Prof. Ravi Dixit - Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad (MICA 2003 to 2006)

MICA Vaani - Community Radio Station at MICA Campus in Ahmedabad

Mudra school radio goes on air

Ahmedabad September 27, 2005 Very soon people in vicinity of Ahmedabad will have one more radio station to tune in on 90.4 Mhz. The Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad (MICA) is all set to launch a community radio station under the title of 'MICA Vaani' in the month of November to cater to rural communities. However, the institute will begin test runs from early October for four hours a day, targeted at rural communities falling within the coverage radius of five kilometers and students in the campus. "The target audience will be facilitated to develop programmes with the help of students and faculty members of MICA," said Ravi Dixit, head, broadcasting management programme and faculty member, MICA."The station will act as a link with the happening in the world that have an impact on their day to day lives", he claimed. "These could be government schemes, radio browsing, agricultural techniques, medical talk shows among others and the effort will be on improving the quality of life of the communities", he commented. "The vision of MICA to be the pre eminent communications management school and its mission to to develop innovative professionals in the practice, development and management of communications to serve the needs of industry and society through education, research and advocacy, " added Dixit.

Business Standard September 27th, 2005

Rural Voice set to rule Airwaves

‘‘Simply put, community radio is for the community, of the community, by the community and in the community,” says Prof Ravi Dixit, who is in charge of Micavani.

Indian Express October 20th, 2005

Ravi Dixit - Director Research and Knowledge Management - Audience Measurement and Analytics Ltd. aMap. (2006 to 2008)

Ravi Dixit addressing the Press in Chennai for the launch of National Panel of aMap. Click here for the Photo in Hindu.

Article in Hindustan Times on State of Television Audience Measurement in India

Ravi Dixit wrote this article in Response to a previous article about Television Audience Measurement in India and states the reasons and benefits of competition in the field of media research in general and television audience measurement in particular.

He draws parallel between India and China as both the countries have grown exponentially over the past two decades in terms of media reach and consumption; and as new media paradigm are being created the measurement paradign should also keep pace.

The most critical issue for a measurement service to operate at an optimal level and suit the needs of media owners viz. Indian Broadcasters, Media Agencies and Advertisers is absolute transparency. Also technology should be used to the maximum to yield quality results and an audit trail. To read the entire article click here.

Launch of Audience Research Laboratory at MICA

Times of India October 29, 2006

Channel Zapping Habits of Urban Indians

This article lists out the channel zapping bahaviour of Urban Indians; zapping is something that has come in its own after Indians were exposed to television sets with remote control. 35% of all homes indulge in zapping (changing multiple channels in a minute) and viewers in Gujarat indulge in maximum zapping behaviour. Zapping peaks after 11:00 PM and is a clear indicator of lack of viewing choices available as all the channels start going into repeat programming leading to viewer disatisfaction. This article in DNA explores this habit in great detail.

DNA October 5, 2006

aMap coming of age Snail Mail vs. E mail

The article discusses the comparative advantages of an online measurement system and how it can be of immense benefit to the communication industry as the viewership data is made available overnight by aMap resulting into advantages that propel the television industry in a different league. An analogy is drawn between an overnight rating agency and a weekly rating agency by comparing e mail with snail mail, both serve the function of communicating a message from person A to person B but the critical differentiator is pace of information dissimination.

Business Standard November 7, 2006

Premier of Fanaa on Sony Entertainment Television and its viewership in Gujarat where it was banned

This article in Economic Times was carried in all its editions and television news channels picked it up pretty fast to show that even as the movie was notallowed to be shown in theaters; in this digital age citizens have various platforms to be exposed to media text that are blocked from one platform.

As the audiences in Gujarat were exposed to Fanaa for the first time the time spent on this movie was 132% higher than other movies on Sony Entertainment Television. This viewership behaviour clearly exhibits that censorship in any form is bound to fail as the interested audience of a particular media narrative will find ways and means to consume it in this Digital day and Age.

Economic Times December 26, 2006