Paper No :- 15 Assignment

Name :- Mansi Upadhyay
Roll no :- 16
Semester :- 4
Year :- 2019-20
Paper no :- 15 (Mass Media and

                            Communication)
Assignment Topic :- Basic Function of Mass Communication

E-Mail :- mansiupadhyay06@gmail.com
Submitted to :- Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumar sinhji Bhavnagar University.

Words :- 1446

·     Functionalism:-

                            The focus on understanding the effects of mass communications, especially its social consequences and its impact on maintenance of social order gave rise to a theoretical framework called functionalism. Functionalism focusses on explaining slow, evolutionary change and not sudden changes. The limited capacity of functionalism to be used only in policy research, evaluation and planning has been criticized by many theorists. The focus of functionalism is on how mass communication serves society and fails to account for how humans interact with mass communication and construct meanings from messages. The focus on maintaining the existing social order and not allowing for any meaningful change has also being criticized.

     

                              The Mass Media serves several general and many specific Functions. In general, the mass media a serves surveillance of the Environment, Correlation of parts of Society, Entertainment, information, Cultural Transmission, Instructive, Manipulation, Interpretation and Socialization Functions:

1)           Serveillance of the Environment:-

                             
                             An important function of the media is to keep up a surveillance of all the happenings in the world and provide information to the human society. The media has the responsibility of providing news and cover a wide variety of issues that is of some service to the society. Media help maintain social order by providing instructions on what has to be done in times of crisis, thereby reducing confusion among the masses.

                          Surveillance involves two major tasks. When it serves the collective needs of the public, it constitutes public surveillance, and when it serves the needs of individual citizens, we call it private surveillance. Although private surveillance may lead to political activities, its primary functions are gratifying personal needs and quieting personal anxirties.

Example: In times of natural disasters, war, health scares, etc., it is the role of the media to create awareness by providing information on what is happening and of ways in which the disaster can be faced. 

2)           Correlation of parts of Society :-

                           This function relates to how the media’s selection of certain news and its interpretation affects how society understands and responds to it. People’s attitudes towards political issues, events, public policy, etc. are influenced to an extent by how the media frames and presents the issue in their discussions and presentations.

Example: The media’s reporting on the war in Vietnam played a role in changing the mindsets of Americans who started opposing sending soldiers to fight a losing war. Hitler used the media in his propaganda war against the Jews.

3)           Entertainment :-

                              This popular function of the mass media refers to the ability of the media to help relax people and create a means of escape from the stress of everyday life. The entertainment function of mass media has both positive and negative effects. The low quality of content is often criticized but the other benefits like helping people experience new events, stimulating emotions and helping people pass their leisure time show how important this function is.

Example: Television offers opportunities for people to view events that they would otherwise not be able to participate in like the Oscars, Independence Day Rallies, the Olympics, etc.

4)           Information :-

                             We have a need for information to satisfy curiosity, reduce uncertainty, and better understand how we fit into the world. The amount and availability of information is now overwhelming compared to forty years ago when a few television networks, local radio stations, and newspapers competed to keep us informed. The media saturation has led to increased competition to provide information, which creates the potential for news media outlets, for example, to report information prematurely, inaccurately, or partially.

5)           Cultural Transmission :-

                              This refers to the ability of the media to teach the various norms, rules and values that exist in a society and ensure its transfer from one generation to the next. Television programmes by and large reflects the society in which they are broadcast and promote the understanding of a society’s cultural heritage.  Children’s television programmes are designed to showcase good behaviors and moral standards which children can learn by watching.

Example:  Shows like Lassie, Full House, Seventh Heaven and the Brady Bunch promoted family values.

6)           Socialization :-

                           This function of major mass media that lasswell mentions in political socialization. It involves learning basic values and orientations that prepare individuals to fit into their cultural milieu. Before the 1970s studies largely ignored the mass media because parents and the schools were deemed the primary agents of socialization. Research in the 1970s finally established that the media play a crucial role in political socialization. Most information that young people acquire about their political world comes directly or indirectly from the mass media either through news offerings or entertainment shows, or through social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter. The media present specific facts as well as general values, teaching young people which elements produce desirable outcomes. Media also provide the young with behavior models. Because young people generally have less firmly established attitudes and behaviors, they are receptive to using such information to develop their opinions. 

