MEDIA AND CULTURAL AWAKENING IN 21ST CENTURY

Mass media has become an essential social institution in modern democratic system. To inform, to interpret, to educate, to evaluate and to advice are the basic factors of mass media. (1) In this new info-tainment age, the most significant role of media is related cultural awakening. Berger has described modern media as public arts of cultural awakening. (2) About the close relations between media and culture Prem Kirpal has observed that “The culture of a particular society is comprised of three distinct elements: ideas, aesthetic forms and values, largely molded by the traditions of the past and the aspirations for the future.” (3) Media has to pursue cultural ideas with proper aesthetic sense and cultural values. Due to this factor foreign channels like Star and BBC have not sustained in India and other third world countries. It is true that “It is necessary to understand the content of culture in the broad and comprehensive sense.” (4) Truth, love and humanity are global cultural values, which have appeal even in the modern global village. It has been rightly observed that “Culture like love will always elude definition and remain awareness beyond words and concepts.” (5) In the new world humanity has been appealing to all because of its universal content and message. It would be interesting to study media’s role in cultural awakening in 21st century. The different factors of cultural awakening are having greater relevance to the modern social and cultural life.