Television, Radio, Media

Name: Maru Janak J

Roll No: 20

Paper No: 15

Paper Name: Mass Communication&Media Studies

Topic: Television, Radio, Media

Email Id: marujanak17@gmail.com

Submitted To: Department of English M.K.Bhavnagar University

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v   Television:

                        The inventions and discoveries in the late 1890s early twentieth century to the invention of television. Vladimir Zworykin, an American scientist of Russian birth, took the first big step in the development of TV. Zworykin developed an all-electronic television system in 1923 and perfected it by 1928. However, only experimental TV broadcasts were conducted in the early days. By 1937, quite a few experimental TV stations were in operation. Only in 1938, TV sets become widely available. In India, television arrived with small scale experimental telecasting in 1959. Slowly the half hour programme experimental grew. New TV station also started coming up. In 1975, the satellite instruction Television Experiment (SITE) was conducted. It used an American satellite and reached viewers in six states through 5,000 communities TV sets. Since then private TV changes, running through cable networks have mushroomed. Now we have more than 250 TV channels available in India.

                 

                 From generalized programming of the days, we now see specialized TV channels. BBC, CNN, NDTV, AAJTAK, Start News, Total TV, INDIA TV and DD News the list of news channels is endless. There are exclusive sports channels- Star Sports, ESPN, ten SPORTS, Nimbus, and DD Sports. National geographic, Discovery and animal planet are highly specialized channels covering nature and wildly exclusively.  Television brings events of far off places to our drawing rooms. Television captures our imagination like no other media. We see things on it, we hear and we see life-like-movement. And it is the most complete and the most dramatic of all mass media. Television captures actual events for us, reaches as immediately, gives us shared meanings for events, situations, happenings, etc. but in addition to packaging reality, television also packages fiction, drama, culture, economy and many other things with equal or better ease. However, TV networks and Channels make profits despite the high costs of programming and transmission because of high advertising revenues. Unlike other mass media, television channels and networks are not just concerned with audience appeal. TV channels produce programmes as much against their competitors’ offerings and they do for the viewers. This is reflected in the adherence to the policy of appealing to the lowest common denominator. And no other mass media practices simplicity and commonality in their content as television. From family dramas, gunfights, drug busts, crime serials, high society melodramas, family comedies, to young woman in simply clothing, to reality shows: the range of TV programmes is grossly limited. In fact, TV is criticized for producing producing; programme aimed at the so-called thirteen years old mentally which will automatically reach every one above that level. At another level, TV watching is considered an addiction. Television has been labeled the ‘plug in drug’. Statistic about TV watching habits reflects this aspect with crystal clarity.  Statistics also shoes that half the population, at least in USA, is glued to TV sets during prime time.

v Advertising ON Television: 

                           Television advertisement is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an to market a product conveys a message, typically to market a product or service. Advertising revenue provides a significant portion of the funding for most privately owned television networks. Over the years television has grown as a medium of advertising also. In America more than half advertising money is spent on TV. Television is used as an advertising medium for many reasons. One of the reasons is its massive reach. TV reaches every one and everywhere. Young and old, literate and illiterate, students and scholars, workers and experts, house wives and working women, no one escape television. These include drama, humor, dramatic effect, colour, stereo-sound and most importantly, the element or motion. TV also has a unique ability to crate mood, excitement and a sense of involvement.

v Television NEWS:

              TV news is reflected from the following findings of a research study in America. These statistics hold true to a great extent for most other countries also. One third of the adult population receives most of their news from television. For half the population, television is the only source of news. And most people news on TV because it is immediate. Also it is more convenient and requires less effort than any other news media. All those changed with the advent of the magnetic videotape. These tapes were reusable and were easy to edit. Another improvement- particularly for TV news- was the development of electronic-news-gathering.

Criticism OF Television:

                                           Television generally concentrates its efforts on entertaining the masses. It, however, has the potentiality to do better things. As Edward R. Murrow once said, “This instrument can teach, it can illuminate, and can even inspire. But it can only do so to the extent that viewers are determined to use it to these ends. Otherwise, it is merely wires and lights in a box. Used carefully, television could be immensely useful in the battle against ignorance and indifference”.

         Cinema still frames of individual photographs are mechanically speeded up and projected in such a way they blend into one another, creating the illusion of motion. It is known by many names- movies, cinema, films or motion pictures. Film is considered a mass medium because it reaches very large audiences. It is not as immediate as newspaper, television or radio. But reaches large masses of people over a reality long period of time. By ‘film’ we generally mean the commercial ‘Masala’ films. But there are many other variations including are films, cartoon films, educational films, social documentaries, television films, and children’s film.