                           The new orientations and opinions that adults acquire during their lifetime also are based on information from the mass media. People do not necessarily adopt the precise attitudes and opinions that earn the medias praise rather mass media information provides the ingredients that people use to adjust their existing attitudes and opinions to keep pace with a changing world.

7)           Instructive :-

                            Some media outlets exist to cultivate knowledge by teaching instead of just relaying information. Major news networks like CNN and BBC primarily serve the information function, while cable news networks like Fox News and MSNBC serve a mixture of informational and interpretation functions. The in-depth coverage on National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, and the more dramatized but still educational content of the History Channel, the National Geographic Channel, and the Discovery Channel, serve more instructive functions.

8)           Manipulation :-

                               Journalists at prominent news venues periodically become major players in the game of polotics they do not just play their traditional role as chroniclers of information provided by others. The most common way for a journalist to break out of the role of political bystander is through an investigation. Many major print and electronic media enterprises have operated their own investigative units because investigative stories are both important and popular. They are also expensive to produce and tend to become scarce when media organizations are forced to economize.  

                             The purpose of many investigations is to muckrake. Journalists who investigate corruption and wrongdoing to stimulate government to clean up the “dirt” they have exposed are called muckrakers. The term comes from a rake designed to collect manure. President Theodore Roosevelt was the first to apply the term journalism. Muckraking today may have several different goals. The journalist primary purpose may be to write stories that expose misconduct in government and produce reforms. Or the chief purpose may be to present sensational information that attracts large media audiences and enhances profits. Other manipulative stories may be designed to affect politics in line with the journalists political preferences.

9)           Interpretation :-

                               Media not only survey the events of the day and bring them to public and private attention, they also interpret the events meaning, put them into context, and speculate about their consequences. Most incidents lend themselves to a variety of interpretation, depending on the values and experiences of the interpreter. The kind of interpretation affects the political consequences of media reports. For example: since 1962 the way in which the media interpret the legal and social significance of abortion has changed considerably. Abortion was widely considered to be murder. The abortionist was the villain and the pregnant woman was an accomplice in a heinous crime.

                              Numerous circumstances influenced the type of interpretation that the Finkbine story received. Media outlets interpret messages in more or less explicit and ethical ways. Newspaper editorials have long been explicit interpretations of current events, and now cable television and radio personalities offer social, cultural, and political commentary that is full of subjective interpretations. Although some of them operate in ethical gray areas because they use formats that make them seem like traditional news programs, most are open about their motives.

Thank You

 

 

Bibliography

"Functions of Mass Communication." n.d. https://www.communicationtheory.org/functions-of-mass-communication/.

Graber, Doris A. Mass Media and American Politics. Ed. Bennie Clark Allen. United State of America: Monica Eckman, 1923.

Schmitz, Andy. Functions and Theories of Mass Communication. Andy Schmitz, 2012.

Paper no :- 14 Assignment

Name :- Mansi Upadhyay
Roll no :- 16
Semester :- 4
Year :- 2019-20
Paper no :- 14 (The African Literature)
Assignment Topic :- Themes of A Grain of Wheat

E-Mail :- mansiupadhyay06@gmail.com
Submitted to :- Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumar sinhji Bhavnagar University.

Words :- 1451

·     Introduction :-

                                    A Grain of Wheat is portrayed to be Ngugi’s greatest accomplishment. According to another noble novelist, this book is “an encouragement to humans to assume a broad-minded viewpoint on man’s wrongdoing.” Based on cook’s analysis on a grain of wheat, the book is endowed with two key themes; which are related to “private responsibility and public responsibility.” Furthermore, he acclaimed this work of art to be Ngugi’s most determined, impressive and fruitful narrative. Palmer, claims that Ngugi didn’t only reflect on the wrong doing of the white folks but also the wrong doing and wicked minds of the native people. According to Robson, betrayal is the core theme of the novel. Two major authors also share view concerning the outcome of this book, cook and okenimkpe asserts that Ngugi’s novel is a “heroic corporate effort towards a evenhanded society and betrayal; individual’s betrayals are representative of the vast betrayal of the whole society by its power elite.” Although, the mentioned reviewers evaluates the primary ideas present in a grain of wheat, none of them puts a spotlight on the method and how the stories are conveyed.  

