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An Analysis of Trends in First Page Priorities ofIndian Print Media Reporting-A Case Study of
four English language Newspapers
C.S.H.N.MURTHY, Professor in Journalism and Mass Communication,
School of Journalism and Mass Communication, A-8B, IMSCampus, Institute of Management Studies, Sector 62, Noida,
UP.201303.India. E-mail: [email protected] /[email protected]
CHALLA RAMAKRISHNA,Assistant Professor in Journalism and MassCommunication, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication,
Andhra University, Visakhapatnam. A.P. 530 003. India E-mail:[email protected]
About the author(s):
C.S.H.N.Murthy, earlier worked as an Assistant Professor in theDepartment of Adult and Media Education, Ministry of Education,
Government of Eritrea, Asmara, Eritrea for two years during 2003-
2005. His articles were published in international journals such asJournal of Adult and Continuing Education (UK-NIACE), Educational
Media International, (Taylor and Francis), Turkish Online Journal ofDistance Education (YOJDE-Turkey) and The Hoot, (www.thehoot.org
a South East Asian Media Web Portal). He presented a number ofpapers (peer reviewed) at numerous international conferences
organized by AACE (USA), and the latest one to cite most importantly
was the Pan Commonwealth Forum 5 (PCF5) Conference jointlyorganized by Commonwealth of Learning and University of London
(July13-17,2008). He also published a number of papers in Indianjournals such as VIDURA (www.pressinstitute.org) and Advertising
Express (ICFAI University Press), etc. He has so far published two
booksSecularism and Indian Press and Media Education in ThirdWorld.
CHALLA RAMAKRISHNA has presented numerous papers at theConferences held in Canada and France. The Andhra University Press,
Visakhapatnam, has published his Ph.D work in the forma of amonograph entitled The History of Freedom of Media. Earlier he
worked in media in various capacities such as Press correspondent andPublic Relations Officer of Andhra University for several years.
1
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.thehoot.org/http://www.pressinstitute.org/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.thehoot.org/http://www.pressinstitute.org/ -
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An Analysis of Trends in First Page Priorities ofIndian Print Media Reporting-A case study of
four English language Newspapers
Abstract:
A critical analysis of the first page reporting priorities of the four
leading news papersThe Hindustan Times, The Indian Express, The
Times of India (all being published from New Delhi and Lucknow) andThe Hindu (Only from New Delhi and Southern States)reveals a
number of interesting shifts in the paradigms of news reporting andnews values. The analysis, which involves the first page news
coverage (including headlines, type of content, photos and
advertisements), offered an insight into the departures from thetraditional news values. The study has witnessed a growing trend for
first reporting and investigative reporting increased use of large photos(especially photos of the main players in each story), and the use of
long titles and large fonts for even short reports. These findings
suggest an increasing tabloidization and trivialization of news. Thisstudy applies the strong market and weak market orientation theories
of Randal Beam to the Indian media, and attempts to correlate
developments in Indias newsrooms with broader changes in Indian lifestyles and valueswithin a society experiencing increased incidencesof crime, corruption and litigation.
Key Words: Paradigm Shift, News Values, Globalization, Coverace,Strong market orientation, Weak market orientation, Political, Crime,
Investigative, Economic, Social and Legal
***
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An Analysis of Trends in First Page Priorities of
Indian Print Media Reporting-A case study offour English language Newspapers
Introduction
The Indian media is booming on all the frontsprint, electronic and
web journalism (Vanita Kohli, 20031). All this owes its credit to
globalization and economic reforms ushered into during 1991-96. Thethrust and impetus the economic reforms and globalization received,
both before 1991-96 and after, resulted in the reformatting of thenews papers, especially print media, which not only increased its
number of pages but also began to issue special supplements each day
in the name of different categories gender-wise (womens page),subject wise (Education, Employment or Opportunities,
Finance/investment, Health, Youth page Matrimonials, Classifides,etc.) in order to widen its readership and to cater to the vast
advertising requirements of business establishments, large softwareand hardware multinational and national corporations, motor and
vehicle industries, besides banks and infrastructure (telecom and
mobile) organizations that started just burgeoning2 (Chakravarti S,1996). Appadurai first time described it as mediascape3 (1990:22).
Further, to overcome the competition arising from the Magazinegenres such as India Today(1975) and Chitralekha (started in 1950,
went into colour by 1981), which by then already went into colourprint as a whole, the black and white mastheads of the majority
English national news papers (The Hindu, The Times of India, TheHindustan Times, etc) and the regional (Eenadu and Vaartha, Andhra
Jyoti etc in Telugu) news papers turned into color, followed by
coloured special Sunday editions and supplements4 (Jeffrey, Robin1998,2000). Thus an unprecedented competition had ensued among
the national and regional news papers to attract the readers both byway of slashing the prices (Samir Jains-Times of India formula of
fixing price for each days paper differently1) and increasing thenumber of pages in the form of special daily supplements. In theregional editions zone wise publications in half-demy size began with
colored mastheads and Eenadu alone had around 32 such zonaleditions attached to main newspapers. Soon this was followed by
other competitors Vaartha, Andhra Bhoomi , Andhra Jyoti, etc in
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Andhra Pradesh. Later this culture spread entire South India1,4 (VanitaKohli, 2003; Jeffrey Robin, 1998,2000).
