Public service campaign having emerged as a popular advocacy communication strategy, national governments, non-profit organisations, and corporate bodies are widely using it as development strategy. The, Pulse Polio immunisation campaign, national health mission campaign, the Swachh Bharat campaign, but to name a few havebeen used to portray the aspirations of a healthy India. The Pradhan Mantri JandhanYojana, the Beti Bachao-Beti-Padhao campaign aptly represents the dream of an inclusive nation. The skill India campaign, the save fuel campaign…reflects the hope of a developed nation. These Public communication campaigns are used as instruments of social change by influencing public knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour. The huge socio-cultural and ethnic diversity influence the way development communication campaigns are planned and executed. The digital media explosion has also created an overcrowded public communication environment. More importantly, the ideological split in the country is so apparent that building consensus on any issue seems to be impossible. This paper explores the efficacy of public service advertisements as a nation building strategy, through analysis of selected campaigns in India.

The mushrooming growth of social media services hugely expanded the scope of content generation and sharing. Social platforms have not only emerged as important news platforms for the public, but also as useful tools for journalists. Journalists use social media to find story leads and to share their work with audiences, which has made journalism more interactive. As the social media technologies have variety of features tailored for specified functions, journalists use different social media tools for different journalistic functions, which this paper attempts to explore.

The high voltage Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by the Government of India in October 2014, has completed two and half years. One and half years of the dead-line remains for declared target to be achieved. High visibility of the campaign, of course has, has brought cleanliness to the Centre stage of the public sphere discourses in the country. Meanwhile the government has claimed in May 2017 that over two lakh villages have become open defecation free. However, inadequate facilities to process the solid waste remain big challenges. Surveys indicate that conditions in cities has not improved substantially. Currently, about 80% of the total 1.7 lakh tons of waste generated daily is dumped without processing. The use of city-waste generated compost remains at low level of only two lakh tons. Despite the government taking several initiatives including annual cleanliness surveys and social media campaigns focusing on behaviour change, there has been no significant improvement on the ground. This paper analyses the role of the media, a key player in the campaign, in taking the message to the people, and impact of the campaign on the public attitude towards cleanliness.

Censorship is the control of the influx of information and ideas and is used for the larger benefit of society. The proponents of censorship think that its use creates a balance in what ought to be said, written or viewed, while opponents criticize it on the basis of the threat it poses to the Right of Speech. Moral censorship is the removal of content that is obscene, objectionable, harmful, sensitive or considered morally questionable. This paper analyses the dominant content and characteristics of Indian commercial cinema and the need for censorship to regulate the excesses that are often portrayed on screen.

The Arab spring of 2011, the Indian Civil Society campaign for Lokpal 2012, and

the ongoing campaign for capital punishment to the Delhi gang rape accused,

are among a thousands of events, worldwide, which have demonstrated the power

of new media in galvanising the masses for a cause. The advent of high speed

communication channels like broadband, optical fiber, and Web 2.0 services

coupled with the ubiquitous multitasking devices like smart phones and other

handhelds available in multitudes of forms have tremendously increased the scale

of messages output and sharing. The pull of modern technology, push of business,

and most importantly the search for new ways to satisfy the self expression needs

and ambitions of the new generation have made the domain of new media grow

beyond expectation. The technology savvy new generations, have learnt to explore

constantly expanding opportunities for communication and self expression

presented by the Internet and the Web. The interactive nature of the new media

technologies have significantly altered the dynamics of journalism in the cyber

space to an extent of blurring the distinction between producers and consumers

of messages and transformed them into pro-sumers. This paper analyses the impacts

of new media technology on professional journalism and the responses of the old

media.