Significance of Media Research

Among the four methods of knowing, research uses the scientific method of investigation. The other three methods; tenacity, authority and intuition differ from the method of science because it is verifiable, objective, empirical, systematic, cumulative and logical. Some scholars also take it as the valid way of attaining knowledge because of its two basic characteristics:

· It is an objective state of human mind.

· It follows a systematic procedure.

Media research is the part of communication research which does the scientific study of mass communication processes including how people interact with mass media as an individual or in a group, media contents and the activities of media professionals and media owners. Media scholars have defined the three approaches under mass media research, they are; people or behavior oriented research, media oriented research and artifact oriented research. Mass media research further provides exploration, examination and application in the field of mass media. There isn’t any area in Mass media that doesn’t conduct or use research. Research is the only area in mass media that relates it to everything. Every time we raise a “who, what, when, where, why, how questions we have developed an investigative question. For example why do people choose to watch one television program over another, how internet affected readership of newspapers, what type of articles are most popular in magazines, when is the best time to broadcast a youth related program. Research helps provide answer to these questions.

Research is an integral part of mass media because it results in better and accurate reporting, also evaluating and examining past and present to make better decisions for future.

Development in Development Journalism

Development can be seen in two ways; Infrastructural development like constructions of road, health post, electricity, etc and Freedom, which is related with human rights protection, human development, economic development, etc. Development must be talked of in concrete and measurable terms. And Development journalism should focus on the needs of the poor, the deprived, the marginalized and emphasis their effective participation in development planning. Development is about ‘highlighting what people are doing to help transform their lives. It is seen as humanity’s common objective and a means to eradicate poverty and protect the environment.

At the talk program in Martin Chautari on “Development Journalism: Necessity and Challenges”, Laxman Dutta Pant gave in depth analysis over the situation of Development Communication in Nepal. He mentioned that Nepal still lacks in the professionalism of journalist as a whole. Journalism has become a hobby rather than job. He added people from other profession can join journalism and this is creating some sort of snag for Journalism to grow as a profession. Journalism practice isn’t applied, because we can’t criticize. They can’t criticize in the next level of the issue because they aren’t prepared for that. The task of Journalism is to decrease issues by enforcing better solutions, but the same issues have been only reported and not investigated resulting to its repetition. Though we have an educated mass, they aren’t well informed. Press council doesn’t self check the violation of the rules and ethics by journalist or media, but prefer for the public to bring in complains to act. As a tool for social justice, development journalism can be very valuable. By speaking for those who cannot, a development journalist can inform the rest of the world about important issues within developing nations. Looking at the strengths and weaknesses of a country may also help identify ways in which the nation can be helped. This style of development journalism is a tool for empowerment.

When development journalism is used as a propaganda tool, however, it can become very dangerous. Many citizens are taught that the news is a reliable and useful source of information. For example, within a developing nation which has a corrupt government, journalistic exposes of the government are extremely important for reform. If journalists are not allowed to write about what is actually going on, the citizens are not well served. Several international press organizations release reviews every year which look at the freedom of press in individual nations in an attempt to bring freedom of the press to all countries for this very reason.

The New Discoveries

When we entered the Singha Durbar with the permission of the security guards at the gates, we were tired of standing and annoyed by the delaying of the Radio Nepal Staff to receive us. When I looked around I got a glimpse of our Journalism course supervisor Nirmala Mani Adhikary also getting restless waiting at the gates. Finally we were allowed to enter the core government office area and start our educational tour. For many of my colleagues it was the first time entering Singha Durbar and a chance to discover the huge palaces and smooth roads. Inside the Radio Nepal Mr. Gandharva Khadka guided us to various studios and also the huge library Radio Nepal posseses.

But it was interesting for most of us to see our Nepali Literature Lecturer Mr. Ram Chandra Poudel who also accompanied us to the trip, trying his hands on Harmonium. There we found out about the love of our teacher towards music. While all the students were hanging around the piano and waiting for their chance to press the black and white keys of the expensive music instrument, Ram Chandra Sir was mesmerizing the sweet melody of the sound the Harmonium was producing with the help of his fingers.

