Chapter I

Introduction

A mass society is characterized by greater reliance on the mass media for

information and news about the environment in which the people live. The news
media are the main sources of local, national and international news. They set their
agenda for public debate and create awareness about issues. In short, mass media help
in the emergence of public opinion and in building up of images through news
reporting, expressing views, informing the public and thereby facilitating public
discussion on issues of wider concern. Mass media play a significant role in the
socialization of its members their attitudes, preferences and mannerisms. It acts as a
tool for disseminating information to reach masses simultaneously (McLeod et al.,
1999). Among others print media has been satisfying the information needs of
majority of the people. Especially newspapers are found to cater to the interests as
well as welfare of the people and help in the progress and nation’s development. The
good newspaper and the good reader are involved in the serious business of trying to
understand man and the universe in which he lives” (Bradley p.22). Various
revolutions in the fields of politics, agriculture, industry and education as well as
manufacture of paper and modernization of the art of printing enabled the countries of
Western Europe and North America to have mass circulation of newspapers by the
end of the 19th Century. The twentieth century continued to be termed as an age of
mass circulation of newspapers and periodicals.

The Indian press since 1947

In India in 1858 there were only 12 papers with total circulation of little over 3,000
and by 1871 there were 39 papers with a total circulation of over 10,000 (Natarajan
p.70). The period from 1857 to 1885 witnessed a phenomenal rise in the number of
newspapers in India in English as well as in the Indian languages. According to the
Home Ministry statement of 1886 the circulation of newspapers was nearly 2,00,000
and that of the periodicals was also around the same figure. From 1917 the Gandhian

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era in press and politics began. He edited a number of journals starting with “Indian
Opinion” in South Africa which was published in English, Tamil and Gujarati.
“Young India” “Navajivan” as well as in “Harijan” enjoyed wide circulation. He
scrupulously avoided publishing any advertisement. His articles were often circulated
by the news agencies to the daily press and were published all over the country either
on the same day or on the following day.

Indian press which played a powerful role in the national movement and was
effective in rousing the sentiments of the people to fight against foreign rule was
forced to concentrate on national integration and development. As Tiwari has written
‘It could have continued its old tradition and emerged as a consolidator and mobilize
public opinion for the preservation of freedom. It could also have continued to be a
relentless critic of the administration irrespective of the fact that the administration is
national’.
During Independence, the Press was an effective medium in the hands of
nationalists as well as social reform groups. They exposed social evils like casteism,
child marriages, ban on remarriage of widows, social, legal, and other inequalities to
which women were subjected. It also helped them in carrying out a massive campaign
to educate the people on the eradication of untouchability (Krishna Murthy, 1966;
Desai, 1993:237; Yadava, 1985). However, the role of the Press underwent a sea
change during the post-Independence period (Yadava, 1985). Noted editor T J S
George (2007:156) said that ‘newspapering was a mission up until 1947. It
necessarily had to become a profession. In fact it became an industry, in the worst
sense of the term’.
In 1980 the number of news papers and periodicals was 18,140 as compared to 17,168
at the end of 1979, thereby showing an annual growth of 5.45%. During 1980 alone
1.104 new papers came into being. In addition, another 207 newspapers which had
started earlier came to be known only during 1980, thus bringing the total number of
newspapers to 1,311. Similarly, the number of newspapers that ceased publication
during 1980 was 240. Apart from the above, 99 newspapers which had ceased earlier
were noticed in 1980.
According to the Registrar of Newspapers in India (2013), the total number of
registered newspapers as on 31 March 2012 was 86,754. The number of new
newspapers registered during 2011–2012 was 4,545, recording 5.51 percent growth of

2
total registered publications over the previous year. The largest number of newspapers
and periodicals registered in any Indian language were in Hindi (34,651), followed by
English (11,938). The total circulation of newspapers was 373,839,764 and the largest
circulated daily was The Hindu (1,606,711) and Ananda Bazar Patrika (1,282,942).

Regional Character of the News Papers

From the year 1885 to 1905 the Indian language papers became powerful as
they created as well as reflected public opinion in India (Prem Narayan, p.283). At
that time the editors of Indian Language papers were comparatively less educated and
belonged to lower sections of the society than the Indians who edited the English
Language dailies. The most significant feature of the Indian language press was its
closer identity with the people on account of emotional and linguistic affinity. The
editors of the Indian language papers gave greater importance to the problems which
disturbed the common people like recurring cases of racial arrogance, famine,
unemployment, oppression by the administrative officers etc. One of the significant
features of the Indian Press is the phenomenal growth of Indian language papers since
1959. As Chalapathi Rau writes “the figures of the Indian Press mean essentially the
future of the Indian language press. India will gradually have mammoth circulation in
all the Indian languages. The language panorama of the Indian Press presented a
unique spectacle. It covered a range of languages unparalleled anywhere in the world
except in the USSR. Newspapers were published in as many as 87 languages. During
1980, Marathi became the fifth language to cross the mark of one thousand
newspapers. Note worthy feature of the press in the languages in 1980 was that the
daily news papers in Hindi and English crossed the three million mark in circulation
for the first time in the history of Indian Press.