                   Film works on the principles of ‘persistence of vision’. The eye retains an image for fleeting after it is gone. So when individual photographs or visuals are shown one after the other at a very fast, rate then we get an illusion of movement or motion. Then camera the Lumpier brothers. In 1895, they produce and started having commercial shown of films. Soon others followed suit and the beginning of the 20^th century; film became the third mass medium after books and newspapers. Film has had an obvious impact on the audiences. One reason is it is not imposed. It does not come to us. We go to theatres to watch films. So there is willingness on part of the audiences to get transported to another world for two or three hours. Films deal with universal themes. Also it is for more transportable. Audiences all over the world watch Hollywood block busters. People in Russia and cinema loved Raj Kapoor’s films.         

   Radio:

                    Samuel Morse invented telegraph in 1844. Alexander Graham Bell invented telephone in 1876. Thomas Alva Edison invented the light bulb in 1879. The monopoly of printing was nearing its end. At such a time, a new era in electronics was heralded when in the last decade of the 19^th century; Guglielmo Marconi of ltaly invented a way to transmit sound without using wires. By 1901, Marconi succeeded in creating a wireless communication link between Europe and North America. In 1906 Lee De Forest along with John Ambrose Fleming perfected the ‘audion’ or the vacuum tube, which made clear transmission of voice and music possible.

                                  These developments paved the way for the first ever broadcast that took place on Christmas Eve, 1906 in Massachusetts, USA. Very quickly radio established its place in the minds of listeners. Heavy doses popular almost overtaken- in terms of popularity- by television. Radio needed a savior. But it was already there. Columbia University professor Edwin H. Armstrong had invented frequency modulation(FM) transmission in 1933. It was static-free and had invented frequency modulation (FM) transmission in 1933. It was static-free and had high fidelity second quality. These qualities had been demonstrated by 1938. But use of FM was started only after world war-ll. And only in the 1970’s large-scale use of FM radio started. In American FM has Radio may be small in size. It may not be a status symbol. It may not be as complete a medium like television. But it is doing pretty well now. It recovered from the brink of extinction by learning how to speak to the audience one to one. It became the personal medium. Radio has achieved an unparalleled intimacy

Theme and Characters in “Things Fall Apart”

Name: Maru Janak J

Roll No: 20

Paper No: 14

Paper Name: The African Literature

Topic: Theme and Characters in “Things Fall Apart”

Email Id: marujanak17@gmail.com

Submitted To: Department of English M.K.Bhavnagar University

  

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vTheme and Characters in “Things Fall Apart”

           

       Things fall Apart (1958) is one of the most widely read and studied African novels ever written. The novel focuses on Okonkwo, an ambitious and inflexible clan member trying to overcome the legacy of his weak father. The clan does not judge a man on their s status is based on his own achievents. He is a great wrestler, a brave warrior, and a respected member of the clan who endeavors to uphold its tradition of his ancestors and their ways. One of the issues that critics have continued to discuss is whether Okonkwo serves as an embodiment of the values as an embodiment of the values of Umuofia or stands in conflict with them. This discussion often centers around the question of Okonkwo’s culpability in the killing of the boy, lkemefuna.

v  Theme:

The theme often several theme- guides the author by controlling where the story goes, what the characters do, what style evolves, and what style evolves, and what emotional effects the story will create in the reader. This colonial of cultures levels, and the cultural misunderstanding cuts both ways: just as the uncompromising Revenred Smith views African as “heathathens”, the lgbo initially criticize the Christians and the missionaries as “foolish”. For instance, in Christianity, locusts are a symbol of destruction and ruin, but the Umuofiansrojece at their coming because they are a source of food. The arrival of the locusts corms directly before the arrival of the missionaries in the novel. Colonization is a time of great transition in Umuofia and the novel focuses on change. Other themes include duality, the nature of religious belief, and individualism versus community.

v   Quote:

              “The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers. And our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart”. 

v Analysis:

            Obierika laments the arrival of the white man. He also recognizes his own people’s fault for allowing it. Mr. Brown understand the need to act peaceably, as his religion teachers, in order to win converts. The Revered smith replaces him and oppresses the natives and polarizes the clan.