Themes of A Grain of Wheat :-

1)           Colonialism :-

                         As a character who has been thoroughly inculcated with the ideology of the colonizer, Karanja abandons all commitment to such a common good in favor of his own self-preservation. Standing on the platform of the train station after being passed over by Mumbi for Gikonyo, Karanja experiences a vision of his social world that plays a critical role in his political choices in the conflict between the land and freedom Army and British colonial authorities. Karanja’s stance of radical individualism emerges immediately after he realizes that Mumbi has chosesn Gikonyo, an experience of loss that provides the catalyst for a psychologically destabilizing moment that can only be described as profoundly traumatic. This standpoint has a significant bearing upon his later actions as collaborator, for it conforms to the underlying system of values informing colonialism in Kenya. However, by linking it thematically to the railway, Ngugi suggests that Karanja's consciousness is formed as a result of the contingent historical processes of colonization by which the colonized are drawn "into the position of social isolation and consequent moral doubt".

                       colonization in Kenya and a direct inheritance of a system of values that owes its continuing existence to the imperialist expansion of European capitalism into Africa. Furthermore, imperialism, and the individualism it reinforces, is implicitly depicted as a form of psychological illness that, given the specific historical circumstances under which it has been constructed, requires the intervention of revolution as its cure.

                      Deploying both the psychological and the historical implications of trauma, Ngugi presents the struggle of individuals to understand their history through a narrative that is itself a rewriting of history designed to liberate the colonized

consciousness from its subjection to the disempowering representations of history immanent in colonial ideology.

2)           Betrayal :-

                                   The effects of widespread trauma induced by colonial domination are given a powerful representation in the description of Gikonyo's experience of detention and his reaction to Mumbi's act of infidelity with Karanja. Significantly, his initial response to this traumatic homecoming is to develop philosophical justifications for his feelings of despair and powerlessness that are almost identical to those that Karanja formulated years earlier on the platform at the train station: She had betrayed the bond, the secret, between them: or perhaps there had never been any communion between them, nothing could grow between any two people.

                                  The imagery used to describe this revelation also suggests that his condition of alienation existed long before he learns of Mumbi's betrayal.  His obsessive focus on Mumbi's imperfections enables him to repress his own feelings of guilt and failure over the betrayal of his oath. His completely unsympathetic view of Mumbi's betrayal (he seems to lack any idea of the desperation and  powerlessness she has endured) is symptomatic of his inability to forgive himself.

                                  Mugo lacks any awareness that he has any connection with other human beings or the social world. Although he is unlike Karanja to the extent that he makes no active attempts to dominate or do violence to others, Mugo remains dominated by egotism and self-interest. His betrayal of Kihika is driven, in part, by the same desire for self-preservation that impels Karanja to join the Homeguards and hunt down Mau Mau rebels. However, unlike Karanja, Mugo's individualism has its origin in the loss of his parents at an early age and the extreme psychological abuse he suffers at the hands of his aunt.

3)           Guilt and Redemption:-

                              In A Grain of Wheat Mugo’s, like Kihika’s and Gikonyo’s, is the subaltern voice which is not allowed expression by his colonial masters. The subaltern, Partha Chatterjee notes, is “a contradictory unity of two different aspects: in one, the peasant is the subordinate, where he accepts the immediate reality of power relations that dominate and exploit him; in the other, he denies those conditions of subordination and asserts his autonomy”.

