S.M. Shameem Reza is Professor of Mass Communication and Journalism at the University of Dhaka. He earned his PhD from Goldsmiths, University of London. As an adjunct faculty member, he has taught media, culture and communication courses at several other public and private universities. He held Asia Fellowship at the Institute of Malaysia and International Studies (IKMAS), University Kebangsaan Malaysia. Reza has published his academic work in a wide range of journals, periodicals and books. His research interests include political history of television, advocacy and campaigns for community broadcasting, media policy reform and governance in the Global South, communication for change and development, communication rights of the child, public service media, and communications and geo-politics. Reza is recipient of a number of scholarships and awards including Australian Development Scholarship, Chevening Scholarship, Commonwealth Scholarship and Ford ASIA Fellows Award. He has received special research grants on the occasion of 50 years of the independence of Bangladesh and 100 years of the University of Dhaka. As a communication expert, he has worked for, among others, the organisations like The World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF, Article-19, BRAC and Save the Children. S.M. Shameem Reza is a social advocate for community broadcasting, and media policy reforms in South Asia. He is a media personality and also hosted a number of Television talks shows.Ratan Kumar Roy is Assistant Professor, the School of General Education at BRAC University, Bangladesh. He was a Charles Wallace Bangladesh Trust Postdoctoral Research Fellow at LSE South Asia Centre, UK (2022–23). Dr Roy worked as a Research Fellow at the Centre for Culture, Media & Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He was a residency research fellow in Asia Culture Centre, Korea, in 2018. He received doctoral award from the Department of Sociology, South Asian University, New Delhi. His book titled Television in Bangladesh: News and Audiences has been published by Routledge, London, 2021. Besides, he has authored some book chapters and articles in reputed journals. Currently he is working as the chief coordinator of International Research Center, SIMEC Institute of Technology, Dhaka. Dr Roy’s research and teaching interests are anthropology of media, visual culture and communication, media and social movement, communication research methods, media and culture in contemporary South Asia, media ethnography, and digital media culture.

• List of Figures viiList of Tables viiiList of Contributors ixAcknowledgements xiii1 Introduction: Imagining South Asian Television Publics 1S.M. Shameem Reza and Ratan Kumar RoyPART ITelevision Viewership and Localizing Publics 192 Social Realms of Audiences: Women’s Collective Viewing of Mega Teledramas in Sri Lanka 21Shashini Gamage3 The Dramatic Escape From Pandemic Life: Everyday Experience of Watching Television During the Lockdowns 38Rashmi Kumar4 Televised Sexuality and Public Perception: Voicing the Taboo in Pakistani TV Dramas 51Wajiha Raza Rizvi and Maheen Imran5 Indian Television and the Rise of the Local: Televised Realities of Localized Sociocultural Experience 74Raj Sony Jalarajan and Adith K. SureshPART IIConsumption and Construction of Reality 916 OTT-Based Digital Sociality: An Exploration of the Viewership Among Urban Youth in Bangladesh 93Moiyen Zalal Chowdhury7 Television News and Public Perception of Death in India: Case of Covid-19 Pandemic 111Deepu Pratheep8 Television Viewership and Engagement in Rural Kashmir: From Cathode Ray Tube to Smart TV 123Syed Aadil Hussain and Ruheela Hassan9 Emergence of Television Publics in Nepal: Intense Participation of Audiences as News Sources, Critics and Fans 137Harsha Man MaharjanPART IIIMediatizing Politics and Constructing Publics 15910 Live Public: Television and Mobilization in Post-Liberalization India 161Abhijit Roy11 The Everyday Nation of Indian News Television 178Maya Ranganathan12 Reproducing the Truth: Television News in Sri Lanka 195Pradeep N’ Weerasinghe13 From Public Turn to Publicness in Media: Notes on Media Public in India 220Biswajit Das and Ridhi KakkarIndex 242

S.M. Shameem Reza is Professor of Mass Communication and Journalism at the University of Dhaka. He earned his PhD from Goldsmiths, University of London. As an adjunct faculty member, he has taught media, culture and communication courses at several other public and private universities. He held Asia Fellowship at the Institute of Malaysia and International Studies (IKMAS), University Kebangsaan Malaysia. Reza has published his academic work in a wide range of journals, periodicals and books. His research interests include political history of television, advocacy and campaigns for community broadcasting, media policy reform and governance in the Global South, communication for change and development, communication rights of the child, public service media, and communications and geo-politics. Reza is recipient of a number of scholarships and awards including Australian Development Scholarship, Chevening Scholarship, Commonwealth Scholarship and Ford ASIA Fellows Award. He has received special research grants on the occasion of 50 years of the independence of Bangladesh and 100 years of the University of Dhaka. As a communication expert, he has worked for, among others, the organisations like The World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF, Article-19, BRAC and Save the Children. S.M. Shameem Reza is a social advocate for community broadcasting, and media policy reforms in South Asia. He is a media personality and also hosted a number of Television talks shows.Ratan Kumar Roy is Assistant Professor, the School of General Education at BRAC University, Bangladesh. He was a Charles Wallace Bangladesh Trust Postdoctoral Research Fellow at LSE South Asia Centre, UK (2022–23). Dr Roy worked as a Research Fellow at the Centre for Culture, Media & Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He was a residency research fellow in Asia Culture Centre, Korea, in 2018. He received doctoral award from the Department of Sociology, South Asian University, New Delhi. His book titled Television in Bangladesh: News and Audiences has been published by Routledge, London, 2021. Besides, he has authored some book chapters and articles in reputed journals. Currently he is working as the chief coordinator of International Research Center, SIMEC Institute of Technology, Dhaka. Dr Roy’s research and teaching interests are anthropology of media, visual culture and communication, media and social movement, communication research methods, media and culture in contemporary South Asia, media ethnography, and digital media culture.