             “Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness”

      The novel documents what the white man destroyed. The reader leans much about lgbo customs and traditions; depicting this world is a central part of the novel.

v Social disintegration:

                        Those events are all the more painful for the reader because so much time has been spent in sympathetic description of lgbo life, the reader realizes that he has learning about a way of life that no longer exists.

v   Fate and free will:

                  The belief that he controls his own destiny is of central importance to Okonkwo. Later, several events occur to undermine this belief, and Okonkwo is embittered by the experience.

v Masculinity: 

                 Masculinity is one of Okonkwo’s obsessions, and he defines masculinity quite narrowly. Okonkwo’s harshness drives Nwoye away from the family and into the arms of the new religion.

v Tribal belief:

    Achebe also shows that lgbo religious authorities,  such as the Oracle, seem to possess uncanny insights.

v   Justice:

       Justice is another preoccupation of the novel. The final events leading up to Okonkwo’s death concern the miscarriage of justice under the British District Commissioner.

v  Destiny:

         Two other characters contrast with Okonkwo in this regard: Mr. Brown, the first missionary, and Obierika, Okonkwo is an unyielding man of action; the other two are more open and adaptable men of thought. Mr. Brown wins converts by first respecting the traditions and beliefs of the lgbo and subsequently allowing some accommodatation in the conversion process. For example, consider Umuofia’s initial lack of resistance to the establishment of a new religion in its establishment of a new religion in its midst. With all its deep roots in tribal heritage, the community hardly takes a stand against the intruders, against new laws as well new religion. This theme is also played played at the individual and social levels. In the story, readers are frequently reminder about this theme in personal god as well as his ultimate capability and destiny. Ok0nkwo, at his best, feels that his chi supports his ambition: “when a man says yes, his chi says yes also”.

v   Character:

v Okonkwo:

             Okonkwo, the son of the effeminate and lazy Unoka, strives to make his way in a world that seems to value manliness. In so doing, he rejects everything for which he believes his father stood. Unoka was idle, poor, profligate, gentle, and interested in music and conversation. Okonkwo is gruff, at times, and usually unable to express his feelings. But his emotions are indeed quite complex. As his “manly” values conflict with his “unmanly” ones, such as fondness for lkemefuna and Ezinma. Just as Okonkwo is the opposite of his father, Nwoye is the opposite of Okonkwo. His daddy links beating people up. And he drinks his wine from a human skull. Nwoye enjoys hanging out with the girls and telling stories. That totally embarrasses Okonkwo, but the hostage kid from the next village over is the tough, manly type Okonkwo had hoped for in a son.  Okonkwo tries to rally the men of his village to just chop the Christians up with some machetes, but the men of umoufia aren’t as macho and violent as they once were. So, Okonkwo kills the messenger with his machete to show them how real men handle their business. Even that doesn’t work, and realizing that there’s no more hangs himself.

v Nwoye:

                Nwoye, Okonkwo’s oldest son, struggles in the shadow of his powerful, successful, and demanding father. He undergoes many beatings, at a loss for how to please his father, until the arrival of lkemefuna, who becomes him a gentler form of successful masculinity. His reluctance to accept Okonkwo’s masculine values turn into pure embitterment toward him and his ways. Although Okonkwo curses his lot for having borne so “effeminate” a son and disowns Nwoye, Nwoye appears to have found peace at last in leaving the opprears to have found peace at last in leaving the oppressive atmosphere of his ather’s tyranny.

v Ezinmaa:

         Ezinma, Okonkwo’s favorite daughter and the only child of Ekwefi, is bold in the way that she approaches and even sometimes contradicts. She and he are kindred spirits, which boosts her confidence and precociousness. She grows into a beautiful youg woman who sensibility agrees to put off marriage until her family returns from exile so as to help her father leverage his sociopolitical power most effectively. The one of thing that brings Okonkwo out of his funk is his daughter, Ezinma. Not only is she beautiful, but she’s like the son he never had. And his real son, Nwoye, is more like the daughter Okonkwo never wanted.

v Mr.Brown:

                  Mr. Brown successor, revered smith, is zealous, vengeful, small-minded, and manipulative; he thus stands in contrast to Mr. Brown succeeds in winning a large number of converts because he listens to the villagers’ stories, beliefs, and unconditionally.

v   Works Cites:

Ø http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/t/things-fall-apart/critical-essays/major-themes-in-things-fall-apart

Ø http://www.gradesaver.com/things-fall-apart/study-guide/themes

Thematic Concern in Novel ‘The Sense of An Ending’

Name: Maru Janak J

Roll No: 20

Paper No: 13

Paper Name: The New Literature

Topic: Thematic Concern in Novel ‘The Sense of An Ending’

Email Id: marujanak17@gmail.com

Submitted To: Department of English M.K.Bhavnagar University

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v   Thematic Concern of The Sense of An   Ending:

v   Introduction:

            Julian Patrick Barnes is an English writer. Barnes won the Man Booker Prize for his book The Sense of An Ending and three of his earlier books had been shortlisted for the booker prize: Flaubert’s parrot, England and Arthur George. He was more famous for his prosaic style, who was born in Leister on 19 January 1946 and was Educated at the city of London School and Magladen Colllage Oxford.