Almost all such supplements and additions earmarked a lot space for
classifieds and heavy advertisements. These structural changes
followed by heavy technological modifications in the productionprocesses logically led to heavy circulation figures consequently
garnering heavy advertisements from big business houses andaugmenting the gross revenues of print media1,5, (Vanita Kohli,
2003;Ravindranathan P.K, 2004,2005). This marked the beginning of
the market driven or market oriented journalism in India, though itoriginally commenced in the US in 1980s but picked up momentum in
late 1990s and spread to the developing nations like India, China, etc.(Beam, A Randal, 2000)6,7.
Randal Beam defines market driven or market oriented journalism asan organization which selects target markets for its product, identifies
the wants and needs of potential customers in its target markets, andseeks to satisfy those wants and needs as efficiently as possible6,7. For
a news organization, a strong market orientation implies that thenewspaper, magazine, or television station will aggressively seek to
determine the kinds of information that readers or viewers say they
want or need and will provide it, says Randal Beam. Thussu8
(2000:34) too concurs with the same definitions of Randal Beam. The
media- scape of the South, writes Thussu (2000:34), has beentransformed in the 1990s under the impact of neo-liberal, market-
oriented economic policies that encourage privatization andderegulation8. Such policies include opening up the media industries toprofit-seeking transnational corporations who are more interested in
entertainment than public service, say Shakuntala Rao and NavjitSingh Johal9 (2007:6).
With post coldwar globalization, the US inspired news andentertainment programs made up of game, chat, and reality shows,
programming that Clausen10 (2004: 27) calls the transnational genreconventions have come to dominate the mediascape of the South,
including the content of the Indian media, write Shakuntala Rao andNavjit Singh Johal9 (2007:6). Today, the Indian media is passingthrough dramatic shift in favor of consumerism and the content of the
media is becoming more and more market driven, says Sharma11
(2002).
The share of the advertising in the total revenues of the Indian media
has been steadily increasing since the liberalization process
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began-from a supplementary 25-30% in the early 1990s to 45-55% in200411. (Sharma, 2002: 7-8). Until a few years ago, India had only
handful of market research agencies. But today they stood at morethan 20 by 2004 most of which are owned by multinationals.
(Shakuntala Rao and NS Johal, 2007: 6)9. However, it should be noted
that most of the print media advertising is gradually losing its groundto the electronic media especially Television1 (Vanita Kohli: 2003).
Randal Beam points out that a similar situation in the US has causedthe market driven journalism in print media6,7 (2000: 369). Randal
Beam in his extensive studies, quoting the works of Rebecca Ross
Albers6 and Ajay Kohli and Bernand J. Jaworski7 on the US print mediamarket-driven journalism, including content analysis, found that there
are two types of market driven journalisms: Strong marketorientation and Weak market orientation. Strong market orientation
media had lesser content of public sphere or public service and public
affairs than weak market orientation. However, Randal Beam (2000)observed that despite market driven journalism of the strong market
oriented media, the latter retained the accountability to the public andits adversarial role6.
The present study endeavors to examine the applicability of Randal
Beam6 (2000) observations to the Indian media in terms of content
differences, accountability and adversarial role. According to the latestsurvey report of the National Readership Survey (NRS), the Times
Group of Bennet Coleman is the largest circulated English dailynewspaper followed by The Hindu a publication that extends to North
India from the Southern Chennai (National Readership Survey,Retrieved March 18,2005 from http://www.ACnielesen.co.in/news.asp?newsID=109)..The Times group (TOI-BCCL) alone which is a 15 billion
rupees behemoth generates anywhere between 25-30 percent revenuein gross margins. The Hindustan Times (HT) generates a gross profit
around 800-900 millions every year. The print media occupies around
43% total advertising as against 46% of advertising carried out by TVand Cable channels. The Hindu and The Indian Express groups do
generate gross revenues between 3.5-4 billions a year1. (Vanita Kohli,2003)
The circulation figures and advertising revenue therefore tookprecedence over the editorial policies turning upside down the
conventional pyramid (with Editorial department top and Commercialinterests at bottom) with commercial considerations top and the
editorial departments at base12,9 (GN Ray: 2006, 2007; ShakuntalaRao and Wasserman, 2008). The dominance of advertising world over
Editorial functions touched its zenith when a soft cool drink Rasnaran
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http://www.acnielesen.co.in/news.asp?newsID=109http://www.acnielesen.co.in/news.asp?newsID=109http://www.acnielesen.co.in/news.asp?newsID=109http://www.acnielesen.co.in/news.asp?newsID=109 -
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an advertisement right in the middle of editorial space in The SaturdayTimes, a colour supplement of TOI, heralding a new era of commercial
and marketing interests overtaking the editorial priorities1 (VanitaKohli, 2003).