Jeffrey’s scholarship on the growth of successful newspapers in a dozen Indian

languages (1987; 1993; 1997) highlights a lively and buoyant situation where,
essentially, five factors have been capitalized on over the past two decades. They are:
improved technology (which enables the production and distribution of large number
of more attractive newspapers), steadily expanding literacy, better purchasing power,
aggressive publishing, and political excitement. ‘The logic of capitalism’, Jeffrey
explains, has driven newspaper expansion ‘as strongly as a thirsty potential
readership’ (1993: 2007).
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 The language press has evolved its own pattern by responding to the demands
and requirements of its readers. It accords proper importance to local and regional
news as compared to national and international news which is generally received
through news agencies. The events, problems and region specific news, which are
generally not treated adequately by the metropolitan press, are of special interest to
the language press. The language news papers closeness to the local communities
reflect the cultural and literary traditions of the people they serve. It has been
particularly vibrant in the south. Several language news papers such as Eenadu in
Andhra Pradesh and Malayala Manorama in Kerala, have established a new genre of
journalism in different ways. They pioneered the development support journalism by
publishing news related to most relevant issues such as agitation against liquor started
by women in Andhra Pradesh and water conservation (Murthy, 2010). Eenadu took
up the cause of anti liquor agitation in 1992 and devoted full pages for the cause of
agitation and later it spread the news, stories and even slogans also to other pages.
Large number of photos of activists were also published which ultimately motivated
public at large. Later from 2000-2004 it published news related to water conservation
taken up by the government, public as well as NGOs and other activists. Of late in the
summer of 2016 also Eenadu published news and stories related to activities such as
soak pit construction, desilting of canals etc. In the regional editions, zone wise
publications, aptly called ‘district editions’ (Robin , 2000) were published in half-
demy size. They began during the 1990s with colored mastheads, and Eenadu alone
had around 32 such zonal editions attached to main newspapers. Soon this was
followed by other competitors Vaartha, Andhra Bhoomi, Andhra Jyoti, etc in Andhra
Pradesh. Later this culture spread through the entire South India (Sevanti Ninan,
2007; Vanita Kohli, 2003; Jeffrey Robin, 1998, 2000). From the meager beginning
the industry grew leaps and bounds and transformed the profile of newspapers in
fundamental ways. The press became more and more commercialized (Bhargava,
2005, George, 2007).

Even as the media ecology has been rapidly transformed by the continued
globalization of the cultural industries (Hesmondhalgh, 2007), the spread of
broadband Internet and mobile phones, the rise in read/write digital media literacies
(Anderson, et al, 2011), and the steady growth of social media, daily newspapers
continue to be a key mechanism for organizing both public and elite attention. Many
4
print newspapers have been transformed into cross-platform news organizations
which launched online editions, developed increased capacity for multimedia
reporting, adapted to the 24-hour news cycle and reduced their number of printed
pages or the frequency of print publication. In some cases newspapers have
abandoned their printed editions entirely. However, while print newspaper circulation
is, for the most part declining in the United States, very large and newly literate
publics in countries such as Brazil, India, China and other recently industrialized
nations are driving an unprecedented rise in total global newspaper circulation (“ The
Future of News,” 2011). Till 31st March, 2015 as many as 1,05,443 publications have
been registered in India witnessing a constant growth of the Print Media. It is
understood that despite tremendous growth of audio visual media i.e. radio and
television print media is far ahead of the times. From the data it is understood that
though the print media has been facing competition from proliferation of audio visual
and digital media steady growth in the number of registered publications as well as
their circulation is noticed. It empowered the common man, to assert his right and
ultimately to participate in strengthening the democracy.

“With post cold–war globalization, the US inspired news and entertainment programs
made up of game, chat, and reality shows; programming that Clausen (2004) calls ‘
the transnational genre conventions’ has come to dominate the mediascape of the
South, including the content of the Indian media” (Shakuntala and Johal, 2007).
Today, the Indian media is experiencing dramatic shift in favor of consumerism and
the content of the media is becoming more and more market driven (Sharma, 2002).
Randal (2000) points out that a similar situation in the US has promoted the market
driven journalism in print media in the post 1990s. He (2003) argued that the strong
market oriented media players still retained the grit for the accountability and not
pandered to the audience interests totally. He observed that the US media and its news
rooms retained the freedom of editorial decisions with regard to offering information
on issues of public importance despite the over riding effect of market driven
journalistic characteristics appearing in the pages of news papers.
It is often said that the rise of the 24-hour news culture has changed the very
nature of what people seek from newspapers. Brighton and Foy (2007) have already
observed the wide spread assumption that many readers are looking less to find out
what has happened than help them to make sense of it-or simply to find out more
5
detail. The spread of newspaper in a democratic country tends to reflect the spread of
political views within the populace and although there are some practitioners within
the industry who would like to feel that they are influential agenda setters, this is
rarely true. Even in (the ever shrinking number of) overtly illiberal and dictatorial
states, it traditionally had little impact on altering the mindset of its readers.
Despite rapid transformation of media due to globalization and the penetration
of digital media newspapers continue to organize information and draw attention in
both public and elite (Hesmondhalgh, 2007; Anderson, Glaisyer, Smith, and Rothfeld,
2011). At a time when print newspaper circulation is declining in the United States,
very large and newly literate publics in Brazil, India, China, and other recently
industrialized nations are driving an unprecedented rise in total global newspaper
circulation (“The Future of News,” 2011). The post 1991 scenario of progress
witnessed by many sectors continue to strengthen the field of mass media and
entertainment. The growth of Indian media is experienced in all its fronts such as
print, electronic as well as new media which continues in the contemporary times also
(Vanita Kohli, 2003). The liberalized economies and globalization brought sea
changes in the content as well as presentation of the information and reinforcement.

Of late some new trends have emerged in the Indian press. Newspapers have started
adopting various strategies to boost circulation. The growth of competitive and mass
circulation papers has led to a number of ills, such as sensationalism, editorializing in
the news columns, lack of objectivity, failure to follow up stories, selectivity and the
arrogance of power that curtails the right of reply among them (Verghese in Menon,
1999). The old concept that a newspaper represented ideas, the people’s conscience or
the nation’s ethos is slowly getting worn out. Journalism is a profession only in name,
whereas in reality it is an industry (Nayar in Murthy, 2000). The dividing line
between news and entertainment is diminishing and bad news is being pushed to
inside pages to keep the front page clean (Nandy, 2002). Despite these limitations, the
press in India has played an important and constructive watchdog role by exposing
deception and secrecy in the workings of the administration and public institutions. It
has been instrumental in promoting the human rights of the lower sections of the
socitey (Sorabjee, 2000). The press is also trying to meet the challenges posed by
television by bringing out more editions and coloured supplements. The layout has
been made visually attractive and more analytical where in-depth coverage is also
6
provided. The use of information technology for news gathering, page composition
and printing has further contributed towards efficacy of the press. A variety of news
from divergent news sources is published in different formats to provide
comprehensive coverage of various issues to create an informed society.
Compared to print and electronic media as well as new media has surged
ahead in their reach, sales as well as profits. Even print media did not stop behind and
trying to pool up all resources and to push itself. Though the works of Robin (2000),
Thussu (1995 - 2007) and Ninan (2007) indicated the existence of the characteristics
of market driven journalism in the Indian print and TV media, they are based more on
observations than any systematic study. Vajpayee (The Times of India, 2000) says
newspapers were destined to play a crucial role in shaping ideas and sensibilities and
that the press should undertake this responsibility with a sense of mission. Pointing
out that language newspaper has greater and more variegated role to play, Vajpayee
says the responsibility of the media is commensurate with its larger role in the socio-
political milieu of the country.
The role of press in society advanced by the pro-government campaign is summarized
as follows;
a) The advocacy of a cooperative role for the press in nation building and national
development.
b) The role of the press as a catalyst for social and political change and
c) The duty of the press to
i) educate instead of merely entertaining.
ii) maintaining social stability and racial harmony.
iii) aid in economic development and nation building.

