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2022
Vol.20 No.53:314
Research Article
Global Media Journal
ISSN 1550-7521
1
© Under License of Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License | This article is available in: http://www.globalmediajournal.com
The Global Network of
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Abhirup Bhadra*1, Dr. Rahul
Amin2
1 Student of Journalism and Mass
Communicaon Arka Jain University,
Jharkhand
2 Assistant Professor and Head,
Department of Journalism and Mass
Communicaon Arka Jain University,
Jharkhand
*Corresponding author:
Abhirup Bhadra
abhirupbhadra0@gmail.com
Student of Journalism and Mass
Communicaon Arka Jain University,
Jharkhand
Citation: Bhadra A, Amin R (2022) Mass
Media Usage and Exposure of Sabar Tribal
Community: A Study. Global Media Journal,
20:53.
Introducon
Mass media are the tools that disseminate informaon or
messages in form of visuals or text to the mass, for dierent
purposes like entertainment, news, etc. The word when
bifurcated raises two dierent words mass means the audience
at a large number and media which is the medium through which
the informaon passes. The era of world can be divided into two
sectors broadly rst the primive world where the advent of print
bought its own importance and second the world where mass
media are ulized for the development of society.
According to Wilbur Schramm a mass media is the round some
devices for circulang same message at same point of me. Radio,
television, cinema cable, press as well as the tools of new media like
pagers, iPods, cellular phones, satellites, computers, electronic mails
and internet can be said as the organ of mass media.
Mass Media Usage and Exposure of Sabar
Tribal Community: A Study
Abstract
It is a general percepon in the society that tribal communies are under privileged
in all the socio-economic spares due to sociological background. Mass media
fails to emphasis and address the issues in general for their growth and overall
development of the tribal community. The study tried to understand the exposure
of mass media tools like radio, television, print as well as other social media and
their role and usage in an endangered community namely Sabar tribe residing
at Galudih under East Singh hum district of Jharkhand state. The role of mass
media is undeniable in terms of development and social change. This paper tries
to invesgate and understand the mass media exposure and accessibility of the
vulnerable Sabar tribal community. The study found that the mass media exposure
and literacy level is very poor amongst the people of the community which is
resulng the lack of awareness about their livelihoods and various developmental
schemes of the government. From the eld data it is seen that almost all the
respondents covered under the study do not have mass media exposure except a
few who read newspaper occasionally and that is less than seven percent. On the
other hand, individuals of this community do not have any social media account.
Data also reects that community members neither have accessibility to television
nor they watch television. This paper nds that tradional media and gram sabha
are the most eecve and preferable means of communicaon in the Sabar
community.
Keywords: Mass media; Development communicaon; Social change; Sabar
community; tradional media; Gram sabha
Received: 14-Jul-2022, Manuscript No. gmj-22-69218; Editor assigned: 16-Jul-
2022, PreQC No. gmj-22-69218 (PQ); Reviewed: 30-Jul-2022, QC No. gmj-22-69218;
Revised: 04-Aug-2022, Manuscript No. gmj-22-69218 (R); Published: 12-Aug-2022,
DOI: 10.36648/1550-7521.20.53.314
Mass media funcons in its own way but with the same goal
of spreading informaon just like other tradional media. The
dierence lies in the medium and the reach of the channel, where
the tradional media has a limited reach, the, ass media tools
have a greater reach at a point of me. The main aim of mass
media is to spread informaon-to inform the people about their
surroundings and the connect them with the outer world in the
form of news, entertaining videos, adversements, social media
contents etc. which creates a umbrella of informaon under
which the world resides. Mass media plays a vital role in shaping
up the society, by diusion of culture, food habits, dressing sense
and ideas from dierent corners of the world.
But the access to the mass media in backward countries like India
is sll restricted because of poverty, low literacy levels and lile
familiarity with major speaking languages which dominates the
media world today. The media concentraon is more saturated
ARCHIVOS DE MEDICINA
ISSN 1698-9465
2022
Vol.20 No.53:314
2
Global Media Journal
ISSN 1550-7521
This article is available in: http://www.globalmediajournal.com
among the urban parts compared to the rural parts where the
tradional medium of communicaon is more prevalent.
Mass media and communicaon for
development
“Development communicaon is the science of human
communicaon linked to the transioning of communies from
poverty in all its forms to a dynamic, overall growth that fosters
equity and the unfolding of the individual potenal [1]. The media
has a pivotal role in the funconing of the society, enhancing the
dynamic range of poverty of the mass to a state of where people
are fully sased. Media such as television, press and cinema
disseminates variety of informaon and puts up the areas of
concern to the world and forces to think upon them. Mass media
plays an important role between the government and people
providing informaon, entertainment well as development
strategies [2].
Mass media due to its reach to a large number of audiences
at a single point of me can address a certain issue with an
immediate eect that pierces the minds and provokes to
revert. Aer the advent of television(1959), the print(1556) and
radio(1923) the country saw a transformaon from a state where
group discussion ,gram sabha, Ramayan Mahabharata session
,painngs, wall cravings, symbols and gestures were some of the
major communicaon techniques which got modied into new
forms and widened its reach ,thus leading to development.