Against the backdrop a new trend of editorial priorities has begun togain momentum transcending the conventional reporting and news
values in mainstream journalism. The present study therefore seeks toestablish how this transition has to come to stay and stabilize as an
offshoot of market oriented or market driven journalism, besides
exploring some of the consequences of such a deviation.
Methodology
The study is a simple descriptive and analytical one, though
quantitative estimates were carried out on the first page content tosupport the findings arrived at qualitatively, based on the previous
methodologies reported by Randal A Beam6 (2000) and Lars W.Nord
and Jesper Stromback13 (2006). It analyzesthe first page coverage ofnews items in terms of category of the content besides the number of
photos and advertisements, long headlines and large fonts, etc.occupying the first page using simple quantitative analysis as followed
by Lars W Nord and Jesper Stromback13.
Hypotheses
As Randal Beam observed that market driven journalism willdiscourage the news media from providing important information
about public affairs7 (Ajay K Kohli and Bernard J.Jawoski, 1990:1-18).
Information that is useful for the public sphere s seldom definedprecisely. Croteau and Hoynes7 broadly describe it as information
about current events, government, civic affairs, the public interest anddemocratic processes. On the other they (strong market oriented print
media) de-emphasize public service journalism, leaving society withoutthe information necessary to govern itself. One more assumption
about the market driven journalism of strong market oriented print
media is that they devote excessive resources to the publicationsappearance and to providing readers with devices that allow easy
processing of information6 (Randal Beam, 2000:373, Mc Manus, 1996).Nash6, for example argues that the editors are spending less time
considering content and much more on layout, graphics, typefaces,
pictures or photos and grabby headlines (1998:10,30). ShakuntalaRao and Navjit S Johal9 (2007) found that Indian print media was less
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concerned about the newsroom values but Shakuntala Rao9 (2008)argued that Indian broadcast media however retained the
accountability by demanding explanation from the government withregard to corruption, crime and legal issues an important observation
that supports Randal Beam6 that the strong market oriented media
players still retained the grit for the accountability and not pandered tothe audience interests totally. Thus, Randal Beam applied his
methodology to analyze two things: i. content differences amongstrong and weak newspapers, ii. Lay out differences in making up
pages. Our study also focused on these aspects of Indian newspapers.
This situation in India should therefore reflect two primary
assumptions:
H1. The Randal Beam theory of strong and weak market orientations
concerning the market driven journalism applies to the Indian mediaboth in the content differences and the lay out of the print pages as
well.
H2. The Indian print media too pursued the market driven journalismin keeping with the socio cultural changes that crept into Indian
society in the wake of globalization and privatization.
Sample of the Study
The study covers the first pages of four leading English news papersTimes of India (TOI), Hindustan Times (HT), The Indian Express (IE)
and The Hindu (TH) each comprising 30 issues. Whereas TOI, HTandIEwere Lucknow regional editions, The Hindu was Delhi based edition.
The choice is deliberate to draw appropriate comparisons with regardto coverage, photos and advertisements between one Delhi based
national level news paper-- The Hindu-- with the three regional
editionsTOI, HT and IE, though the latter three have Delhi basednational editions also. Further the study is restrictd to first page alone
as first page plays a very important role in the context of conveyingnews headlines of the day as quickly as the TV headlines convey to the
viewers. Further first page assumes tremendous significance in termsof attracting the readers at glance and as such its marketing impacthas terrible potential. In view of this the analysis of the sample is
limited to the first page itself.
Analysis and Discussion
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As mentioned earlier the analysis meanders through 3 broadindicators of market driven journalismcoverage, photos and
advertisements, which make up the front page of 4 news papersTimes of India, Hindustan Times, The Indian Express and The Hindu.
In respect of coverage, the analysis deals how different newspapers
treated the news under the caption common reporting versus diversereporting, prioritized reporting under different aspects such as public
affairs, economics, crime, legal, and social. The second aspect ofanalysis also dwells on different market driven strategies the print
media news rooms resort to as space filling strategies in lieu of the
news by making up the first page with long headlines for shorter newsitems, large fonts for shorter titles, besides using photos for all
important characters of news and allowing the precious first pagespace with Advertisements.
Coverage
In respect of coverage at macro-level The Times of India reported
nearly 273 news items (both major and minor news items put
together) as against 290 by The Hindustan Times, 267 by TheIndianExpress and 285 by The Hindu for the same period and dated issues
(See Table I).
Table I. Showing Distribution of Common News Itemsin the First Page Among Four News Dailies
S.No. Name of the News daily Major Minor1 Times of India 26
(9.5%)09
(3.29%)
2. The Hindustan Times 33(11. 4%)
04(1.37%)
3. The Indian Express 24(8.9%)
11(4.11%)
4. The Hindu 33(11.85%)
07(2.45%)
Further if the percentages of news items reported as against totalitems (including Photos and Adverts) were calculated for each of the
news papers (without taking mean into consideration) again the
Times of India reported less while The Hindu reported the highest.(Table IV b). The difference between Times of India and Indian
Express was due to less number of advertisements under minorcategory in Indian Express (Table II).
