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6.
MEDIA - OWNERSHIP & ACCESSIBILITY
It can be
easily assumed that a greater part of
Nepalese population owns a radio set. This
was also evident from the statistics of the
survey data which shows that though some of
the rural respondents did own a television,
a majority owned only a radio. This is
because much of the rural Nepal is devoid of
electricity and proper transportation
services. This has been greatly challenged
the television and print media for reaching
out to the public. The low literacy rate and
poor communications infrastructure are also
the reasons for little recognition of
newspapers and the internet.
In most of
the electrified rural areas – terrestrial
signals of Nepal Television is the only one
that can be received. In many or the rural
areas, respondents stated that they have to
visit the district headquarters or nearby
townships to read newspapers or the
magazines. In other regions, the newspaper
would reach in a week at its earliest.
However, situation was comparatively better
in the rural areas of the Tarai, where
people had higher level of access to
television as well as daily newspapers.
There were very few respondents who
mentioned having telephone lines in their
household. There were some VDCs (close to
the headquarters) where a number of
villagers owned a mobile phone. This was
quite evident in Palpa district where a
majority of the household in MadanPokhara
VDC had at least one mobile phone.
On the other
hand, respondents from the urban areas were
in a much more advantageous position, with
many of them owning a television, radio and
some form of telephony. The survey has also
shown that some of the household in urban
areas had only a television set because
radio has not been their preferred choice
for the daily information or entertainment
content. The respondents, who owned both the
radio and TV sets preferred television for
the general viewership in the family.
However, when it was news, radio was the
first source where most of the respondent
tuned for news at least once a day. Looking
at the general pattern show by the survey
data, radio was more in use in the morning
hours while the evening slots had obvious
preference for TV which was perceived to be
a medium of complete entertainment.
As far as
the make of radio is concerned, majority of
the household had the Chinese sets. The
Indian radio sets were higher in number at
the Mid/Far Western regions where the AM
bands are tuned to. It was interesting to
note that preference for Chinese radios was
on the rise, reasons (as mentioned by
respondents) being:
-
Radios
from China are cheaper than others
-
They
are easily available in all parts of the
country
-
The sets
are portable and small enough to carry
around
Among
respondents owning both makes, a common
pattern observed was that the Indian radio
set was being used by the elder members of
the household while the youngsters were
preferred using the Chinese radio sets. In
many such cases, the Indian radios were
either not in working condition or had some
problem in precise tuning. |
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