of violence that was shown, what was the response of children and to what extent did television reflect the needs and aspirations of different sections of society. The Viewers’ Forum, formed in 1998 and made of three segments — the Basti Manch, the Middle Class and People living with Disability — made it possible for CFAR to get a formal and continuous audience feedback. Hear The People is a comprehensive report on the community response to television as gathered and analyzed by CFAR.Children have something to say – 2003
CHILDREN HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY CFAR helped coordinate an event to celebrate the Special Achievement Award won by Plan International’s children’s video film project “Children have something to say”. It was the first time that the award, instituted by One World Broadcasting Trust, was won by India. Video films, ranging from issues of bonded labour to child rag pickers, were made by children living in difficult circumstances, during a 20-day training workshop as part of the project.PNDT Goa-2003
The media consultation workshop in Goa held from 2 to 4 May 2003 was aimed at sensitising mediapersons about the declining sex ratio in India. It was a follow-up to an earlier workshop held in Delhi in January 2003. The entire exercise was carried out with the wider purpose of bringing about awareness among the masses through the media about the seriousness of the problems cropping up from an adverse sex ratio, which is the consequence of sex determination of the fetus and female feoticide.Media sensitization workshop report -Delhi Jan 2003
Organized along with Centre for Women’s Development Studies, the workshop was held in the backdrop of PNDT Amendment Bill passed by the Parliament. More than 35 journalists attended the workshop held in Delhi. This was followed by another workshop held in Goa in May 2003. The exercise was aimed at creating awareness on the serious problem of adverse sex ratio, a consequence of female of foeticide. It was understood that media had a crucial role to play in the prevention of rampant misuse of pre-natal sex determination tests and subsequent abortion of female foetuses. Not only it could challenge public opinion through investigation and reportage, it could play an active role in keeping the issue alive in the minds of all stakeholders and policy makers. …PUBLIC HEARING on Disability, 9 Dec 2003
A public hearing presided over by Justice(Retd.) K.N.Saikia, a former Supreme Court justice was organized by CFAR in 2003 to highlight the issues ofpeople living with disabilities in the critical areas of education, vocational training, skill building and recreation, livelihood and employment and access to spaces.The meeting was attended by representatives from the Ministry of Justice and Social Empowerment, Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Delhi Development Authority. A report…TV and The Elderly- A research study
By 2002, television had reached 81.6 million homes. Nearly half of them had access to cable and satellite TV. Commissioned by a NGO working with the elderly, CFAR undertook a study on the media habits of the elderly men and women. Data was collected on the average time spent watching television, comparing it with print, radio and the internet. The reasons for watching television ranged from entertainment to loneliness, respondents rated them in the order of importance. What were their favourite shows, was there a gender divide in the preferences, how much television did they consider excessive. The report TV and the Elderly reveals…New Towards Empowerment (japan foundation) 2002
The year-long initiative was undertaken with the aim to build a regional women and media network, as an attempt to influence the broadcast media towards a balanced, diverse and non-stereotypical portrayal of women and to work as a watchdog body, document complaints and take them up with the media. Asmita, a women’s organization of Nepal and Proshika of Bangladesh partnered CFAR in its venture. The initiative conducted a monitoring study on the gender representation on satellite television. Drama serials and news programmes were included in the study. The findings from the three regions were presented at a seminar. A report…Who pays for Television Entertainment 2001
The booklet addresses the television viewers concern on the quality of service provided by cable operators, the quality of reception and the increasing rates of subscription. It provides an idea of the business of broadcasting — the multi system operator (MSO) and other key players and how the revenue is divided. It also touches upon the advent of the direct-to-home broadcasting and compares digital with analogue broadcasting.TV & My Child (May) 2001
The study is based on a sample survey to ascertain what mothers of children aged between 8 and 14 felt about television and their children’s engagement with it. Respondents ranged from homemakers to working women as well as women caretakers of children with disability. The study looked into viewing habits of the children and what the mothers perceived as its positive and the negative aspects and their observations and concerns on programming. Based on the findings, some recommendations were made. Read on…MEDIA HABITS OF THE PEOPLE WITH DISABILITY
People living with disability formed one of three segments of CFAR’s Viewers Forum. One of its main objectives was to engage with the media to create a dialogue regarding disability issues. To make the exercise more meaningful and influence policy, it was necessary to collect harddata. Thus a study was undertaken to determine quantitatively and qualitatively the preferences and observations of disabled people. This was done through a survey form developed by Dr Anita Ghai and Ms Sujata Goenka. A report on the findings…Earthquake study 2001
The 2002 earthquake in Gujarat was comprehensively covered by all television channels. While people outside the state got an idea of the scale of the devastation, for people in Gujarat it was also the main source of information. What did the audience think of the quality of coverage and how did it impact them? How did the viewers perceive the role of television, its usefulness and its ethic in covering the disaster. CFAR did a viewers’ forum survey in Delhi and Gujarat which threw up many an interesting observation. A report…Augmenting children’s right to Broadcasting – 2001
In keeping with its priority of the child’s rights to media and its belief in the need to integrate the voices of children within the mainstream media, CFAR was involved in a three-month intervention programme seeking to impact different aspects of broadcasting. The intervention was done at two levels: building links with policy makers and representatives of the media industry and other creative professionals working with children; to work with children and their gatekeepers using strategies such as participatory research in action, theatre in education, strengthening of peer education to facilitate a child centered initiative. A report…BEAUTY REPORT
Read the key findings of a survey conducted by CFAR in 2001 of consumers in Delhi, Ahmedabad and Lucknow regarding television advertisements of beauty products. What were the ads that the viewers of the three cities identified with or what did they think about the portrayal of women and men in advertisements? What, in viewers’ opinion made for an impressive campaign? Which were favourite male and female models. Responses were analyzed on the basis of cities, socio-economic strata, marital and professional status…Media Violence and Its Impact on Children – 2001