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On the other hand the difference between the Hindustan Times and
The Hindu was largely due to higher number of advertisementsunder major category in The Hindu.
Table II. Frequency of Items on the first Page
S.No. Description TOI HT IE TH
1. News
i. Major 194 169 168 152ii. Minor 79 121 99 133
2. Photos
i. Major 31 40 27 33ii. Minor 121 126 114 35
3. Adverts
i. Major 14 00 14 22ii. Minor 97 08 59 14
TOI: Minor News: News Digest and Snap-Shots(Sunday);HT: Minor News: Short-
Takes;IE: Minor News: Quick Takes;TH: Minor News: Briefly ;Photos: Major: 2 Col
to 8 Column in width running upto 4 to 8 in height; Photos: Minor: 1 Col to 11/2Col in width running upto 1 to 2 in height ;Adverts: Major: 2 Col to 8 Column in
width running upto 4 to 8 in height; Adverts: Minor: Single Column sq.Centimeter
Table III. Mean of News Items appearing in eachpapers front page
Adding up of News Itemsappearing in the front page of
TOI, HT, IE and TH
Expected Number or Mean of
items that can appear in eachpapers front page
273+290+267+285
273+290+267+285 = 278.5
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Whereas the major Advertisements in The Hindu were more than the
Times of India, the advertisements under Minor category in theTimes of India were outnumbering all other newspapers. Tables II
and IV (a, b,c, and d) show that Times of India reported less and
The Hindustan Times reported highest.
The Indian Express had a moderate share of advertisements comparedto almost negligible share ofThe Hindustan Times (Table II). Tables IV
c and IV d clearly showed the percentages shared by the Photos and
Advertisements in the front page of each newspaper.
The Times of India had highest share of the first page for photos andadvertisements--among all other three newspapers. The Hindustan
Times had only a slightly higher percentage of share of photos over
TheTimes of India. This is largely due to lack of Major advertisementsin The Hindustan Times. Further the Major Advertisements were zero
with Minor advertisements being very less in The Hindustan Times . Asa result the The Hindustan Times paper had higher scope for more
coverage of news which it does by providing in detail in largerquantities running in long column centimeters. Though the space
available for coverage for both The Times of India and The Hindustan
Times was nearly same, The Times of India provides more number ofitems than news in detail in larger quantities for each item. Thus The
Times of India offers more space for more news items, more photosand more advertisements compared to The Hindustan Times, Indian
Express and The Hindu. On the other The Indian Express which hasless advertisements than The Times of India but has more than TheHindustan Times and The Hindu offers greater space for more number
of Major and Minor news items (267) as against The Times of India(273) coming close to it in the percentage of coverage. Finally The
Hindu has highest space meant for coverage due to its lower share of
Photos (17.48%) and the advertisements (9.25%).
Table IVa. Percentages of News Items ActuallyReported for in front page of each News Paper
S.N. Name of the News Paper PercentageCalculation
Percentage
1 Times of India 100x273/278.5 98%
2 Hindustan Times 100x290/278.5 104%
3 Indian Express 100x267/278.5 95.8%
4 The Hindu 100x285/278.5 102.3%
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b. Percentages of News Items out of Total items(including Photos and Adverts) in the front page of
each news paper
S.No Name of the News
paper
Adding up total items
in the front page
Percentage
of News
Items outof all
others
1. Times of India 273+152+111=436 62.61%
2. Hindustan Times 290+166+08=464 62.5%
3. Indian Express 267+141+73=481 55.5%
4. The Hindu 285+68_36=389 73.26%
The discussion in the foreground thus establishes the following facts
logically in order of development of analysis:
1. The lesser the Photos the greater the coverage (The Hindu Indian
Express>The Hindu).
c. Percentages of Photos out of Total items in the frontpage of each news paper
S.No. Name of the News
Paper
Number
ofPhotos
in eachpaper
Calculation Percentage
1 Times of India 152 100x152/436 34.86%
2 Hindustan Times 166 100x166/464 35.77%
3 Indian Express 141 100x141/481 29.31%
4 The Hindu 68 100x68/389 17.48%
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d. Percentages of Adverts out of Total items in thefront page of each news paper
S.No. Name of the
News paper
Number of
Adverts
Calculation Percentage
1 Times of India 111 100x111/436 25.45%
2 Hindustan Times 08 100x08/464 1.72%
3 Indian Express 73 100x73/481 15.17%
4 The Hindu 36 100x36/389 9.25%
The above inferences reflect a paradigm shift in the perception of the
editorial department as to what constitutes the first page priorities ofreporting especially in relation to deciding the news from common
reporting vs diverse reporting.