These roles are prioritized in Asia largely in line with Social structures, political
systems, cultural sensitivity and traditions and economic conditions and historical
perspectives in Asia. The newspapers have a two-step function. Newspapers select
certain events to attract the attention of the policy-makers and set an agenda for public
actions; and they also frame the issues, telling the readers what is important to know
(Murthy,2006). Following the church, legislature and executive, the press is referred
to as the fourth estate or pillar of democracy due to its immense growth and outreach,
which has created new uses and possibilities that harbor change in society. In
contemporary times, journalism has grown, expanded and departed from its spirit and
7
mission of hard core professionalism to cross commercialization. While yielding to
pressures of the changing markets, the press, too, has shifted its priorities and goals.

Theoretical frame work

Apart from educating, informing and entertaining the public the Press has a social
responsibility function. The theory of social responsibility postulates that the Press
has to play a crucial role in the people-centric issues. As people depend on
newspapers for their day-to–day information needs newspapers should act to inform
and educate people on social issues. The socially responsible press helps the citizens
to be well informed on issues of immediate concern to them (Murthy, 2001:105).

Social responsibility theory. The western concept of laissez faire that facilitates
libertarian press with unbridled rights which no government and no external agency
could be allowed to touch is guiding the press. The social responsibility conception
arose in reaction to this posture. In the United States, the first systematic theory of a
socially responsible press was presented in 1947 in the report of the Commission on
Freedom of the Press, headed by Robert M. Hutchins. The Hutchins Commission lay
down five ‘standards of performance’ for a free and responsible press. These were (1)
to provide a ‘truthful, comprehensive account of the day’s events in a context which
gives them meaning’; (2) to serve as a ‘forum for the exchange of comment and
criticism’; (3) to offer a ‘representative picture of the constituent groups of society’;
(4) to present and clarify the ‘goals and values of society’; and (5) to provide ‘full
access to the day’s intelligence’ (Lambeth, 1986: 7). On these lines press highlights
them in the first page and showcase priority by publishing the development issues.
The modernization paradigm was driven by strong media effects and Rogers' (1962)
diffusion of innovations theory. As development communication researchers adopted
the diffusion of innovations theory, they firmly believed that "the necessary route to
the development of an individual from a traditional to a modern person was the
acceptance of new ideas from sources external to the societal system" (Melkote &
Steeves, 2001, p. 145). Communication scholars, including Schramm, Lerner, and Pye
all reflected the state of communication research at the time in promoting a one-way
flow of information, described the hypodermic needle of mass communication effects,
as the preferred stimulus for development (Jacobson, 2004, 69; Murthy, 2001, 6).

8
That theoretical conception of communication of strong effects and diffusion
remained largely intact with the emergence of the dependency paradigm of
development. Critical analysis introduced concepts of political economy that didn't
necessarily change the effects or processes of communication, but did result in
shifting the seat of the source of communication from market or technological forces
to the newly independent governments. Under the dependency paradigm, nation-
building and development initiatives maintained the "two-step flow model of media
influence, with the notion of 'opinion leaders' playing a key role in bringing about
modernizing practices among their fellow citizens" (Banda, 2006, p. 2). Development
communication, however, counted new imperatives that included promotion of formal
national development agendas and national cohesion.

Agenda setting. The significance of the media in informing the public on various
issues is supported by different constructs. Two of such are the agenda-setting and
gate-keeping functions of the media. Breed (1955) demonstrated that large
metropolitan newspapers set the agenda of smaller newspapers, while White (1950)
and later Snider (1967) found that news story selection by the editor of a small-town
Midwestern newspaper was strongly shaped by story availability and categorization in
a wire service, a finding later supported by McCombs and Shaw (1976). The agenda-
setting influence of the news media describes the power of the news media to focus
public attention on a few key public issues (McCombs and Shaw 1972, Dearing and
Rogers 1992, McCombs 2006). This agenda-setting influence of the media on the
public is reflected in its pattern of coverage on public issues over some period of time.
Wanta and Ghanem (2006) noted that ranking of issues on the media agenda and
public ranking of the importance of the same issues yield correlations of þ0.50 or
better. From the pattern of the total news coverage, the public learns what journalists
consider to be the important issues. From the details of the coverage of a particular
issue, the public also forms its images and perspectives about these issues. The media
also determine to a large extent how the public act on such issues. Pollock et al. noted
that newspaper circulation was growing annually in Africa, and that newspaper
coverage was particularly relevant because "newspapers set news agendas for
broadcast media (e.g. radio) to communicate broadly to the public" (2010, 10). While
newspapers may be considered elite media, they nonetheless "play a very important
agenda-setting role" (Haque, 1986, p. 86) for other media.
9
 Newspaper coverage also plays an important agenda-setting role for blogs and
social media (McCombs & Shaw, 2006). Golan (2006) and Reese and Danielian
(1989) examined the intermedia agenda setting relationships between newspapers,
magazines, and TV and found that mass media outlets tend to provide similar amounts
of coverage of stories. They also demonstrated the key agenda-setting role of The New
York Times, specifically, for TV news. Boyle (2001) found that newspapers set the
agenda for television networks, while other researchers found that newspaper
coverage heavily influences both television and radio broadcast news agendas
(McCombes, Lopez-Escobar, & Llamas, 2006). This effect does not seem to be
limited to the United States; as Qian (2009) found that Chinese newspapers largely set
the agenda for Chinese blogs.
The gate keeping function of the media is evident in the role of the media in deciding
what the public learns and how the public interprets the day’s events and news in the
nation and the world. This is achieved through the coverage and slant given to issues.
These gate keeping decisions are influenced by many factors including ownership and
management policy of the media organisation, perceived needs and preferences of the
audience and expertise of editorial staff.
In this time of trial and tribulations the newspapers seem to redesign their ideologies
and strategies. As they are supposed to stick to the social responsibility norm the news
papers are always judged for their accountability towards public. They strive to
prioritize certain issues which are of utmost important to them and try to report about
them regularly. This agenda setting function has evolved over the years and agenda
building as well as framing seems to have been the order of the days. This
phenomenon is more pronounced in case of first page also called as cover page for
newspapers. Since it is the face of the newspaper and the news items published in it
readily catches the attention of them even the news, stories, photos, cartoons also are
crucial in impressing the reader to pay attention to.