• List of Figures viiList of Tables viiiList of Contributors ixAcknowledgements xiii1 Introduction: Imagining South Asian Television Publics 1S.M. Shameem Reza and Ratan Kumar RoyPART ITelevision Viewership and Localizing Publics 192 Social Realms of Audiences: Women’s Collective Viewing of Mega Teledramas in Sri Lanka 21Shashini Gamage3 The Dramatic Escape From Pandemic Life: Everyday Experience of Watching Television During the Lockdowns 38Rashmi Kumar4 Televised Sexuality and Public Perception: Voicing the Taboo in Pakistani TV Dramas 51Wajiha Raza Rizvi and Maheen Imran5 Indian Television and the Rise of the Local: Televised Realities of Localized Sociocultural Experience 74Raj Sony Jalarajan and Adith K. SureshPART IIConsumption and Construction of Reality 916 OTT-Based Digital Sociality: An Exploration of the Viewership Among Urban Youth in Bangladesh 93Moiyen Zalal Chowdhury7 Television News and Public Perception of Death in India: Case of Covid-19 Pandemic 111Deepu Pratheep8 Television Viewership and Engagement in Rural Kashmir: From Cathode Ray Tube to Smart TV 123Syed Aadil Hussain and Ruheela Hassan9 Emergence of Television Publics in Nepal: Intense Participation of Audiences as News Sources, Critics and Fans 137Harsha Man MaharjanPART IIIMediatizing Politics and Constructing Publics 15910 Live Public: Television and Mobilization in Post-Liberalization India 161Abhijit Roy11 The Everyday Nation of Indian News Television 178Maya Ranganathan12 Reproducing the Truth: Television News in Sri Lanka 195Pradeep N’ Weerasinghe13 From Public Turn to Publicness in Media: Notes on Media Public in India 220Biswajit Das and Ridhi KakkarIndex 242

S.M. Shameem Reza is Professor of Mass Communication and Journalism at the University of Dhaka. He earned his PhD from Goldsmiths, University of London. As an adjunct faculty member, he has taught media, culture and communication courses at several other public and private universities. He held Asia Fellowship at the Institute of Malaysia and International Studies (IKMAS), University Kebangsaan Malaysia. Reza has published his academic work in a wide range of journals, periodicals and books. His research interests include political history of television, advocacy and campaigns for community broadcasting, media policy reform and governance in the Global South, communication for change and development, communication rights of the child, public service media, and communications and geo-politics. Reza is recipient of a number of scholarships and awards including Australian Development Scholarship, Chevening Scholarship, Commonwealth Scholarship and Ford ASIA Fellows Award. He has received special research grants on the occasion of 50 years of the independence of Bangladesh and 100 years of the University of Dhaka. As a communication expert, he has worked for, among others, the organisations like The World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF, Article-19, BRAC and Save the Children. S.M. Shameem Reza is a social advocate for community broadcasting, and media policy reforms in South Asia. He is a media personality and also hosted a number of Television talks shows.Ratan Kumar Roy is Assistant Professor, the School of General Education at BRAC University, Bangladesh. He was a Charles Wallace Bangladesh Trust Postdoctoral Research Fellow at LSE South Asia Centre, UK (2022–23). Dr Roy worked as a Research Fellow at the Centre for Culture, Media & Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He was a residency research fellow in Asia Culture Centre, Korea, in 2018. He received doctoral award from the Department of Sociology, South Asian University, New Delhi. His book titled Television in Bangladesh: News and Audiences has been published by Routledge, London, 2021. Besides, he has authored some book chapters and articles in reputed journals. Currently he is working as the chief coordinator of International Research Center, SIMEC Institute of Technology, Dhaka. Dr Roy’s research and teaching interests are anthropology of media, visual culture and communication, media and social movement, communication research methods, media and culture in contemporary South Asia, media ethnography, and digital media culture.

• List of Figures viiList of Tables viiiList of Contributors ixAcknowledgements xiii1 Introduction: Imagining South Asian Television Publics 1S.M. Shameem Reza and Ratan Kumar RoyPART ITelevision Viewership and Localizing Publics 192 Social Realms of Audiences: Women’s Collective Viewing of Mega Teledramas in Sri Lanka 21Shashini Gamage3 The Dramatic Escape From Pandemic Life: Everyday Experience of Watching Television During the Lockdowns 38Rashmi Kumar4 Televised Sexuality and Public Perception: Voicing the Taboo in Pakistani TV Dramas 51Wajiha Raza Rizvi and Maheen Imran5 Indian Television and the Rise of the Local: Televised Realities of Localized Sociocultural Experience 74Raj Sony Jalarajan and Adith K. SureshPART IIConsumption and Construction of Reality 916 OTT-Based Digital Sociality: An Exploration of the Viewership Among Urban Youth in Bangladesh 93Moiyen Zalal Chowdhury7 Television News and Public Perception of Death in India: Case of Covid-19 Pandemic 111Deepu Pratheep8 Television Viewership and Engagement in Rural Kashmir: From Cathode Ray Tube to Smart TV 123Syed Aadil Hussain and Ruheela Hassan9 Emergence of Television Publics in Nepal: Intense Participation of Audiences as News Sources, Critics and Fans 137Harsha Man MaharjanPART IIIMediatizing Politics and Constructing Publics 15910 Live Public: Television and Mobilization in Post-Liberalization India 161Abhijit Roy11 The Everyday Nation of Indian News Television 178Maya Ranganathan12 Reproducing the Truth: Television News in Sri Lanka 195Pradeep N’ Weerasinghe13 From Public Turn to Publicness in Media: Notes on Media Public in India 220Biswajit Das and Ridhi KakkarIndex 242