This survey was undertaken by CFAR as a continuation of its study on the subject since 1998. By 2001, the data collected had reached a critical proportion justifying a qualitative study. There was now enough evidence to show that media had successfully targeted children who in turn boosted ratings and advertising revenue for the channels. Conflict was as pervasive on television as it was in real life, especially for children living in difficult circumstances. The five cities covered by the 2001 survey were Delhi, Lucknow, Calcutta, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad with the objective to define the potential impact of the media violence on different groups of children. The comprehensive report documents the viewing habits of children, their preferences and what hooks them to the television, their response to depiction of horror and their association with real crimes and stories of the supernatural and the crucial elements and techniques that influences perception.DIGITAL SATELLITE BROADCAST PROJECT- BASELINE STUDY
CFAR conducted a baseline study for the radio broadcaster in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan in 2001. The study looks at implications for the broadcaster vis-a-vis extremely marginalized communities and the transitional rural communities — on how to identify and depict these communities and include them into a consistent broadcast network and the specific issues that the communication should deal with. To understand the target audience, a community profile was created and views collected on the kind of relationship they sought with the media. The second part of the report deals with Media habits of men and women, the feedback of the AIR kendras and the influence of television.A child centred Module
Based on its past research and its interaction with children, CFAR prepared a module to train young peer educators to critically look at the latent effect of the medium. The module explored the elements that hooked the child to the television. It contained exercises on deconstruction of images besides looking at the portrayal of girls and boys in the media and how media played a role in shaping values, roles, messages and images. Among its objectives was for the child to develop the capacity to view images with a measure of critical understanding and awareness. Read on…Portrayal of Women and Men in Advertising and – PUBLIC EVENT Rep (Delhi) 2001
Two sections of the Viewers’ Forum – the urbanized middle class women and people living with disability were invited to a day-long symposium on portrayal of men and women in advertising. The participants deliberated on the topic with media analyst Sudeesh Pachauri, clinical psychologist, Ms Sadhana Vohra and consumer rights’ activists, Ms Roopa Bajpai. Earlier in the year, CFAR had conducted a survey on the subject in three cities. The findings of the survey were presented at the symposium.AB DARSHAK BOLE 2000
Telecast on DD 1 in January 2000, Bol Basanto was a series on creating awareness on laws relating to women and their legal rights. Episodes followed the fiction format and thus perceived as entertainment. The series was based on a set of ten manuals produced by MARG and subsequent workshops and legal literacy camps. Ab Darshak Bole is a report on the impact of the series on the intended audience. How receptive were the viewers? What was the level of identification with the problems and solutions depicted in the programme and what were the strengths and weaknesses of the exercise. Find out from Ab Darshak Bole…Training Module on Media Advocacy
Prepared by the Media Advocacy Group, the module sets out the key elements of media advocacy — that is, using the media not for mere coverage of an event/news but placing the issue on the public agenda. The key elements would then be setting the agenda, shaping the debate and advancing policy which is also the long term goal of advocacy. The module is a guide to the practical steps that must be taken in this direction.Module on Advertising 2000
This module on advertising was mainly to direct the viewers’ attention to the advertiser’s intent of “hidden persuasion” and to understand that the ads are not merely about entertainment but about selling a product. The module set out parametres for deconstruction of advertisements, analyzing attitudes that the ad promoted and studying the criteria for media selection by the advertisers. Information on Codes related to advertising and options for complaint redress were set out in the module.Training module on media education-1999
The module, used mostly during one-day training workshops, gave an overview of the history of Indian television, the existing laws and various aspects of the media besides exercises on deconstruction of images in advertisements and soaps.Media and the laws – A training Module 1999
The module was brought out by CFAR essentially for training of master trainers of Viewers Forum. The objective was to inform the forum about the actual working of the media and give the viewer a critical perspective. The module was divided into three sections — An introduction to the Constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech and expression; understanding the Cinematographer Act as well as advertising and related laws.Report of Viewers voices 1999-99 Voices of the disabled
Viewers’ Forum was established as a public platform to help viewers understand the viewer- media relationship. CFAR organized a number of workshops, training sessions and seminars with the members of the forum. It also served as a platform to make the media more responsive to the needs and aspirations of the viewers. Find out how the different segments of viewers related the reel to their real lives; regarding their concerns about portrayal of women or what how they thought television impacted the children…Depiction of Violence in Television – 1998
This study focused on the range and kinds of violence — from eerie music to physical abuse and mental torture – that one witnessed on television, categorizing and quantifying them. What was most noticeable was that there was a very high premium given to the conflict process. Often the resolution of the conflict too was through violence. Read more…TV Violence and its impact on children – violence study unesco 1998
Even as India witnessed the dawn of cable television, studies on television and its impact on children were already making the rounds in the West eliciting concerned reactions from parents, teachers and child experts. One of the first tasks taken up by CFAR in the field of media research was the impact of television violence on young viewers who seemed to (as much as adults) be in the grip of the small screen. To gauge the impact, CFAR carried out quantitative and qualitative analysis of the violence. Our audience and research panels monitored over 50 hours of television programming across five channels. The study analyzed suitability of the programmes for young viewers in the context of scheduling, promos, child and gender based violence. The role of sponsor companies especially those in children’s products supporting such programmes was also noted. Among the findings was the fact that producers and advertisers did not see children as a separate niche audience. And it wasn’t that the violence was restricted to horror or suspense programmes, the family dramas that kept both adult and children glued to the TV sets were found predicated on conflict and had alarming levels of domestic violence. A report…