Television has contributed to political education of the masses. It gives extensive visual coverage to the political events of the country because of which people have become familiar with the day to day political programmes of TV and have become familiar with the national and international political figures.
It has made many people interested in politics who found it a boring subject in non-TV days.
Indian Television has been criticized for over highlighting the activities of the ruling party and programmes taken up by it, which often raises doubts about the reliability of such broadcasts.
It is observed that television has been effective in creating some kind of political awareness even among children and illiterates. Such as names of the prime minister., chief minister, importance of voting, how to vote, which party has won in the election, etc. To some extent, TV has familiarized rural masses with international political personalities also.
A study was conducted in ten villages of Ranga Reddy District of Andhra Pradesh to assess the impact of television on rural folk and to see how far the present political programmes on television are useful to the masses in creating political consciousness among them.
The study revealed that television created interest in knowing further about politics, parties, increased knowledge about the prevailing situation in the society, and value of voting.
Persons watching news in only Telugu were politically less aware as compared to those watching in Hindi and English in addition to Telugu. There was small increase in the political awareness of the people watching for longer hours.