And when we reached the library section, we met a woman with a very familiar face but we didn’t know that she was the popular folk singer Mira Rana until Nirmala Sir introduced her. I had of course heard her name and listened to her songs but I could not figure out when she was there in front of me. Later in the studio room too, we were encountered by another folk singer Tika Bhandari but we again failed to recognize him. Though they were working in the field of mass media, they are not as popular as foreign celebrities. This describes the content and strength of Nepali media. We could have readily recognized Paris Hilton or Hrithik Roshan but not our native celebrities.

Therefore, I guess we discovered the music interest of our lecturer and the not-so-popular among the young generation celebrities of Nepal on our trip to Radio Nepal.

The 13th Book Fair

It had been an annual ritual for me to visit the Book exhibition that used to take place every year at Bhrikuti Mandap. But I thought that it was a double treat as this year I had to visit the fair not solely because of my interest but also as an assignment of a Media Project course. Before entering the hall, I had assumed that a flood of people would be pushing me and I have to peep through the shoulders of massive people around me. However, to my great surprise, the fair was not at all crowded. The stalls had very few numbers of buyers and I could move through the stalls with great ease finding all the books I wanted to buy without any pushing or pulling from the crowd. Talking about this situation of the book exhibition, one of the big stall, educational book house clarified that the organizers did not do enough homework for the exhibition, they have taken the popularity for granted, and they had not done sufficient advertising about the event. The stall owner even informed us that they have to think quite hard to put the stall next year. It was very frustrating remark for all the book lovers like me.

Well, one good thing about the lesser number of people was that I could roam around in educational section as well. I saw many projects of students of different colleges but the project that impressed me was "Electrical traditional cereals grinder" developed by the team of brothers Mahendra and Tanka Bhattarai studying Food technology at Golden Gate International College. They said that they developed the project with the help of their physics teachers. I wish them luck.

THE EFFECT OF VIOLENT TOYS ON CHILDREN’S BEHAVIOUR

Young children have difficulty separating facts from fantasy. Children learn through play, and they learn by example. It is through imaginative play that the child begins to learn some of the roles and behaviours of society. Learning to cooperate, negotiate, take turns and play by the rules are all important skills learned through play. The skill learning process through play and games is applied in Montessori kindergartens which have turned out to successful method of teaching all around the world.

But kindergartens are not always careful about their teaching schemes. They are not cautious on how ‘g’ for ‘goat’ and ‘g’ for ‘gun’ can aid on destruct the child’s psychology. However they are just the base for the child to enter into the violence fantasy. Television, videogames, music and film have become increasingly violent. Over 1000 studies attest to a casual connection between media violence and aggressive behavior in children. Most parents are aware about the effects on their children due to the violent television shows but many do not realize that war toys can have similar effects. Most experts say that children should not be allowed to play with guns or other toys that promote violence. There is the potential for many negative effects. These toys send the message that violence is acceptable and conflicts should be resolved by fighting.

In United States the top selling toy for boys was the Daisy air rifle in 1920. In 1950: the air rifle now has twin barrels and continues to be a best-seller. In 1970, the most popular toy on the market was army action figure. In 1980, a full generation later, still the number one toy for boys was realistic water guns. This figure shows that boys are more vulnerable to the behavioral effects due to the excessive use of the war toys. Also because the use of these toys is high by the male children, the toys tend to be of masculine dominance and represent sexiest stereotyping.

To have an understandable view over this issue, let us first discuss about the attributes of violent toys. Violent toys are those which:

teaches that violence is the best way to settle a dispute

propagates that violence is fun and "cool"

encourages hurting and killing

glamorizes war and combat

promotes male dominance and female passivity

provides negative depiction of ethnic groups

promote excessive materialism

fosters aggressive competition

lead to anti-social behavior

It may not be readily apparent, but the toys that a child plays with can have profound effects on them. Providing a child with toys that encourage learning in a healthy way can be a huge asset to a child's development. Toys help children model the world of adults, children who learn at home develop skills that they will use for the rest of their lives but our society has been teaching for generations that guns and violence are acceptable behavior.

