ABSTRACT

Television has a prime role to play in the formation of discursive domains in the everyday life of South Asian publics. This book explores various television media practices, social processes, mediated political experiences and everyday cultural compositions from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

With the help of country-specific case studies, it captures a broad range of themes which foreground the publics and their real-life experiences of television in the region. The chapters in this book discuss gendered television spaces, women seeking solace from television in pandemic, the taboo in digital TV dramas, television viewership and localizing publics, changing viewership from television to OTT, news and public perception of death, redefining ‘the national’, theatrical television and post-truth television news, among other key issues.

Rich in ethnographic case studies, this volume will be a useful resource for scholars and researchers of media and communication studies, journalism, digital media, South Asian studies, cultural studies, sociology and social anthropology.

chapter 1|18 pages

Introduction

Imagining South Asian Television Publics

part I|72 pages

Television Viewership and Localizing Publics

chapter 2|17 pages

Social Realms of Audiences

Women's Collective Viewing of Mega Teledramas in Sri Lanka

chapter 3|13 pages

The Dramatic Escape From Pandemic Life

Everyday Experience of Watching Television During the Lockdowns

chapter 4|23 pages

Televised Sexuality and Public Perception

Voicing the Taboo in Pakistani TV Dramas

chapter 5|17 pages

Indian Television and the Rise of the Local

Televised Realities of Localized Sociocultural Experience

part II|68 pages

Consumption and Construction of Reality

chapter 6|18 pages

OTT-Based Digital Sociality

An Exploration of the Viewership Among Urban Youth in Bangladesh

chapter 7|12 pages

Television News and Public Perception of Death in India

Case of Covid-19 Pandemic

chapter 8|14 pages

Television Viewership and Engagement in Rural Kashmir

From Cathode Ray Tube to Smart TV

chapter 9|22 pages

Emergence of Television Publics in Nepal

Intense Participation of Audiences as News Sources, Critics and Fans

part III|83 pages

Mediatizing Politics and Constructing Publics

chapter 10|17 pages

Live Public

Television and Mobilization in Post-Liberalization India

chapter 12|25 pages

Reproducing the Truth

Television News in Sri Lanka

chapter 13|22 pages

From Public Turn to Publicness in Media

Notes on Media Public in India