Common reporting vs diverse reporting:
Table I showed the number of items commonly reported in the first
pages of the four newspapers. Whereas Times of India and Indian
Express had nearly equal percentage-- among major news Itemsincommon reporting of the same news items, The Hindustan Times and
The Hindu had equal percentage of common reporting of news items.Similar relationships, as stated above, were found in the case with
the minor items. In terms of greater diversity in coverage the
following equation aptly explains the order--- The Indian Express>Times of India> The Hindustan Times > The Hindu. In other words,
The Hindu, despite absorbing all the modern trends, still retains someits past value based reporting as far as first page priories are
concerned.
The data presented above showed clearly that both The Times of
India and The Indian Express had more space for diverse reportingcompared to The Hindustan Times and The Hindu. Whereas The Times
of India offered the diversity by providing news from a range ofsubjects including speculative and gossip stories, The Indian Express
had endeavoured to balance its coverage by offering the news fromother states of the country, besides stories on science, health andresearch.
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Table V. Percentages of News Items ReportedCategorywise
Name of the News
Paper
Politi-
cal
(%)
Crimes
(%)
Investig
ative
(%)
Econo
mic
(%)
Social
(%)
Legal
(%)
Times of India 33.69 21.97 0 2.56 22.7 19
Hindustan Times 35.17 22.06 2.75 4.82 12.75 25.86
Indian Express 40 21.07 3.7 7.8 12.3 14.23
The Hindu 48.42 25.61 0.7 6.3 4.56 14.38
Priorities of Reporting
In our analysis we found that the market orientations of Indian news
papers have allowed the news rooms to process the news or coverage
in the following order of priority.
Political> Crime>Legal>Social>Economic>Investigative
a. Political Reporting or reporting of Public Affairs
As a policy, almost all the newspapers have adopted political reportingas primary mandate of first page coverage. However the political
coverage over years assumed more and more new dimensions with
the increasing politicization of more and more spheres along with the
increasing globalization and privatization. For instance the recentIndian Premiere League (IPL League) cricket matches and ICLformation began to fall in public affairs domain.
Whereas The Hindu had highest coverage of Political News, The IndianExpress stood next with followed by The Hindustan Times and The
Times of India . Most of these stories belonged to issues related toregional, national and international issues inclusive of policy matters.
When it came to Quota Bills (affirmative action), The Indian Expresshad highest coverage followed by The Hindu. However in respect of
communal issues and cultural and sports, it was The Times of India
which had reported maximum items followed by The Indian Express,The Hindustan Times and The Hindu. In fact The Indian Express had
run special stories in the name of Missing Muslimvis a visRajendraSachar Committees Report during this period and as such its own
reporting coverage in this regard would automatically be high while
other papers did not take as much interest as The Indian Express had
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shown except covering the statements of the Ministers including thePrime Minister on this issue.
b. Crime Reporting
The first page reporting today is embedded with unprecedented crimereporting, most of which is again dominated by the political crime and
violence. Whereas The Hindu had reported the highest , the remainingfollowed the order :The Indian Express > The Hindustan Times>The
Times of India. On the other hand, non-political crime coverage was
very high in The Times of India followed by The Hindu , The HindustanTimes and Indian Express. Thus Crime Reporting constituted next
most important favoured reporting, next to political reporting, in thefirst page priorities. Most of the crime reported in the front page
pertains to the crimes (such as rape or murder) committed against
the women of elite society egs. Niana Sahani vs Satish Sarma,Priyadarshini mattoo vs Santosh, Jessical Lal vs Manu Sharma, Nitish
Katara vs Vikas Yadav. The crimes such as flesh trade involvingpolitical mafia or ring leaders, illegal relationships between some
prominent women and political leaders (such as AmarendramaiTripathi, a former Minister in the Cabinet of Mulayam Sing Yadav,
Chief Minister of Uttara Pradesh and Madhumati, a noted poetess in
Hindi), etc. have run into serial reporting or regular reporting.
At one stage the media set itself to the task of conducting trial on itsown--deciding who is whoa matter which should have been rightly
decided by the independent but nagging Judiciary in India. Thoughthis kind Media activism proved fruitful in cases like Niana Sahani orJessical Lal in reversing the judgements of the lower court by the High
courts in bringing the culprits to book, the general feeling is that themedia was again selective in cases of crime, which promote its
circulation, alleged Sevanti Ninan a regular columnist to The Hindu.
Even, the coverage of crime acquired cinematic portrayal or
representation. The photographs of ghastly incident, sketches showinghow the crime was committed, the media speculations, the public
opinionall offered the story the status of a fiction or a crimethriller that would be of greater interest to the readers which again isa market oriented journalism.