War toys not only have negative impacts on child’s behaviour but they help in cultivating any negative ideas, even set up some beliefs on their minds that may not be suitable for them. Some experts argue that war toys are also used as a propaganda tool that portray one group as right and powerful whereas the enemies to be less powerful and wrong. It is parents’ guidance that is necessary to keep their children away from such toys that propagate violent sadistic behaviours in them as well as help them escape from the propaganda cavity.

Attitudes about violence as ‘entertainment’ have to be changed over time. As discussed earlier, boys show violent oriented behaviors in quite early age. They have seen to be greeting strangers with pointing two fingers as they were shooting the person. It is even seen that boys are more ahead in forming gangs and they readily have enemies to oppose them and engross themselves in violent activities.

Children should be provided with the toys that stimulate creativity and imaginative play, encourage sharing and cooperation, encourage children to build and create rather than to destroy, are free of racist and sexist stereotypes, nurture non-violent, conflict-resolving skills, promote learning of new skills and help children develop their own talents, are open-ended - look for toys with no predetermined 'right' or 'wrong', challenge children to think for themselves and to use their imagination.

Works Cited

1.Copperwiki. Violent Toys. Retrieved from http://www.copperwiki.org/index.php/Violent_Toys
2.New Brunswick Advisory Council of Women. Violent toys send violent messages. Retrieved from http://www.acswcccf.nb.ca/english/toys.asp
3.Toy Reviews and News. Violent toys and their effects. Retrieved from http://www.toy-tma.com/toy-news/toy-recalls-and-safety/violent-toys-and-their-effects/
4.Vineyar Designs. Effect of toys on children. Retrieved from http://www.vineyardesigns.com/moms/educational_toys/effects_toys_children.shtml

A Social world of Facebook in and out of KU

As we human beings are the only social beings, the way we live and behave in our society defines us and our identity. Social processes and traditional understandings have been defining our life from the very beginning. Society is an emblem of sharing and multiplicity among a group of people that could belong to a community of multi ethnicity and multi culture. But, with the advancement in science, technology and relevant communication behavior, we have come a long way, where we socialize with the entire world even through a confined room- thanks to the ever escalating obsession and use of social networking sites. Or we can say, more than an obsession, it has become a necessity, which unlike our traditional societies, has started to revamp the meaning of socialization and our social identity. Our real-world identities can be multifaceted and contextually fragmented - we behave one way at work, and another when drinking with friends. Yet social-networking websites collapse “relationship types and contexts into the ubiquitous ‘Friend’” (Boyd, 2007, p.134). Thus one’s online social network friends, regardless of context (e.g. work, family, and school) all receive, by default, the same information. This online flattening of offline relationships has progressed without adequate means to negotiate this experience. For example how to present one facet of personality, or persona, to one's friends vs. one's workplace colleagues.

The Facebook phenomenon in a developing country like Nepal is indeed an interesting subject to study and find out about the people who are knowingly or unknowingly negotiating with their identity through social networking sites like Facebook. Facebook has met with some controversy over the past few years. It has been blocked intermittently in several countries including Syria and Iran. It has also been banned at many places of work to increase productivity. Privacy has also been an issue, and it has been compromised several times. It is also facing several lawsuits from a number of Zuckerberg's (the creator of Facebook) former classmates, who claim that Facebook had stolen their source code and other intellectual property. But this has not stopped people from using it. Even our political leaders have started to keep themselves up to date with people through Facebook and they are in the verge of transforming their identity as technologically and informatively advanced. The Facebook account of finance minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai has been authenticated after the minister asked the person impersonating him to manage the account for him. But impersonating people on online services isn’t unique to Facebook- Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Steve Ballmer, John Howard And Barack Obama have all had their identity used by others only to create their fake and unauthorized accounts but when we came to know about God’s Facebook page wandering round the internet, and when tried to look at his profile, it had all sorts of statuses like “God is high like a kite....” or “God is bored lol”. When you search for Facebook account of George Bush, the outgoing American president, around 500 account profiles scroll up on your screen. Now, it is almost impossible to go through all the accounts only to find out if there’s any authentic one. The other thing of significance is that Facebook is creating “an identity that can cross applications.” And even world brands use virtual worlds to prototype, advertise and sell goods. That significance is one of the reasons that technologists have been so enthusiastic about the young platform.