        The Sense of An Ending is about the person’s memory of youthful days. The novella is divided into two divisions. The divisions are entitled as part-1 and part-2. The first part begins in the 1960s. It begins with four intellectually arrogant school friends. We are told two friends out of four. The first one is Tony Webster who is the narrator of the story and the second one is Adrian the most talented and intelligent among four.

       When they were in the last year of the collage, a boy killed himself after getting a girl pregnant. Thus, the Sense of an Ending is not just person’s story; it is a story of a network of relationships between Tony Webster and Veronica but whose ending is this! That we cannot understand.

v   Themes:

                 Julian Barnes here justifies the University truth that “One cannot know what he does not know” with the reference of Tony Webster that he never understand the words of Veronica, when Tony Asked Veronica about the money at that time she replied with very tragic answer “Blood Money”. When Tony Asked about other things at that time Veronica also replied with unaccepted answer:

 “You still don’t get it. You never did, and you never will. So stop even trying”.

v   Imperfection of Memory:

                    The central theme of the novel is weakness of memory. Through the narrative of Tony Webster and his search for reason of Adrian’s death tries to justify one thing that is imperfection of memory, how our partial memory mislead us! Throughout the novel, writer tries to prove human memory and how it creates assumption on human mind.

                   As ‘The Sense of an Ending’ is memory novel, narrative also tries to give effect of fragmented memory. In the first part Tony tells his story of schooldays, all the events are in order and narrative has particular flow. But at the end of the first part narrative moves faster like “Time passes” section of ‘To the Lighthouse’. In only a paragraph the narrator tells about his marriage and divorce with Margaret, story of 40 years is told in some lines only. And the second part moves so slowly that, events are some but covers half novel.

                In first part the narrator tells the story of 40 years ago. He says the events which he knows and considers as important. Second section is much important, because there is an event happen to Tony and he becomes nostalgic and narrates another event of his past. He tries to revaluate his past.  In this revaluation, he narrates the event of his past with different dimension and which are not so important according to his memory. Like, his letter to Adrian and Veronica, he informs when and why he wrote, which he did not narrate in first section before 40 years ago. This suggests that how memory is partial and fragmented.

               “Well, in one sense, I can’t know what it is that I don’t know. That’s philosophically Self-evident.” Adrian’s this sentence is heart of the novel. Because of imperfection and weakness of memory, we cannot reach to reality as we have an assumption that whatever our memory suggests is only reality. Tony did not get sense about many things, about young Adrian; because his memory tells him one thing that Adrian has relationship with Veronica. Having this memory, he is in assumption that, young Adrian may is Veronica and Adrian’s son. He even doesn’t know what he doesn’t know, means he cannot bring himself out of his memory and cannot have view that, perhaps Adrian had relationship with other.

                So, he cannot even guess that, Adrian was in love with Mrs. Sarah Ford! The mysterious story is actually invented to show how memory works. The writer clearly tells many interesting lines about memory, which shows that the main theme, core idea of the novel is to show imperfection of memory. Even the theme itself deconstructs Tony’s narration with his own soliloquies.

v            History:

                   With criticizing memory, the novel also questions history. One of the central ideas the novel pointed is unreliability of history. “‘History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.’ ” It clearly says that what we believe history as truth is unreliable.

              If human memory is partial than one cannot rely history or documentation done by man with his partial memory. With history classes of Old Joe Hunt, novel tries to develop this idea. The discussion about causes of world war, history is questioned. Adrian with example of Robson, very beautifully describes history as unreliable and not truth. Many ways novel tries to deconstruct given history.

             It has some very good lines about history. The novel also focuses on objectiveness of historian. Because, one cannot be objective, as he cannot come out from his personal assumptions and cast of mind though he want to be. Even he cannot know what he doesn’t know. So, what the historian describes is according to his partial memory, imperfect knowledge and personal perceptions.