The changing lifestyles the globalization brought in its wake and the
declining traditional values in different walks of life contributed toincreasing crime against the women and children due to break down of
family centered relations giving way to illegal and unwanted
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relationships. The repetitive publication of photos of the accused orconvicted or witnesses everytime, when a hearing was scheduled in a
court of law was suggestive of market-oriented strategy rather thanvalue based reporting. The glorification of victims as well as the
perpetrators both touched their zenith following coverage of crime in
the front page.
c. Investigative
The study revealed that except The Indian Express and The Hindustan
Times no other paper under the study has shown deep commitmentto the Investigative journalism. But to the extent both the papers,
The Indian Express and The Hindustan Times, had done investigativereporting, a constant and nagging refrain that which was first
reported in these columns reflected the papers interests lay
elsewhere, preferably marketing. It does not mean that The Times ofIndia does not do investigative journalism. It does but occasionally
compared to The Indian Express and The HindustanTimes. What soever may be the subject of investigative journalism; the refrain first
reported in the follow up stories shows the investigative journalismmore as a craze than as a social commitment done for a cause and
purpose. Viewed from this point, investigative journalism became a
forte of the paper be it The Indian Express or The Hindustan Times.Soon, it appears that it might become a trend of all the news papers
including those like Times of India and The Hindu which werepresently maintaining a low key.
This stands in deep contrast with the spirit of investigative journalismdone a couple of decades back by N.Ram and Chitra Subrahmanyam
(The Hindu), Arun Shourie, and Coomi Kapoor (Indian Express), etc.
d. Economic
It is one important area of reporting in the post globalization and
economic reforms. Yet it finds lowest priority among the others of thefirst page priorities. In terms of coverage also, The Indian Express
had given the highest coverage compared to lowest ofThe Times ofIndia. In fact the price rice, spiraling inflation, the plight of farmersdue to lack of support price and marketing from the Government side
and increasing stories of farmers suicides should have taken moreprecedence over other categories and sub-categories. But, in reality
contrary happens with no explanation emerging from the mediasources.
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e. Social
The Times of India has given more importance to the storiesemanating from the social themes backdrop. Whereas The Hindustan
Times and The Indian Express had done some reporting on the social
themes, The Hindu had done the least. The Times of India hadreported more on Infrastructure and development followed by
Welfare. Where as Times of Indias coverage of social issuesencompassed a bewildering variety social themes including Abhishek
Bacchan (Son of popular film star Amitab Bacchan) and Aishwarya
Rays (former Miss Universe) proposed marriage, Abhishek getting theUttara Pradesh State Film Award, the Indian Express had somewhat a
different approach and offered a number of articles or reports onwildlife to space science. Most of the social themes tend to be the
gossip stories and speculative journalism.
f. Legal
Next to crime, it is the legal stories, which occupied highest
importance in the first page reporting. Especially the verdicts of thelower courts, tribunals, disciplinary proceedings of various forums
including court martial inquiry of Military, High Court and Supreme
Court rulings or judgements, and proceedings of the ElectionCommission covered this major sector. The Hindustan Times
followed by The Times of India had given highest coverage for thelegal stories compared to The Indian Express and The Hindu. Most of
the legal stories again revolve round the crimes of the politicians andbureaucrats which again drive one to the popular perception that themedia tend to report mostly about the women and politicians a fact
which tends to associate itself with market oriented journalism thanvalue based journalism. Aside from handling criminal cases, the High
Courts and the Supreme Court of India had to deal with a good
number of cases where the Government wanted to amend theConstitution in such a way that such an action on the part of the
Government escaped judicial scrutiny. The quota bills especially cameunder the severe scrutiny of the Supreme Court as it felt that such an
action amounted to changing the very basic structure of the IndianConstitution. As such one finds judicial activism as a positivedevelopment to check the one-upmanship of the Executive.
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Page lay out--characteristics of market drivenjournalism
In the process of analysis, it is found that the Indian print media
reflected the same characteristics- simple headlines to long headlinesand large size fonts, too many photos and advertisements - that were
ideally found in the papers, which took to the path of market drivenjournalism. (Randal Beam, 2000). The framing of headlines implied
more than academic and literary considerations for the reader. In fact
a headline of a front page of a newspaper is supposed to be akin tothat of the screen of the news headlines of the Television. It is
therefore an opportunity to offer the readers a quick look at theimportant stories of the day in a shortest possible time (Nash, 1998).
Pitched against such a situation, it is natural to go for shorter newstitles with more lucid and simple English. Whereas The Times of India,
The Hindustan Times and The Hindu followed the trend in tune withthe above logic, the titles ofThe Indian Express are found to be too
lengthy with a lot of text place upon the headline and below the
headline.
In fact the other newspapers like The Times of India, The HindustanTimes and The Hindu, though adopt only one tier or two tier short
headlines, use large fonts even for smaller news reports running into
single columns or double columns instead of multiple columns. Furthergiving longer, two to three tier titles for even shorter single columns
appeared to be a space filling strategy.
Space filling strategy of the front page is an important factor in thefront page lay out on each day especially in the context of overcoming
the crisis of news. Apart from manipulating titles long multi-tier titles
to large sized fontsthe use of photos, sketches and caricatures(associated with crime reporting mostly) is another strategy to fill up
the space. Though the photos have aesthetic appeal to the eyes of thereaders in the colour print, especially when the popular adage says
that a photo speaks thousand words than an article, the purpose ofdisplaying the photos of criminals and the accused in the similarmeasure does not show the strategy in the proper perspective (ef.
