MEDIA CONSUMPTION OF MIZO CHILDREN IN AIZAWL:

A study conducted on children in Aizawl, Mizoram.

Abstract

We live in a society where communication is fast and made easy with the advancement in technology. Each of us adopts technology in some form or the other and media have become a driving force to help introduce them. Electronic media, particularly television, has long been criticized for its adverse impact on children. Mizoram is one of the eight sister states in Northeast India where different ethnic communities live in harmony and among them, the Mizo are a distinct ethnic group. In the past few decades, the society has gone through tremendous transformation politically, economically, and socially. The media invasion in the Mizo society has had an enormous impact on everyone's life. Television was once called the "idiot Box" but its influence on the society had outlived that era. It has the power to change one's perception and shape one's opinion while being a medium which can disseminate information to a large audience at once. It has taken the role of a babysitter when parents are busy and have less time pertaining to their jobs or career. Television being easy to operate has become a favourite medium of entertainment for the age group 3-7 who are heavily exposed to the television medium and they spend most of their free time watching their favourite show, thus directly affecting their social life by making them stay confined to their homes and their social life is affected. Therefore this paper attempts to probe media consumption among Mizo children in Aizawl.  The researcher uses the survey method by employing the purposive sampling method where questionnaires are distributed to children between 3-7 age groups thereby collecting data on demographic details, media consumption and media preferences.