Media, society and development
Media and societal development are interconnected with each
other .the tribal groups which are marginalized form a backward
society, which has to be in the lime light. To do that, dierent
plaorms of media are required to work for them as media will
give them a plaorm to raise voice, bargain for development
goals, understand their needs and see their stand on the country.
Mass media and tribes
A tribe is viewed, as a social group exisng before the
development of, or outside, states. A tribe is a group of disnct
people, dependent on their land for their livelihood, who are
largely self-sucient and not integrated into the naonal society;
they have their own beliefs and culture which is oen linked with
nature [3].
India home to large number of tribes (8.6% of the total
populaon) where the development counts less than the outer
world. On a whole the general concern about the tribes are the
derogang health status, educaon status as well as endangered
cultural values. The mass media has a capacity to preserve their
tradional values and upli their cultural and spiritual thoughts
to the outer world to enrich their essence of such secon of the
society. Over the last 60 years the situaon of tribes has been
worse due to economic deprivaon and lack of basic need [4]. So
media provides a hope to bring a change due to its large reach and
capability of penetrang into the people. Tools of mass media
have such as radio television print etc. have an equal importance
for tribes as to upli their socio economic,socio culture and
their socio democrac status. The health and educaon are now
being monitored by the government in various forms, like audio
messages in speaker are played in the local language, posters
of family welfare schemes and women health are put up on the
wall of the block oces, gram sabha and jantadarbars are now
held regularly under the jurisdicon of district magistrate of the
district just to empower the tribal secon of the country.
Tribes of Jharkhand
The scheduled tribe populaon of Jharkhand as per 2011 census
is 7087068 which is 26.3% of the total populaon of Jharkhand,
out of which Gumla district has the highest number of ST
populaon followed by Koderma district which have the lowest.
Out of 30 noed tribes Santhal having populaon of 2410509
which is 34% of the total populaon of ST followed by Oraon,
Munda and Ho.
Sabar tribe of Jharkhand
In the forested areas of east singhbhum district the hunter
collecvely known as the Sabar community lives in great distress
with a total number of 86,110 which is barely 0.27% of the total
populaon. The Sabars are mostly found on the on hilly forested
areas of south eastern Jharkhand parcularly in the districts of
East Singhbhum, Potka. The Sabar also known as Shabar Saora are
one of the Adivasi of Munda ethinic group who were menoned
in the Hindu epic Mahabharata, are mostly engaged in hunng
and foresng for their livelihood [5].
The marginalized group is mostly occupied in forest related
acvies like bringing woods from the forest and selling them,
hunng small animals, some of the families have goats and sell
their milk to survive their livelihood. The young generaon is
mostly involved in deep boring acvies earning a daily wage
of around 500 rupees. The communicaon system within the
tribe is very limited and simple in nature; they are conned to
verbal communicaon techniques among themselves and mostly
depend on gram sabha for external informaon [6].
Literature review
Rao and Gupta stated that mass media communicaon is a beer
way of development for these tribal secons that has aained a
certain level of socio-economic development. By exposing them
to mass media tools like newspaper, television, cinema their
mind and behavior can move to a posive side.
Kachhap and Saw (2016) in their paper - A mapping stature
regarding problems and its associated factors of Tribal
Communies of Jharkhand suggested that giving proper
guidelines to the tribal people and allowing them to parcipate
in main stream acvies will help them to get into the lime light
as well as developing their skills in the eld of arts and spreading
awareness about health among themselves will give them a
posive mindset towards living a sustainable life Miah (2017)
in impact of social media on tribal stated that social media has
proved its capacity to change the society specially the tribal parts
from health development to improved farming techniques [7].
Pandey, Pandey, Pandey (2012) in Mass media and rural
development-A study of Palamau commissioner of Jharkhand
State menoned the usage of internet based communicaon
ARCHIVOS DE MEDICINA
ISSN 1698-9465
2022
Vol.20 No.53:314
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Global Media Journal
ISSN 1550-7521
© Under License of Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
tools and the usage of mass media in the rural state, where the ICT
based technologies can help them in decision making behavior,
give a overall market look, empower rural communies and will
eecvely target marginalized group for the development.
Methodology
The survey method was followed for this study with the help
of a structured quesonnaire followed by in-depth interviews
and the researcher covered all the adult inhabitants that is
forty individuals of the community residing at the village as
sample for this study. The study was conducted in Sabar tribal
community who reside in a forested part namely Galudih under
East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand.
Data interpretaon and analysis
(Table 1).
The above table 1.1 reveals the gender distribuon of the whole
community, where male were total of 15 in number where 5out
of the total were under 21-30 age group,7 were among 31-40
age group and rest 3 were among 40-60 age group. On the other
hand females were 25 in total among which 8 were under 14-20
age group, 11 were under 21-30 age group, 5 under 31-40 and
rest 1 was under 40-6- age group (Table 2).
The table 1.2 shows the educaonal qualicaon of the Sabar
tribes, where the illiterates were total of 34 out of which 12 were
males and 22 were females. 3 males were under std.6-9 as well
as 2 females were studying between class 1-5 and 1 girl was from
class 6-9 (Tables 3 and 4).