Bharati Yadav Photo--in the case of her boy friend Nitish Katarasmurder by her own brother Vikas Yadav-- appearing as witness
reported in Indian Express, The Hindu, Times of India and The
Hindustan Times).
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The analysis clearly found that there is no judicious use of photos. It
is also found that some photos are unusually long in size with nopurpose forthcoming. In some cases of reporting photo of the lead
character appear with every story though not required. Showing the
photos of criminals everyday in fact give a celebrity status to thecriminals than showing them as criminals. In certain instances, some
photos are just published without any story accompanying it either inthe front page or in the inside pages. Sometimes the photos do not
even have by-lines. These are common features of all newspapers
under the study.
The study therefore recommends a lot of strategic reviewing of photoinsertion in the front page though market considerations dictate use
of more colour photos.
Similarly, the major advertisements in the first page of all the
newspapers occupied the right hand corner of the page at the anchorspace. Mostly educational institutions and banks were the prominent
advertisers in the first page. It is purely a departure from what Indianprint media were a decade ago. It was a rare situation two decades
back to see an advertisement in the front page itself, let alone anchor
space. This has become a trend in the current advertising in Indianprint media in keeping with the increasing business the educational
institutions and banks bubbling with privatization. The Advertising inthe front page was also part of space filling strategy. In a way the
papers themselves look forward to selling space in the front-pageright hand corner (anchor space) at high tariff rates to overcome thecrisis of news and to cover up lack of diversity coverage in the front
page.
The preceding interpretation upholds the Hypotheses H1 and H2 and
proves that the Indian media had completed the process ofmetamorphosis into the market driven journalism. Whereas Randal
Beam6 studied the content and lay out differences between the strongand weak market oriented news papers on the basis of prerecorded
circulation figures, our study focused on the content and layoutdifferences among four leading English news papers as they wereobtaining and transforming themselves into the market driven
journalism. Our study therefore did not categorize these fournewspapers into strong and weak market oriented categories before
the study itself. Thus, in our study, out of the four newspapers, TheTimes of India appeared to be more market driven and has strong
market orientation. The Hindu appeared to be less market driven with
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weak market orientation. The Hindustan Times and The IndianExpress are in the transition phase and would acquire the strong
market orientation sooner or later.
Table VI. Mean Standard Deviation and Coefficient of
Variation of the Items of the Coverage
Name of the NewsPaper
Mean
X
StandardDeviation
Coefficientof Variation
Variance
The Times of India 45.60 26.33 57.74 693.26
The Hindustan Times 48.33 32.50 67.24 1056.25
The Indian Express 44.50 31.63 71.00 1000.45
The Hindu 47.50 46.57 98.04 2168.76
Table VII. Determining the Correlation Coefficientbetween the Four News Dailies for items of News
Coverage
Correlation Between x2 Y2 xy Coefficient ofCorrelation
r
TOI (x) and HT (y) 4160.20 6336.93 6376.65 +1.24*-0.1480=+1.09
HT (x) and IE (y) 6336.93 6005.50 6190.18 +1.004
TOI (x) and IE(y) 4160.20 6005.50 4656.30 +0.931TH (x) and TOI 13013.25 4160.20 6930.10 +0.941
TH(x) and IE(y) 13013.25 6005.50 8702.50 +0.984
TH (x) and HT(y) 13013.25 6336.93 8874.15 +0.977
corrected using Probable Error for Coefficient of Correlation
r=0.6745x1-- r2 / N
The observed F is 0.0137 < 4.94 for the 3, 20 factor level of v1/ v2 of
the table F. Therefore the difference in the sample is less significantand is good sample in terms of coding and categories formation also.
Since the coefficient of correlation and ANOVA showed the samples
under the study bearing positive correlation and the difference amongthe samples being less significant, the above prioritization of the broad
categories of content could be fairly considered as a trend, showing a
marked departure from the past that came to establish as a marketdriven journalism among the print media.
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Table VIII. Analysis of Variance of the frequencies ofNews Items in Coverage among four dailies
Source ofVariation
SS Degreesof
freedom
d.f.
Mean
Squares
MS
F-Ratio 1% levelof signifi-
cance
BetweenSample
Within
Sample
61.08
29515.88
(k-1)=
4-1=3
(n-k)
24-4=20
20.36
1478.48
20.36/
1478.48
= 0.0137
F (3,20)=4.94
Total 29576.96 23
Conclusions:
The study of the first page priorities of the four leading EnglishNewspapers reveals that the Indian print media too had acquired the
contours of market driven journalism originally emanated in the US asa result of globalization and privatization. Where as the Times of India
with its strong market orientation reflected all the important
characteristics of market driven journalism, The Hindustan Times, TheIndian Express and The Hindu remained in transition phase. However,
as pointed out by Randal Beam and Shakuntala Rao (2008) most ofthese papers still retained their accountability and ability to demand
from the Government explanations for increasing corruption, crime,
failing governance, etc.