The use of Facebook among Kathmandu University students too is extremely high. There are many students who created identity through Facebook. Some of them are Aakar Undefined and Vapidity; Aakar Undefined earned his popularity in his real life through his virtual identity. There were many people inside university who knew him in the Facebook but not in real life, many students know who Aakar Undefined is but very few, only the closest know his full name and know him in person. On the other hand Vapidity has used an English word for his identity on virtual world which can be used by any other person but inside the university it seems that he has owned the word and vapidity is not merely a word but a person’s identity in the virtual world. Even university clubs are formed through Facebook having all the executive members of the club regular users of Facebook. The clubs like Club’07 are some instances of this fact. The clubs use feeds, walls and their own profile space so well that the members had to put less effort for the dissemination of information to organize any programs. The clubs even send invitation to the programs in Facebook to the friends in their circle. The feeds in the Facebook are actually replacing the real life notice boards and to know any activities of the club, students do not have to reach for notice boards but just log on to their Facebook account and the notice board comes to their screen. These clubs are also the examples of virtual clubs that exist in reality. The use of Facebook is not only fun, or passing time, sharing photographs but the use of notes in the Facebook are for sharing any literary hobby or posting any thoughts or even facts. That is not it; the further utilization is made through comments as people comment in one’s note and then replied again by some other people. It is like a discussion forum and the use of notes has made impact on real activities and relationships. Thus the virtual space is attracting many members because of these facilities and the foremost fact that people are interested in Facebook is because virtual self is only possible only when there are other virtual characters.

Today one cannot imagine being social without these social networking sites, especially in the time of global migration. These sites matter to us more than being social in real; like parties, get-togethers, and even reunions or any social event for it doesn’t guarantee bringing up all your friends as these sites do. And they even bring together friends from different poles of the world. That is why it is not surprising to see the young generation gluing to their PCs and Laptops in a small corner rather than going out for social events. Would it be surprising to predict that the new generation will stop coming out of their abodes and just remain attached to the computer for it would mean more to them than a social life?

co-written with Sumati Maharjan

Works cited:
 Wikipedia
 www.Questia.com/Identity_Psychology, Boyd, D. (2007). None of this is real: Identity and participation in Friendster. New York: Social Science Research Council.
 Golick, J. (2008). Deleted from Facebook. Story2Oh.com.
 Oneill, N.(2007). Facebook’s Identity Problem.
o Jeremiah (2007). Web Strategy Predictions: Facebook, Identity, Social networks.
 Paul Squires (2007). Facebook and identity

Being an internal tourist

It was very interesting visit to Changu Narayan with the details of the temple by the priest himself but as the description finished and we roamed around the temple premises we saw different homemade materials on sale. We were very happy to see the Nepali products having such a good market for international tourists. We also thought of checking out the products, as we were also the internal tourist there. But as we inquired about the materials and price, the response was very frustrating. They were very reluctant to give us any information; moreover, they even ordered us not to touch them. A seller even gave the rude comments that we were just wasting their time and they only give information to the people who actually buy them. We returned back disheartened.

The internal tourism industry involves a very wide range of commercial and public enterprises and brings economic and social benefits to society. It creates employment for many different categories of workers and offers job opportunities for women. The very important part of internal tourism is internal tourism consumption. The basic concept measuring tourism activity and refers to total consumption of or on behalf of visitors and could, consequently be termed as "visitor demand". And it was evident that the shopkeepers in Changu Narayan were not aware of this fact.