The above table 1.4 shows that out of 40 respondents both men
15(37.5%) and female (62.5%) do no watch television at all.
Inference-the data reveals that 100% of the total community is
deprived of watching electronic mass media tool, the television
mostly due to lack of television set, lack of electricity in remote
areas and illiteracy (Table 5).
The table 1.5 shows that out of 15 male respondents, 8(20%)
never listen to radio,7(17.5%) listens radio somemes, on
other hand 22(55%) of female respondents never listens to
radio,3(7.5%) female respondents listens to radio somemes .
Inference -the majority 30(75%) of the populaon do not listens
to radio, which shows that the listenership of this media is very
low (Table 6).
The above table 1.6 reveals the number of respondents who
have access to social media account .The tribe is totally deprived
from the access of internet therefore 100% of the populaon is
not having social media account.
Inference – the result shows that the total populaon is deprived
of internet, modern smart phones thus they do not have social
media accounts (Table 7).
The data from table 1.7 reveals that out of the total populaon
,2(5%) male relied on friends that is interpersonal communicaon
,13(32.5%) relied on gram sabha which is group communicaon
as their source of informaon on governmental schemes, on
the other hand 25(62.5%) female relied on gram sabha for the
source.
Inference -the data shows that more of one to one communicaon
and tradional media plaorms are trusted more by them rather
mass media tools (Table 8).
The table 1.8 reveals that 15(37.5%) of the male preferred
tradional media for their choice of communicaon, whereas
25(62.5%) of the female respondents too opted tradional
media.
Gender distribuon
Age 14-20 21-30 31-40 40-60 and above
Male - 5 7 3
Female 8 11 51
Total 8 16 12 4
Table 1. Gender wise distribuons of the respondents.
Educaonal status
Gender Std 1-5 Std 6-9 Std 9-12 and
above
Illiterate
Male - 3- 12
Female 2 1 - 22
Total 2 4 - 34
Table 2. Educaonal status of the respondents and gender wise
distribuon.
Newspaper reading habits
Gender YES NO SOMETIMES TOTAL
Male - 15(100%) -15
Female 2 (5%) 22(55%) 1(2.5%) 25
Total 2(5%) 37(92.5%) 1(2.5%) 40(100%)
Table 3. Newspaper reading habits and gender wise distribuon of the
responses.
Television viewership habits
Gender Yes No Somemes Total
Male - 15(37.5%) -15(37.5%)
Female -25(62.5%) -225(62.7%)
Total -40(100%) -40(100%)
Table 4. Television viewership habit and gender wise distribuon of the
respondents.
Radio listening habits
Gender Yes No Somemes Total
Male - 8(20%) 7(17.5%) 15(37.5%)
Female -22(55%) 3(7.5%) 25(62.5%)
Total -30(75%) 10(25%) 40(100%)
Table 5. Radio listening habits and gender wise distribuon among the
respondents.
Social media accessibility
Gender Yes No Total
Male - 15(37.5%) 15(37.5%)
Female -25(62.5%) 25(62.5%)
Total -40(100%) 40(100%)
Table 6. Social media accessibility and gender wise distribuon of the
respondents.
ARCHIVOS DE MEDICINA
ISSN 1698-9465
2022
Vol.20 No.53:314
4
Global Media Journal
ISSN 1550-7521
This article is available in: http://www.globalmediajournal.com
Inference -due to lack of proper electricity, literacy, the best
way for communicaon for these tribes are tradional way of
communicaon, specially one to one like gram sabha, public
announcement in their nave language.
Findings and Conclusion
The data from the above analysis clearly reveals that mass
media exposure is very low in this community and they are least
bothered about the usage of mass media for their awareness and
development. The adult family members are mostly involved into
manual deep boring unskilled jobs and some seasonal acvies
which earns them livelihood, the girls and women are subjected
to household work and somemes go to the forest to collect
woods and sell it to the local market for earning money to support
their family. It can be concluded that educaon level is quite low,
which is a major concerns for the under development causes only
few of them are aending local schools. The proliferaon of mass
media tools is limited because either of no electricity, illiteracy,
poverty and less curiosity and media awareness.
From the above ndings it can be said that majority of the
community members are reluctant and do not show interest to
mass media for their informaon and growth. The community
members of sabar tribe mostly relies on interpersonal
communicaon as well as tradional media plaorms like gram
sabha as their vital source of informaon.
Sources of informaon about governmental schemes
Gender Friends Radio Television Newspaper Social media Gram sabha Total
Male 2(5%) ----13(32.5%) 15(37.5%)
Female ----25(62.5%) 25(62.5%)
Total 2(5%) ----38(95%) 50(100%)
Table7. Sources of informaon about governmental schemes and gender wise distribuon among the respondents.
Media preferences for communicaon
Gender Tradional media Mass media Social media Total
Male 15(37.5%) - - 15(37.5%)
Female 25(62.5%) - - 25(62.5%)
Total 50(100%) - - 50(100%)
Table 8. Media preferences for communicaon and gender wise distribuon of the respondents.
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