Front Page
Newspapers serve an important function in a democratic society as they provide
shared collective experiences, common symbolic anchors, and representations of
society to its publics (Althaus & Tewksbury, 2002). They present a display of codes
in linguistic, typographic, and graphics and provide readers with information of the
world (Carter, 2000). Though the entire print newspaper coverage reflects the overall
10
news agenda editors design front pages by spending a great deal of time and energy
and decide about the stories to be published on the front pages of their print editions
(Sumpter, 2000). As the reader evinces large amount of interest on every given story
and news item it is a sought after page in print media. The front page of the
newspaper is the most important page of the publication and highlights the day’s most
critical stories (Reisner, 1992). It grabs a reader’s attention, and, thus, editors devote
much energy in determining which story elements should be placed on the most
prized page of their publication (McQuail, 2010; Singer, 2001). This is significant in
that the front page visually suggests to the audience what a newspaper organization
considers to be the most important stories of the day. It is generally considered to
function as a way to “attract readers, inform them and set the reader’s agenda”
(Pasternack & Utt, 1986, p. 29). This is significant in the sense that the front page
visually suggests the audience what a newspaper organization considers to be the
most important stories of the day. Thus, news audience tend to focus more on front-
page stories rather than on stories published elsewhere in the paper (Min-Mid
Publications, 1984).

In terms of front-page content, timeliness, prominence, proximity, magnitude,

conflict, impact, and oddity were found to be important front-page attributes from an
analysis conducted in 1989 (Bridges, 1989) and a replication of this study in 1993.
Both studies found that hard news dominated the front pages, and little had changed
over the course of several years. The authors conclude that there may be certain
unwritten standards that guide attention to certain pressures/interests, or a mechanistic
approach is at play when selecting the news.
Analysis of the content and framing of front page stories depicts the paper’s “hidden”
editorial stance (Álvarez Peralta, 2010). Compared to others front page share of
content is very less but they command large attention and become premium space
irrespective of the circulation of newspapers. Even newspaper of small circulation
draws attention indicates that among all the platforms this becomes important as
irrespective of the profile of the reader it draws large attention.

The concept of gate keeping also assumes more significance in front page rather than
the inside pages. As the coverage depicts the publications stand on crucial issues
related directly and indirectly to the public gate keepers pursue them with minutest
11
detail such as banner stories, the headlines, length of them, the presentation style,
layout, the banner and even the fillers to be placed in the first page. Since the space is
a major constraint in case of some newspapers the job of editors in finalizing the news
of first page becomes more crucial as gate keeping assumes significance. Editorial
meetings that determine the front page coverage spend considerable amount of time
on gate keeping (Clayman & Reisner, 1998).

Organizational Influence on Media Content

The process of selecting what makes the news especially for the front page of a
newspaper is a critical question to consider. Organizational politics, such as conflict
both vertical and horizontal may have an impact on how stories are selected and what
makes the front page (Shoemaker & Reese, 2013). Sigal (1973) noted that section
editors seek to place their share of stories on the front page to increase the prestige of
their relative division. He discovered that, over time, bureaucratic conflicts led to a
pattern of front-page stories that balanced out and accommodated the number of
stories from various news desks. Likewise, whoever’s work is published on the front
page is considered as a successful journalist at a news organization (Breed, 1955).
Further, these individuals are more likely to have editorial control over their work and
develop a greater degree of power within their newsrooms. Another possible
organizational influence might be the recent transitions that many daily newspapers
have adopted amid a significant downturn in the print newspaper industry.
Newspapers have been forced to take various cost-saving measures, including
massive layoffs of seasoned reporters, editors, and photojournalists. Such practices
forced more and more newspapers to turn to wire services for content (Anderson,
2013; Picard, 2014). Similarly, in terms of page design, many newspapers have given
up individual operations and have adopted so-called design hubs, where page designs
are provided from centralized offices to individual newspapers (Cavendish, 2013).
Thus, the specific ways in which individual newspapers produce and package their
front page might vary across newspapers, as the front pages are outcomes of a
complicated process within organizations.

Analyzing Front Pages

While designing the front page, a complex process could be at play. For example,
story selection is critical (Reisner, 1992). The most important stories should be
12
featured prominently to impress impulsive buyers. However, stories are not the only
features that are presented on the front page. Other design elements, such as headlines
and photos are also taken into consideration along with typographic decisions and
graphic features to highlight each story. Much of these design decisions may reflect a
newspaper organization’s values regarding what is considered to be the key news
items of the day worthy of being presented to its audiences (Lowrey, 1999;
Shoemaker & Reese, 2013). For example, story elements featured on the front page of
The New York Times are considered to be the most critical pieces by that particular
news organization. Thus, it is important to examine how newspapers present
information on their front pages, which serve a particularly important function in
informing the public.

