Trends in first page priorities of Indian print media reporting - A content analysis of four English Language newspapers

C. S. H. N. Murthy*, Challa Ramakrishna and Srinivas R. Melkote

¹Manipal Institute of Communication, Press Corner, Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka 576 104 India.

²Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, A. P. 530 003, India.

³School of Communication Studies, Department of Telecommunications, 302 West Hall, Bowling Green State University, Ohio  43403-0233, USA.

Corresponding author. E-mail: cshnmurthy@yahoo.co.in, cshnmurthy@gmail.com

Accepted 21 December, 2009

   Abstract

A critical analysis of the first page reporting priorities of the four leading news papers-The Hindustan Times, The Indian Express, The Times of India (all being published from New Delhi and Lucknow) and The Hindu (Only from New Delhi and Southern States) reveals a number of interesting shifts in the paradigms of news reporting and 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 the traditional news values. The study has witnessed a growing trend for first reporting and investigative reporting, treating news as a commercialized commodity for mass consumption, filled with crime, legal disputes, politics, etc. with economic, social and development news taking a backseat. The pages of the news papers are filled with increased use of large and small color photos (especially photos of the main players in each story), and the use of long titles and large fonts for even short reports to make up the space of the first page look compact, suggesting a crisis for news due to intense competition and acquiring contours of magazine journalism/tabloidization. These findings read with the characteristics of market driven journalism, originally emanated from the US in 1990s, suggest an increasing tabloidization and trivialization of news. This study applies the strong and weak market orientation theories of Randal Beam to the Indian media, and attempts to correlate developments in India’s newsrooms with respect to print media‘s ability to retain accountability to the public.

Key words: Paradigm shift, news values, globalization, coverace, strong market orientation, weak market orientation, political, crime, investigative, economic, social and legal.