End Notes:
1. Vanita Kohli, The Indian Media Business (Response Books, Sage
Publications New Delhi, 2003). 13-20.
2. Chakravarty S, Press and Media: The Global Dimensions. (Sage
Publications. Delhi, 1996).
3. Appadurdai, A, Disjuncture and difference in the global culturaleconomy. Public Culture. (2.2, 2005) 1-23.
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4. Jeffrey, Robin, Indian Language Newspapersa series essays
published in Economic and Political Weekly (1998 January-March).Special Reference to Telugu: Ingredients of Growth and Failure.
Jeffrey, Robin, Indias News Paper Revolution-Capitalism, Politics and
the Indian Language Press: 1977-1999. Oxford University Press. 2000)
5. Ravindranath P.K, Press Laws and Ethics in Journalism. (Authors
Press, New Delhi. 2004). Ravindranath P. K. Regional Journalism inIndia. (Authors Press, New Delhi 2005)
6. Beam, Randal A, What it means to be a market orientednewspaper (News Paper Research Journal. 1998, summer, Vol 19. 3)
2-20. Beam, Randal, A Content Differences Between DailyNewspapers with Strong and Weak Market Orientations (Journalism
and Mass Communication Quarterly. 2003, summer, 80.2) 368-390.Beam, Randal A, Size of Corporate Parent Drives Market Orientation
(News Paper Research Journal, Spring 2002 Journal 23, no. 2/3
(spring/summer 2002) 46-63. Randal A Beam, How Newsrooms UseReadership Research, (News Paper Research Journal 16, Spring
1995). 28-38. John Mc Manus, Market-Driven Journalism: Let theCitizens Beware? (Sage. Thousand Oaks. California. 1994). 1-16, 57-
84. Knowlton Nash, Trivia Pursuit: How Showbiz Values Are
Corrupting the News (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart,1998)10,30.
7. Ajay K. Kohli and Bernard J. Jaworski, Market Orientation: TheConstruct, Research Propositions, and Managerial Implications
(Journal of Marketing 54, April 1990) 1-18. Philip Kotler, Marketing
Management 12th ed (Pearson/ Prentice-Hall,.N.J.2006) 16. DavidCroteau and William Hyones, The Business of News: Corporate Media
and the Public Interest. (Pine Forge Press, Thousand Oaks, California2001)6-8. Rebecca Ross Albers, Whose News is it, Anyway?
Presstime (17, December 1995) 3380-40. Barbara Cohen and Susan
Engel, Who Stays Closest to the Customer Will Win, (Editor &Publisher 124, 14 September 1991). 4R, 6R, 24 R. Mark Fitzgerald, All
Things to All People (Editor & Publisher 128, 7 January 1995) 11-14.
M. L. Stein, Re-establishing Relevance for Readers, (Editor &Publisher 127, 5 March 1994)16-17. M.L.Stein, Research for theNews Room (Editor & Publisher 124, 27 April 19910. 15-18.
Underwood, Doug, When MBAs Rule the Newsroom. (Columbia
University Press. New York, 1995). Doug Underwood and KeithStamm, Balancing Business With Journalism: News Room Policies at
12 West Coast News Papers, (Journalism Quarterly 69, Summer
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1992) 301-317. William B Ketter, Market-driven Editorial ContentHow Viable?(Editor & Publisher 127, 15 October 1994): 13,40.
8. Thussu, D K. Privatizing the airwaves; The Impact of Globalization
on Broadcasting in India. (Media Culture and Society, 2000:21).125-
131.
9. Shakuntala Rao, Navjit Singh Johal, Ethics and News Making in theChanging Indian Mediascape ( Journal of Mass Media Ethics. 21.4)
286-303. Wasserman H and Shakuntala Rao, Globalization,
glocalization and journalism ethics (Journalism 2008:9(2)). 163-181.Shakuntala Rao, Accountability, democracy, and globalization: a
study of broadcast journalism in India (Asian Journal ofCommunication 2008;18 (3)). 193-206. Shakuntala Rao and Lee, S,
Globalizing Media Ethics? An assessment of Universal ethics among
international political Journalists. Journal of Mass Media Ethics (20.2&3 ) 99-120.
10.Clausen L, Localizing the Global: domestication processes in
international news production. (Media, Culture and Society. 2004:26.1) 25-44.
11. Sharma J K, Ethics of Journalism in Transition (Authors Press, NewDelhi, 2002).
12. Ray GN, Tabloidization of the Media: Page three syndrome(Press
Council of India web-- www.presscouncil.nic.in August 25, 2006).Ray GN Trivialization of Content in Media (Press Council of India webwww.presscouncil.nic.in Feb 10,2006). Subir Ghosh The Tabloid
Culture in India(Vidura April-June, 2007) 22-23.
13. Lars W Nord, Jesper Stromback, Reporting more, informing less:
A Comparison of the Swedish Media Coverage of September 11 andthe wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. (Journalism 2006; 7) 850-110.
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