Studies of news organizations and the routines tied to organizational life point to the
manufacturing of news for efficiency and profitability (Lowrey, 1999). Media
sociologists, such as Tuchman (1973), Gans (2004), and Schudson (2012), suggest
that news is a manufactured product; news organizations follow routines for
efficiency; external forces impact the news product; journalists suppress personal
values and embrace professional values to serve organizational routines; and routines
largely determine news content and subsequently the way the world is portrayed to
the public (Lowrey, 1999). In a study of 64 different newspapers it was found that
news editors were found to strategically use traditional news values, but used their
own ideologies to argue their case for news selection (Reisner, 1992). Stories with
ongoing themes, however, were more likely to be integrated into the front pages
without question. More recently, the layout and design of the front page has garnered
much attention. Many newspapers have also gone through design changes due to the
emergence of new technologies, competition of other media, and concern of
appearance, such as “dull” versus “modern” designs (Barnhurst & Nerone, 1991;
Morris & Haught, 2014; Pasternack & Utt, 1995; Utt & Pasternack, 2003). For
example, newspapers are now paying more attention to their online versions rather
than solely to their traditional print output, which has led to significant changes in
new style and structure (Morris & Haught, 2014). In a study that examined college
student perceptions of a newspaper’s front-page design Pasternack and Utt (1986)
found that traditional newspaper designs were more likely to be associated with hard
news, and more modern designs received higher quality scores than papers with
13
traditional layout designs. In another study, they (1989) found that most American
daily newspapers had integrated modern design formats with much color, more
photos, and infographics on their front pages. In another study done in 2003 they
concluded that the popularity of modular design had been expanded to be “almost
universal,” and adoption of color on front pages was also a widespread phenomenon.

For the last few decades many scholars have researched newspaper front pages
and many have studied their production process. Newsroom anthropologists have
closely explored the social, cultural, political, economic, and interpersonal forces that
shape editorial decision making front-page prioritization (Broder, 2000; Forrest, 1934;
Gans,1979). Accordingly, communication scholars have researched newspaper front
pages for decades and continue to do so. Many have studied the production process of
the newspaper front page. Newspaper front pages, while declining in the total share of
media attention they command, thus not only remain relevant but also continue to
function as critically important spaces in the broader media ecology. The front page of
the print edition of newspapers has long been, and still remains, both a powerful
indicator of the importance of a given story and a key mechanism for driving attention
across all media platforms.

Given the influence of print newspaper coverage on the overall news agenda,
newspaper editors, not surprisingly, spend a great deal of time and energy deciding
what stories to place on the front pages of their print editions (Sumpter, 2000).
Editorial conferences that determine front page news placement are, in effect, a site of
“gatekeeping in action” (Clayman & Reisner, 1998). In other words, the front page is
a highly contested political space. Álvarez-Peralta (2010, 2011) argued that front page
analysis provides a more direct lens on a newspaper’s editorial line than the
newspaper’s editorials. He noted that editorials are carefully constructed, public-
facing documents that frame the opinions of the newspaper editors for a critical
reading public, whereas analysis of the content and framing of front page stories
provides access to the paper’s “hidden” editorial stance. Dor (2003) has further found
that headlines play an important role in communicating with readers and give them a
preliminary understanding of the story. If news headlines are more sensational and the
relationship between the reported story and the audience is stronger, it is easier to
attract the audience’s attention and produce an impact. In particular, when the suicide
14
report is shown as the front-page leading article, a greater copycat effect is produced
(Phillips, 1974).

However, a comprehensive assessment of the anatomy of the front page is noticeably

absent in the literature. In particular, although many scholars have used The New York
Times as the standard for American journalism in their studies (see Chang,
Shoemaker, & Brendlinger, 1987; Kim, 2011), little scholarly attention has been
given to how The New York Times has presented key information on its front pages as
compared with other major metropolitan national newspapers in recent years. Hence,
an attempt to address this gap was made where the front-page elements of The New
York Times (or The Times hereafter) were compared with six other major metropolitan
national/regional U.S. newspapers. By means of content analysis it tried to assess how
The Times, compared with other news organizations presented the most important
events of the day in unique ways.

Page One X
Communication scholars have used various approaches to study news agenda
competition between issues (McCombs & Shaw, 2006). Page One X is designed to
facilitate the relatively rapid creation of “small multiple” data visualizations of front
page newspaper coverage. It is a form of graphical display of information which is
most compelling at a larger scale. Small thumbnails of the newspaper front pages are
arrayed chronologically from left to right, and the viewer is able to see at a glance the
evolution of coverage, or the lack of coverage, of a particular news thread over time,
as well as compare front page coverage between different newspapers. This approach
allows the viewer to have a sense of the overall front page coverage trend, while
retaining the ability to zoom in at any point to the raw data: images, headlines, and
article text. The surface area of highlighted (coded) text and/or images, relative to the
size of the newspaper front page is measured, and produce a bar chart of the
percentage of front page coverage over time. According to research by the Institute
for Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems (BIFI) (2011) at the University
of Zaragoza (Borge-Holthoefer et al., 2011) a sample of tweets using these hash tags
with the front pages from seven major newspapers in Spain was collected and
compared. It drew definitive conclusions about the relationship between tweet volume
and front page newspaper coverage. So it can be said that it was used to find out the
15
impact of one media on another especially how the advertisements and social media
are influenced. They examined the coverage of the detention of Dominique Strauss-
Kahn, former manager of the International Monetary Fund, following allegations that
he had sexually assaulted a hotel employee, alongside coverage of the Indignados
movement in Spain. Coverage of the Indignados movement (#15M) was quite limited
on the day after the protest on May 15, and even after the police shut down the
#acampadelsol encampment on May 16. It was not until May 18, after the electoral
board refused to authorize protest permits in Madrid, that the story of the movement
was catapulted onto the front page. Meanwhile, the detention of Strauss-Kahn was
driven almost entirely off the front page by the new unfolding story taking place in
the squares and streets of Spain.
In another case the front page visualization of the Argentinian newspaper
Clarin by an artist identified only as “Alejandro” shows articles that were favorable
(green) or unfavorable (red) to the Kirchner government over an eight-year time
period. The focus on violence was much more prevalent than the focus on the protest
itself (green)” (Leal, 2013, para. 10). However, as she went on to describe, coverage
after June 22 shifted from that date forward. Much of the coverage discussed policy
reforms (yellow), while violence (red) or protest (green) frames tapered off in
frequency. Ultimately, Dilma Rousseff, president of Brazil, responded to the protests
with significant proposals for political reform.