                       A Grain of Wheat, Ngugi’s best novel to date, deals with the theme of guilt and redemption of the subaltern. The story is woven around the four characters Mugo, Gikonyo, Mumbi and Kihika.   Mumbi explains her actions thus: Karanja always pointed out to me that my faithfulness was vain. The government forces were beating the Freedom Fighters. We never got a letter or heard a word from those in detention.  And with years Karanja became arrogant towards me. He did not humble himself in front of me as he used to do. Instead, he laughed to hurt me and I hung on to Gikonyo with all my heart.  Kihika, the true Moses, is betrayed by his people and the three main characters in the novel, Mugo, Gikonyo and Mumbi, are left to carry their own burden of guilt. Strangely enough, it is Mugo who becomes a beacon of light for the others in this guilt-ridden world.  

                         This act of valour spreads like wild fire and overnight he becomes a hero in the eyes of the people almost of the same calibre as Kihika. People are overjoyed to find a leader who can replace Kihika, not knowing that it was Mugo’s betrayal that caused Kihika’s death.

                     After independence has been won at great cost to the community the people of the village want to organise a grand celebration to honour the detainees, particularly Mugo. They come to his house to invite him and even at this point in time he does not dispel their ignorance. But during the celebrations he stands in front of the crowd and confesses his sin. The crowd is all set to lynch him but a sane voice prevails: He was a brave man, inside. He stood before much honour, praises were heaped on him.

                    The guilt and redemption of the protagonists in this novel are played out in their lifetimes. Gikonyo rises above his petty bourgeois mentality to forgive Mumbi and accept her child as his own. As an atonement for his sin he decides to carve a stool with a woman “big with a child”. There is a suggestion of reconciliation between Gikonyo and Mumbi at the end of the novel. The expiation of the guilt brings about a restoration of harmony in the community and in the lives of the main characters in the novel. A Grain of Wheat.

·     Conclusion :-

                           So, in the A Grain of Wheat main theme is Colonialism, Betrayal and Guilt and Redemption. In the novel British Authority is powerful and Mugo is character who takes side of both villagers and Britisher. Mugo betrays innocent villagers and he kills Kihika because he knows the truth of Mugo. Mumbi also betrays Gikonyo and she has a relationship with Karanja. In the ultimate analysis both Mugo forge ahead and clear their own path through thickets of prejudice and false belief. In the colonial situation Mugo, the subaltern voice, finds expression and Ngugi secures his salvation in Christian terms through confession of his guilt and its expiation.

Thank you

 

Bibliography

Krishnamurthy, Sarala . "An Exploration of the Theme of Guilt." NAWA Journal of Language and Communication (2007): 1 to 8.

Thiong, Ngugi wa . "Analysis of A grain of wheat." The central action of A Grain of Wheat n.d.: 1 to 10.

Lutz, , John. "Ngugi's Dialectical vision: Individualism and Revolutionary." Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies, 29(2-3) (2003): 29.

 

 

Paper No :- 13 Assignment

Name :- Mansi Upadhyay
Roll no :- 16
Semester :- 4
Year :- 2019-20
Paper no :- 13 (The New Literatures)
Assignment Topic :-  Character Study in One Night @ The Call Center

E-Mail :- mansiupadhyay06@gmail.com
Submitted to :- Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumar sinhji Bhavnagar University.

Words :- 1882

·     Introduction :-

                 Chetan Bhagat born 22 April 1974 New Delhi. Chetan Bhagat studied at Army Public school new Delhi, and went on to obtain his degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology IIT, Delhi. He also holds an MBA degree from the Indian Institute of Management IIM. After finishing his degrees, he start working in Hong Kong as an investment banker.Chetan Bhagat has also received many awards such as the Publisher’s recognition Award and Society young Achiever’s Award and Society young Achiever’s Award in the year 2010, Chetan Bhagat was listed among the world’s 100 most influential people by Time magazine. Chetan Bhagat is Indian Chetan Bhagat is Indian author and columnist, known for his India - English novels about young middle-class Indians. Bhagat was included in time magazine's list of world's 100 most influential people in 2010.

