Abstract
Claims that new media are fundamentally changing life in India raise interesting questions about how and why people are using them, and their implications, which is the overarching direction of the study described in this chapter. It begins by looking at the paucity of media and visual studies of the Nilgiri Hills and its people, and the role of media as a facilitator of cultural change. Next is an analysis of content in an Internet forum, online portrayals of life and the goings-on of Badagas including their past and current circumstances. Conversations in the forum spanned a wide array of topics relevant to Badagas which have been grouped in the following main themes: Past and present, Pride of being Badaga, Poverty and social inequality in the Nilgiri Hills, and Fundraising and social activism. The chapter also examines positive and negative implications of new media for quality of life, a starting point for an extrapolation to the future. As the first study of their new media use, it reveals important findings and shows they now have an online presence and virtual communities.
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Davey, G. (2018). Badagas Going Digital. In: Quality of Life and Well-Being in an Indian Ethnic Community. SpringerBriefs in Well-Being and Quality of Life Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90662-1_3
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