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Community mediation in multicultural India 417sion sites have appeared outside what are commonly understood as the dominantcultural sites on the national scene. The Dravidian language communitiesin the south, for instance, who were excluded from the nationalcommunication space in the past, were able to take advantage of the globalresources. Their presence further helps reinforce the multicultural nature ofthe Indian social and political scene. This may suggest changing fields ofdominance at the national level as these communities participate in restructuringthe nation’s communication channels.At the sub-regional level, however, the opportunities introduced by theliberalizing efforts present themselves mainly to the regional elite, pointing tosociopolitical continuity at the regional level. The control of communicationchannels by the sub-regional elite may reinforce existing social positions. Forexample, the elite caste communities in the south dominate the communitytelevision sector, whereas the Hindi channels in the north may reflect the religiousconcerns of Hindu nationalists. Transnationals such as Star and Sonyalso appear to respond to the cues offered by the successful Hindi competition.However, Hindu concerns are by no means homogeneous and, in acomplex democracy, conservative religious politics has to compete withreformist religious and secular voices of compelling numbers. When theHindu conservatives’ cause dominates in segments of programming, itreduces the space of minorities and the underprivileged groups within theHindu community as well. Over time, this offers an opportunity for competingmedia enterprises to gain access to these deprived publics.The southern channels and their alliance with the regional political elitecan be understood along these lines. They respond to the new access tocommunication channels that were denied them in the past. Therefore, theimplications of the globalized setting of the media sector have to be investigatedas having differentiated consequences for communities situated atdifferent levels. The question of domination of information channels requiresan historical context as different communities, their institutions, politicalplayers, enterprises, and audiences appear to impress upon the competitivestructures in diverse ways.ACKNOWLEDGMENTThis chapter is based on research for my dissertation “Global Communicationand Television Development: Community Mediation in Multicultural India,”University of California, Berkeley, which is an interdisciplinary work thatlinks the different strategies of transnational corporations in a global economyto domestic social and political processes.