·     Chetan Bhagat Famous Work :-

1)   Five Point Someone (2004)

2)   One Night @ the Call Center (2005)

3)   The 3Mistakes of my Life (2008)

4)   2 States (2009)

5)   Revolution 2020 (2011)

6)   Half Girlfriend (2014)

                

·     Novel Introduction :-

               One Night @ the Call Center is a novel Written by Chetan Bhagat and first published in 2005. The novel revolves around a group of six call center employees working at the connexions call center in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It takes place during one night, during which all of the leading characters confront some aspect of themselves or their lives they would like to change. The story uses a literal deus ex machine, when the characters receive a Phone call from God. They are mostly smart, relatively affluent young people working their way through messy personal relationship and wondering what to do with their lives.

                        The plot is run of the mill teenage twenty something fare until a near death experience and a phone call from god intervene to shake up the friends ideas about what is important to them. And the story is so creaky in parts that the telephone call from on high is by no means the most fanciful aspect of the tale.

                    The dialogue is often as cheesy as a plate of paneer and some of the characters are just stereotypes with a pulse. But this is a pop novel Ulysses. What is more interesting is the backdrop to the narrative, the attitudes of the characters to their situation, and what the book’s popularity tells us about modern India.

·     Characters about Novel :-

1)  Shyam Mehra :-

                The character of Shyam is narrator. The central character in the young Woman’s story is Shyam Mehra a wannabe team leader who is also known as Sam Marcy when he talks to the company’s customers in America. Shyam Mehra call name Sam Marcy. He is the hero of the novel.  In fact, all of the staff has Americanized aliases for when they are on the phones. Shyam’s ex-girlfriend Priyanka, who he still holds a torch for, has agreed to an arranged marriage to an Indian man working for Microsoft in Seattle, much to Shyam’s dismay. The novel Shyam has seen omen dream in which Mr.Bakshi is trying to sink him by pushing his head in. they are always thought negatively. As Shyam says,

“I was in the water while my boss Bakshi was in a boat next to me. He was pushing my head down in the water.”

                       The same fury is expressed by Shyam when his cousin is going to marry his neighbor. Shyam narrates the situation, “ one aunty was cursing her daughter for leaving the matching bindis at home. Another aunt had lost the little screw of her gold” earring and was flipping out”.   

                       Throughout the novel we see Shyam narrating his past dates with Priyanka with whom he has had a break up. He is a person who lacks self-confidence and therefore he is unable to achieve his girlfriend as well as good position at his work place. He is evtremely talented and efficient. Towards the end we see how he transforms himself into a completely new person and achieves whatever he wants in his life and at the end positivity. Shyam’s close friend is Varun Malhotra. He is simple boy. He sad because the Priyanka engaged with Ganesh who is NRI boy and his boss cheated him Varun. He wants to become successful.

2)  Varun Malhotra :-

                      Varun Malhotra call name Victor Mell, is Shyam’s friend. The character of Vroom is Anti- American. In the novel Vroom insulted by Americans. He loves Bikes and speeds so friends call him Vroom. He stays with his mother who has separated from his father and his father was a businessman. We can say that Varun is the most carefree person in the novel. He has a soft corner for his colleague Esha, but she has never taken him seriously till now it seems and as we know he is a very good friend of Shyam so he helps him to get back with Priyanka. Vroom is the one who saves “Connextions” call center from a major problem using his skills. In the end he gets along with Shyam and starts his own web based company. Vroom wanted to be Journalist but had to left study as a result he came in to the call centre profession by force. Varun’s work website development.

     

                              When Vroom talks to God, Vroom says, “That I should not have taken up a job just for money call centers pay more, but only because the exchange rate is in the favor of Americans. They toss their loose change at us. It seems like a lot in rupees. But jobs that pay less could be better. There could be jobs that define me, make learn of help my country”. So from that Vroom says that thirty five year old American IQ is same as ten year old child in India. Vroom loves Esha a lot but can’t describe only because of her dream of modeling and desires.