As a part of comparison with Other Media Sources Qian (2009) examined the
inter media agenda-setting effects between the NYT, Chinese newspapers, and
Chinese blogs during the Beijing Olympics, and found that the NYT set the agenda
for Chinese newspapers, while Chinese newspapers set the agenda for Chinese blogs.
Lopez-Escobar, Llamas, McCombs, and Lennon (1998) set a high bar for inter media
agenda-setting research, with a cross-lagged correlation analysis of newspapers, TV
news, and political advertising during the 1995 Spanish elections. They found that
political advertising in newspapers had an influence on both TV and newspaper news
agendas, and that TV news influenced its political advertising. In a similar vein,
media researchers have used Page One X to compare front page newspaper coverage
of mass protests with social media attention to some of those protests.

16
 This procedure was used to compare coverage of the 2011 Japanese Tsunami
between broadsheet-sized US newspapers and berliner-sized Spanish newspapers.
This visualization displays small multiples of four Spanish (red) and five U.S. (blue)
newspapers’ front page coverage of the 2011 Japanese tsunami, from March 3 (left)
through March 31 (right). Along the top of the visualization, they used a bar chart to
display the percentage of total front page surface area dedicated to the topic.
Newspaper front pages provide one surface area datum per day, and a line chart
connecting two surface area data points (from two consecutive days) produces a false
sense of continuity. To compare more than two news threads, as seen in the examples
from the Arab Spring and Brazilian protest that follow they used multiple bar charts.
Page OneX can also be used to compare coverage of the same ongoing story across
multiple newspapers to find out the ways in which amount, duration, framing, and
other aspects of coverage differ between the front pages of various papers and the
coverage can be analyzed, visualized, and seen at a glance. One example of this
technique is the study “The Color of Corruption” (Rey-Mazón, 2015), which details
coverage of endemic corruption across all major Spanish political parties, as reported
in the front pages of the largest Spanish newspapers.

Front page research

Front page newspaper analysis has long been an important method for communication
scholars. Although newspapers now compete with a broader array of platforms than
ever before for audience attention and the print editions of many papers are struggling
to find their footing in digitally converged media ecology and newspaper front pages
remain key spaces of communicative power. They continue to shape attention and
contribute to setting the news agenda across multiple media platforms. Analysis of the
contents of newspaper front pages therefore retains analytical force. Most recently,
quantitative approaches to the measurement and visualization of news attention are
experiencing a boost in visibility, for a variety of reasons.
A survey of newspapers and network programs found that men wrote about two-thirds
of the front page stories (Bridges, 1989). The relationship of the press with the
government primarily depends on the existing political order. In countries, which
espouse liberal democracy, the press has evolved as an independent institution (the
fourth estate) acting as a moderator or watchdog on behalf of the public. In socialist
and authoritarian states, the press is regarded as an ‘ally’ of the state and in some
17
instances the mouthpiece of the government. Romano (1999) citing the Indonesian
media theorist Ashadi Siregar notes that most discussions by academics, bureaucrats
and journalists about this country’s press have been of a normative nature. Normative
theory identifies dominant social values and how the mass media should ideally
operate if they are to encompass such values.

Development journalism
Rogers (1976) suggested a new definition of development as a widely
participatory process of social change in a society intended to bring about both social
and material advancement for the majority of the people through gaining control over
their environment. The predominant role of communication has been: a) to transfer
technological innovations from development agencies to the clients and, b) to create
an appetite for change through raising a climate for modernization among members of
the public. The development communication has become an important area of study at
world level. In the relatively short time since its conception, the Communication and
Development Studies program at Ohio University is devoted to multidisciplinary
teaching of, and research on, the utilization of information and communication
systems and processes to promote national and regional development, to support
specific development projects, and to facilitate social change. The review of literature
at international level suggests that the research has different approach. Readership
survey for development has also been done in a study. It suggested that Government
and development agencies/ non-governmental organizations should consider the
promotion of a reading culture, especially in indigenous languages, as a development
programme that should be pursued vigorously. Media campaigns should be mounted,
among other things, while encouragement should be given to creative writing and
publishing in indigenous languages.
It is a widely accepted assumption that the media play a central role in the promotion
of development (Edeani, 1993, 126; Domatob & Hall, 1983, 9; Ocwich, 2010, 250;
Xu, 2009, 2). Developmental journalism covers the entire gamut of socio-economic
and cultural events, and it does not differ drastically from regular news coverage.
Rather, its emphasis is more on developmental aspects keeping in view the context of
development; and itcritically examined reports, the relevance, enactment and impact
of developmental programmes (Aggarwal, 1978b; Ogan, 1982). Its successes alerted
governments to the importance of economic and social reporting and its potential
18
usefulness; if systematically applied to mobilising mass support behind government
policies, intended to enlarge the areas of free debate extended to cover all
communications and integrated into an official variant of new journalism (p.l98).
The conceptual basis of development journalism relies heavily on
development communication theories. It has assumed significance after Second and
Third World wars. After World War II, many nations in Asia, Africa and Latin
America became independent, and started formulating their own policies of
development. The view that mass media could play a vital role in national
development influenced these policies. Thus, communication used to further
development was called developmental journalism or developmental communication.
Hence, the role of 'development journalism' came to be seen as crucial in facilitating
development in the Third World countries. Vilanilam (1975) defined it as 'journalism
that deals with the process of development in developing nations'. The same view was
further elaborated by Aggarwal (1978a) who observed that developmental journalism
basically reports developmental processes rather than events. The emphasis in
developmental journalism is therefore not on what happens at a particular moment or
a given day but on what is happening over time.