            For objecting history, narrator gives his own example and his life, his story, (which he told) his mind, memory which cannot get sense are portrayed to prove how one cannot reach to the truth and creates stories, how one makes time personal and invents different version of past! As narrator says, “The history that happens underneath our noses ought to be the clearest, and yet it’s the most deliquescent. We live in time, it bounds us and defines us, and time is supposed to measure history, isn’t it? But if we can’t understand time, can’t grasp its mysteries of pace and progress, what chance do we have with history even our own small, personal, largely undocumented piece of it?.

v   Eros and Thanatos:

Eros and Thanatos – Greek Myth

Eros – denotes romantic or intimate love, god of love, desire, sex.

Thantos - In Greek mythology was demon personification of death.

Minor figure in Greek Mythology

Eros Drive for survival, life instinct, pleasure, reproduction, and basic instincts like sex hunger and thirst.  These elements are necessary to preserve life Energy created by life instinct is also known as Libido

“The drive to preserve living substance and bring it together in larger unit.”  Eros is associated with behaviors that supports harmony among people such as love, collaboration and cooperation.

v   Thantos:

      Counter part of Eros, Eros and Thanatos are both help define one another in that one is ‘not the other.’ drive to return to state of calm or dead state. It includes. Negative feelings like hate, anger and aggression.

It is associated with anti-social behavior. “Born to die”, it drives human to engage in activities that bring them closer to death ………..cont...

v   Eros and Thanatos in The Sense of an Ending References in Text

‘Eros and Thanatos, sir.’-Adrian

Adrian-‘Sex and death,’ ‘or love and death, if you prefer. The erotic principle, in any case, coming into conflict with the death principle. And what ensues from that conflict.(Barnes, 2011) Robson of the Science Sixth had passed away during the weekend. ‘Thanatos wins again.’

‘First-class degree, first class suicide,’

                  One of the major themes of the novel is “sex and death”. From the very beginning, the idea is established through the English class of Phil Dixon. Even suicide of the student-Robson is put appropriately. Because of having sexual relationship with girl, he has to commit suicide. “Thanatos weans again” Adrian spoke about Robson’s case. But how it will turn in reality in Adrian’s life also. Adrian who is more intelligent, mature, serious, philosopher became victim of the same thing and in his case also Thanatos weans. His sexual relation with a woman who is almost as old as his mother becomes reason of his suicide.

                The idea, presented at the beginning with English class, followed by Robson’s suicide is carried throughout the novel and at the end reached its extreme level with enclosing Adrian’s reason for death. Even the novel tries to say that “Eros and Thanatos” always destroys human life. With example of young Adrian, his abnormality, it can be proved.

  

vExistentialism:

                              

                    

                         The novel represents existentialist ideas. The well- known ideas of Albert Camus are shown in the novel. As Camus says, suicide was the only true philosophical question… Adrian, as existentialist, commits suicide in very young age. Even his way of killing himself is very significant in philosophical sense. He did not kill himself with out of mind but at very conscious mental state, he planned and performed. Some existentialist ideas, the novel presents are as following…

“he had explained his reasoning: that life is a gift bestowed without anyone asking for it; that the thinking person has a philosophical duty to examine both the nature of life and the conditions it comes with; and that if this person decides to renounce the gift no one asks for, it is a moral and human duty to act on the consequences of that decision.”

                         “My philosopher friend, who gazed on life and decided that any responsible, thinking individual should have the right to reject this gift that had never been asked for and whose noble gesture re-emphasized with each passing decade the compromise and littleness that most lives consist of. “Most lives”: my life.”

“Camus said that suicide was the only true philosophical question.” – Adrian.

vExistentialism Vs Eros and Thanatos:

The novel is open ended about these two topics. Reason of Adrian’s suicide is not clearly given. But the facts about his life, before his death is revealed. His philosophical, existentialist ideas suggest that he was mature and serious about his way of living. Like an existentialist, he was having anxiety and restlessness about human life. So, these facts suggest that perhaps following his existentialist mentality, he commits suicide. In their school days, one of their classmates commits suicide because he made one girl pregnant. The reference of this story strongly focuses on idea of Eros and Thanatos.

             Even the novel ends with revealing facts about Adrian’s sexual relationship with Mrs. Sarah Ford quite before his suicide. It means, we can judge that, the writer may want to say, even Adrian is mature serious and has philosophical ideas cannot escape from very cheap trap of Eros and Thanatos. But we can also conclude against that idea that, perhaps, Adrian’s relationship and following events are only side kick of Adrian’s strong existentialist ideas on ending his life, the seed of suicide are already there.

v   Work Cited:

Ø    Suzanne Dean: the secret to a good book cover, The Telegraph, 2nd Dec 2011Retrieved 31st July 2016.

Ø   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sense_of_an_Ending