3)  Priyanka :-

                    Priyanka is the heroine of the novel. To be precise, Shyam’s ex – girlfriend. Priyanka is an intelligent and a practical girl who is too pre-occupied with her mother who was an extremely important person to her. Priyanka’s mom wants her to marry an NRI boy and just for the sake of her mother she had decide to break up with Shyam and marry with NRI boy Ganesh but we can say that still she loves Shyam.  Shyam and Priyanka both are not just friends but they have physical relationship with each other. Priyanka loves her Mother. For mother happiness she ready to marry NRI Ganesh.  Her character like Indian Girl, for their parents she sacrifice their choice and decision and accept parents decision. Priyanka are such character. Priyanka wished to complete her B.Ed but had to work for gathering the money for doing B.Ed.

4)  Military Uncle :-

                   Military Uncle is an ex–army man in his fifties who lives alone after falling out with his son and daughter-in-law. Military Uncle who live alone and having some problems with his son and grandson but at the end he realizes his mistake and decide to apologize. Military Uncle who works at the call canter to earn few money apart from the pension that he gets. In group of six he only one who is oldest person do a Job in Call Center. Military Uncle and his son and his son lives apart physically and mentally. There are many incidents in the novel where Uncle tries to stay in touch with son but the generation gap does not allow him to do so. Uncle tries to mail some Picture that he has taken at a Zoo to his grandson. When uncle mailed the photographs to his son, he got reply from his son which shredded him totally. The mail read;

     “Dad… you have cluttered my life enough, now stop     

       Cluttering my mailbox. I do not know what came over

       Me that I allowed communication between you and

       My son. I don’t want your shadow on him. Please

       Stay away and do not send him any more emails. For,

         Literally or otherwise, we don’t want your

         Attachments.”

5)   Radhika Jha :- 

                       Radhika Jha call name Regina Jones, is the only married one in the group. Radhika is living a confusing existence, a young woman with an indeoendent income also trying to be a traditional wife in an arranged marriage. Trying to manage the household activities and  her job. Her aim is that “to earn money and settle down on one hand and manage her mother-in-law on the other.” She had married her husband against her Parents’ wishes and always tries to adjust with him and into an orthodox family. Radhika is a very upset One day she finds out about her husband’s affair with another woman and sudden decides to give him a divorce and stay with Esha. She is not happy with her mother-in-law. Her character reflect working women in India. 

6)   Esha Singh :-

                              Esha Singh, call name Eliza Singer, is the pretty face of the group. An aspiring model who run away from her home because just want to be model so that she had joined call center so that she could achieve her dreams. Just because her designer to get a offer and after that she realize that she was cheated by him and with the guilt she cheated by him and with the guilt she decides to give up her dream to become a model and continued to work at the call center. She has compromised by sleeping with a designer to get a modeling contract. For the role in the movie or the in TV serial actress molested. Esha hottest woman in the company who dreams of being a model but is an inch too small for the catwalk. In one night @ the call centre Esha is health and diet conscious as she is keen to be successful model. She does not take high celery food and maintain her figure in order to look attractive.

·     Conclusion :-

                       This novel shows the different. It shows the different problems of the youth and give the ideas their solutions. Chetan Bhagat shows the reality of India. The characters it shows the problems in the relationship and it’s effect on the nation, condition of women in India. So, it highlights the problems and trying to give the solution at the end of the novel. All characters have their individual life and struggle and at the end they got their answer and positive end comes.

Thank You

 

 

Bibliography

Pandya, Nishant B. . "CHARACTERS @ THE CALL CENTRE IN CHETAN BHAGAT’S ONE NIGHT @." Scholarly Research Journal for Humanity Science & English Language, VOL- 6/29. ISSN 2348-3083, ( 2018): Pages 1 to 8.

Solanki , Pratiksha M. "Characters in One Night @ the Call Centre." http://pratikshasolanki21.blogspot.com/2015/03/characters-in-one-night-call-centre.html ( 2015).

Bhagat, Chetan. One night @ the call center. First in Rupa Paperback 2005. New Delhi: Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd., 2005.