The concept originated in the Philippines and was developed into a coherent doctrine
in the 1960s across Asia and the Middle East (Ogan 1980: 8). The growing popularity
of development journalism in the 1970s and 1980s must be seen in conjunction with
the New World Information and Communication order (NIWICO). Aggarwala (1979
cited in Ogan 1980: 8) described the essence of development journalism as to
“critically examine, evaluate and report the relevance of a development project to
national and local needs, the difference between a planned scheme and its actual
implementation and the differences between its impact on the people as claimed by
government official and as it actually is”. It also entails that the media should
critically report on the MDGs, comparing planned schemes and actual implementation
and impact controversial. ‘Development journalism’ as a concept and journalism
practice emerged in Southeast Asia in the 1990s. According to Gunaratne and Hasim
(1996, 98), the term was coined at a Thomson Foundation workshop in the
Philippines in August/September 1996.

19
 Studies have shown that in developed countries newspapers in particular are
important sources of information on public issues (Bowman 1978, Ostman and Parker
1987, McCallum et al. 1991). This has also been shown to be the case in many
developing countries of Asia and Latin America (Vieira 1985, Kurth et al. 1990,
Khator 1991, Dasgupta et al. 2000). Newspapers, for instance, through the positioning
of news items provide cues about the salience of the topics in the daily news. Some of
these cues include front page stories, large headlines and editorial page coverage.
However, many developing countries are yet to fully appropriate the advantages of
information and communication technology to support the access of the general
public to environmental information. This revolutionary development journalism
philosophy was promoted in the 1960s by Africa’s first independent leader, Kwame
Nkrumah (Domatob and Hall 1983; Nkrumah 1965).
In order for the development journalism to contribute to societal improvement
in countries like Rwanda, renewed vigor is needed in research to understand the
processes through which development communication can be effective. The Kenyan
media, thought to be the most vibrant in East and Central Africa combines aspects of
development Journalism and the conventional way of reporting to aid development of
the nation. (Media Observer, 2009). The Steadman Group, now Ipsos Synovate, in
2008 carried out a survey on the most trusted institutions in the country where the
media was voted as the most trusted institution in Kenya with rates above 80%. This
point at the power of the media in society and how the study intends to utilize the trust
to feed them with development information (MCK Annual Report, 2005). Ngomba
noted, however, that efforts continued, particularly through the government's Ministry
of Territorial Administration and Decentralization, to engage journalists as "de facto
the main 'communicators' usually charged with handling communication for
development across Africa" (p. 73), and concluded that there was a need in Cameroon
to train (and re-train) journalists in the "competencies and commitment to work hand-
in-hand with those engaged in development and social change processes" (p. 74). The
Ethiopian state media, a close ally of the government have recently made
development journalism, a key concept in official policy documents. The concept was
first introduced in the editorial policies of various state media institutions (ENA 2003;
EPA 2003; ERTA 2004).

20
 Kunczik (1986 cited in Wimmer and Wolf, 2005) considered development
journalism as an intellectual enterprise and has set the following tasks. It motivated
the audience to actively cooperate in development and, to defend the interests of those
concerned. It also entailed that the media should contribute to national development
goals, inform citizens of relevant governmental policies, introduce national leaders,
foster political stability, and promote national integration and education. Whereas
Mwaffisi (1991 in Wimmer and Wolf, 2005;11) has argued that development
journalism "should not report about events, but processes, and not about personalities
but issues". Gunaratne (1996:5) described developmental journalism as an integral
part of a new journalism that involved "analytical interpretation, subtle investigation,
constructive criticism and sincere association with the grassroots (rather than with the
elite)." According to Wimmer and Wolf (2005), it comprises the reporting of ideas,
programmes, activities and events, which are related to an improvement of the living
standards, mainly in the rural regions. However the ten point journalism model, by
Galtung and Vincent (1992) underscores the need for journalists to recognise the
reality of underdevelopment; that development is multidimensional and exceeds
economic growth; that development should focus on local and international relations
as well as on the lives of the poor and the rich; that development journalism is critical
and investigative in nature and that development journalism is participatory. Melkote
(1991 in Mefalopulos 2003:48) sums up the ultimate goal of development
journalism/communication as to raise the quality of life of populations, including the
increase of income and well-being, eradication of social injustice, promotion of land
reform and freedom of speech and establishing community centres for leisure and
entertainment. However, Western scholars like Righter (1979), Stevenson (1994:144)
and Hachten (1996:30-35) viewed developmental journalism as advocacy journalism
or propaganda journalism by the government, because journalists mostly depended on
government handouts.

New technology, media and development. Advances in technology have allowed

media to deliver news and information to growing numbers of people and to share
stories as they occur across the street and around the world. The ability to share
information occurred with the introduction of the personal computer in the late 1970s,
and the Internet, popularized in the 1990s. Both have transformed the process of how
companies deliver news and information and how people receive it. At no time in
21
history has the world been so closely connected, with so many people having so much
access to information using the new media about themselves, their neighbors, their
countrymen and women, and the world as they do today. Media has also significant
implications for all policy-makers concerned to see no country is excluded from the
political, social and economic benefits that free and independent media bring.

The introduction of these new technologies has levied control on information. With
the control of information comes control over people’s political, economic, and social
lives, including the value of their education, health, and jobs. There are a number of
people living below poverty line, many of them in Africa and parts of Asia, where
communications and media infrastructure are in great need of development.
Independent media are crucial in providing opportunities for people to access critical
information to their lives. It is expected to be one of the major development objectives
of current time.

The rise and decline of Development Journalism (1969-2000)

Development journalism has, however, attracted considerable criticism over the
years. The practice has been blamed for promoting political agendas instead of
people’s interests. The strong dependency on the state- especially in African versions
of development journalism has caused concern from press freedom organizations.
Redefined versions of development journalism, however, claim to promote national
interests while at the same time safeguarding independent reporting.
In Nigeria, for example, the military regime of Buhari (1983-1985) introduced
development journalism in official policy, while severely restricting the operations of
the private media. In the view of Seng and Hunt (1986) this led to a ‘schizophrenic’
role for the Nigerian press, because it was supposed to maintain an investigative
function towards government policies and to simultaneously support notional
development. In reality the critical and investigative role of media was severely
suppressed in the name of the ‘greater good’, both in Nigeria and elsewhere on the
continent.
The problem areas of development journalism may be summarized in five key issues:
 The vagueness of the concept, as indicated by many commentators (e.g.
Harbor 2001; Ogan 1982).

