Advertising and Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR is also know as Corporate Conscience or Corporate Citizenship. It is a form of corporate self-regulation in the business. The responsible business houses follow the ethical norms and standards since they have the singnificant amount of influence over the customers.

The critics of CSR believe, it is an escape window for unethical corporate houses. There are cases when a voice is raised against a certain product and they come up with charitable causes to distarct the customers. In certain cases, it's shown to increase the profit when the companies spread the word about their good deeds.

You watch adverts regularly. Can you say, corporate houses act responsibly when it comes to advertising?   Yeah, they indulge in philanthropy, charitable causes and it’s evident through their websites. But in advertising, their main purpose is to sell their products at any cost. Even if they show good side, it’s another way of increasing their sales, e. g. TATA Tea’s jago re ad. I personally don’t get their ideology when on one hand, these soft drink brands sell toilet cleaners in the bottles and on another hand they claim they provide clean drinking water to certain villages. Oh, come on, we’ve got the piece called brain!

It’s making more sense, if they stop co modifying women in their ad than donating 10% of their profit to the cause.

What is the impact of cinema on society?

Cinema is one of the mass media, so it’s immense penetration among the public. What we see on cinema is later followed in the real life. A simple example is the hairstyle of Salman in the film Tere Nam that became quite a rage. The same is true for clothing the actors don, their body language, certain words they use and their life style in the movies are closely imitated by the public.  What is more important is inner change than the outer one. It’s of no matter of concern if a teenager wears the bell bottoms like his favourite star does but it’s wrong if he follows the same crazy, life threatening steps to impress the girl he wants. Many times, people fail to distinguish between reel life and real life. They forget that what they see is scripted, for entertainment, not worthy to be taken seriously. If they don’t, they could meet the disaster.

It’s sad to note that good messages are not imbibed as faithfully as the bad ones. Or it’s only the few intellectuals who care to give it a serious thought. The kind of cinema viewed by the mass is always the nonsense, which they treat it as gem.

The other way around is ‘society impacts the cinema.’ Because, society is such, cinema merely follows it. It was the correct excuse from the makers of Delhi Belly in terms of the foul language employed in the movie.       

What is the scope of radio in India? What are its special advantages as a mass medium of communication?

The presence of giants like TV, Internet and newspapers has pushed radio to the margin. The opportunities and possibilities to grow seem very limited as of now. The traditional radio stations have nearly died down. No doubt, FM stations are listened but their use is very limited. While travelling, it’s widely used medium for time pass but not more than that. People prefer TV or Internet to radio when given choice. Today’s generation, soaked in 3D and 4D wants visuals mere auditory facility is not enough to attract them.

In most non-urban area, FM hasn't reached yet. Even if it’s made widely accessible, you can’t expect to achieve anything by mere listening contemporary hits.

Traditional radio channels have great availability but only certain sections of society are interested in tuning it. Sadly, it’s no more a mass medium.

If we talk about advantages, it’s a step or two ahead in term of accessibility. There are remote areas or impoverished people for whom electricity, cable connection, satellite TV, or simply to afford TV is far-fetched dream. Here radio earns an extra brownie point. Only battery cells would be fine to turn it on. Radio set is very cheap. On the top of it, there are no recurring charges in form of monthly subscription.

To alert people, where TV, phone, and other quick services are not available, radio is the only option. To educate people, to spread message; radio is the medium we can count on. 

T.V. and Higher Education

In the beginning, TV was expected to be a helpful medium to impart education. It did raise a hope when distance-learning programmes took help of this mass medium. Open Universities like IGNOU and BAOU started their own channels or given slot on Door Darshan, Prasar Bharati channels. However, it wasn't successful as expected. We know, TV is main source of entertainment. A student needs great mental strength to go for the lecture or discussion not highly entertaining program broadcast 24/7. 

 It can’t be denied that TV provided a much-needed audiovisual aspect to the distance-learning program, which was otherwise restricted to reading textbooks. With the advent of phone, education through TV became interactive. Student could ask question to the experts, and got the answer, nearly impossible in case of distance learning programmes. 

If we talk about regular classroom, audiovisual teaching was limited to Over Head Projector, which doesn’t provide motion picture. Still images were not enough to explain complicated scientific theory and concepts. With the TV, it was made possible. The students ‘watched and learned,’ a step ahead to, explained by teachers through words and black boards and learnt. 

 With the discovery of VCR, the students can learn at their convenient time. Otherwise, the program aired at 7 pm had to be watched at that time. 

 None has predicted that the dawn of internet would completely replace the TV with Computer. TV can’t compete with internet with its advanced technology, which create virtual classroom in your own drawing room! Campus goes online; it feels we’re pursuing regular full-time course. TV is no more used for education purpose, or very limited numbers of students use it. Nevertheless, the good thing is, TV and Computer are being merged. And it’s going to change the face of education very soon for sure.