22
  The practice has been criticized for its interventionist stance. In promoting
social change, development journalism is related to other interventionist
journalism ideologies (e.g. Advocacy, liberation, revolutionary and peace
journalism) (carpentier 2005; Lee and Maslog 2006; Robie 2006).
 The model has been associated with various authoritarian leaders (Steele
2009); was early on determined to become a victim of ‘perversion by political
rhetoric’ (Domatob and Hall 1983); displayed fundamental flaws during
election times (Wong 2004); favoured the elite more than ordinary people (Xu
2009); and generally came to be known as ‘government-say-so. By the mid-
1980s, Ochs (1986, p.127) concluded that despite offering a promising model
for African journalism, ‘in the way development journalism is practiced now,
with government riding herd, it is a widespread failure’. The media industry
itself has been reluctant to accept the practice.
 A final criticism against development journalism is the claim that the model
represents ideological contestations, rather than genuine care for media and
society.

Development Journalism redefined (2000 and beyond)

Previous attempts of promoting development journalism were obstructed by politics,
whereas recent contributions have strived to steer away from earlier preconceptions
by keeping a strong focus on professional issues.
Basing on Austin (1997), Banda suggests five principles for development journalism
in a new era. They are
 To treat people as participants, both in finding solutions to problems and in
contributing to media making;
 Instead of letting official sources decide the mode of expression and
public discourse, the media should invite average citizens to voice their
concerns;
 promote deliberation among people, and between the people and their
leaders;
 citizens should be encouraged to frame their own development concerns.
For the media, this implies that the journalist can no longer remain neutral,
but must declare his/her solidarity with the people. Banda emphasises that

23
 expert is acknowledged as a citizen, and that the two parties should
engage in dialogue;
 Banda’s model prescribes that development journalism should be both an
engaged and an engaging activity. Development journalist should be
engaged in activism, emancipation and social change.

Citing Chalkley (1968) who was the proper architect of early development journalism,
Banda (2007,168) argues that ‘the development journalist must get readers to realise
how serious the develpoment problem is, to think about the problem and open their
eyes to possible solutions.
Early studies of development journalism reflected assumptions of the
dominant modernization paradigm. Melkote & Steeves (2001) noted that the
professional literature implicitly expected media to carry "strong pro-development
content," and that "increased exposure to mass media messages would obviously
create the 'climate for modernization' in the villages in the Third World" (p. 218).

Banda’s new model of development journalism is both a continuation of previous

approaches and a revision. It emphasises that the media exists for the people and that
the ultimate goal of media work is emancipation. At the same time, the model
represents a step forward from earlier conceptualisations of development journalism,
by down playing the role of the state and bringing the potential of citizens in media
making (hence leaning on citizen or public journalism). Surprisingly, new media
technology is not stressed in Banda’s revised development journalism model, but is
all the more underscored by Berger (2010). He felt that, innovations such as mobile
phones, websites with user-generated content and social media channels could
accommodate a return of the development role to African media. This approach could
also attract the private media to engage in development journalism, thus resolving
some of the issues causing polarisation between private and state-owned media
channels.

India and Development journalism

24
Developmental journalism was practised in India even before the term came into
existence. Prior to Independence, newspapers influenced and moulded the opinion of
the people on social issues such as sati, child marriages, bride burning and so on.
Journalism in those days functioned as a mission to awaken the masses socially and
politically (Yadav, 1985; Parthasarathy, 1991). Through writings in his journals,
Young India and Harijan Gandhi educated the masses on topics that he considered of
vital interest to the nation. He wrote profusely on contemporary topics of those times
such as Hindu-Muslim unity, removal of untouchability, prohibition, promotion of
khadi and other village industries, and the popularization of the spinning wheel as a
means of supplementing the income of the semi -starved and unemployed village
peasants in India (Murthy, 1966:79- 80). About educating rural masses, Gandhiji
wrote articles in Harijan, by giving the farming population rudimentary instructions
about food. ‘Milk and banana make a perfect meal,’ he wrote in Harijan of February
15, 1935 in an article entitled ‘Green Leaves and their Food Value’. “For nearly five
months I have been living on uncooked foods. The addition of green leaves to their
meals will enable villagers to avoid many diseases from which they are now
suffering,’ He devoted another article to the debate on ‘Cow’s Milk versus Buffalo’s,
and still a third to the supreme Indian problem: rice. “In his booklet, Key to Health,
and elsewhere, Gandhi gave warning against machine polished rice. Polishing
removes an overcoat rich in vitamins, especially B1, he explained: lacking those
vitamins, Indians, for most of whom rice is the chief staple food, are subject to
numerous debilitating diseases, notably beriberi which means ‘I cannot’. Hand
pounded rice, Gandhi explained, retains the vitamin rich coating” (Fischer, 1994:407).
Gandhi also dealt with non agrarian aspects of village life. In Harijan on August 29,
1936 he wrote that ‘if village are self-contained and machines are manufactured
mainly for use there would be no objection to using even the modern machines and
tools and they should not be used as a means of exploiting others.’

After independence it has focused more on development policies and programmes.

The Second Press Commission of India (1982:28) stated that 'developmental reporting
should tell the story in which what is going well as well what is going wrong. The
Press should investigate the reasons for success as well as failure of various
development programme affecting the lives of common people at different places
under different conditions’. Researchers as well as newspapers conducted a few
25
experiments in developmental journalism to facilitate rural development. Selden
Menefee and Audrey Menefee conducted an interesting study of a mimeographed
newspaper in Mysore in Karnataka containing some developmental information.
Known as the Menefee experiment, a small newspaper called Gram Samachar
(Village News) was published in Kannada, the local language, for 13 weeks to test the
effects of communication on the villagers. For the purpose, four villages were chosen
near Mysore. The researchers observed an increase in the information level of the
regular readers due to the newspaper reading (Menefee and Menefee, 1967).

B.G.Verghese, the then editor of The Hindustan Times, New Delhi conducted another
experiment. In 1969, Verghese instructed a team of reporters to write periodically
about Chattera, a small village in Haryana, about its people, their problems and the
process of development taking in that village (Yadav, 1991). Aggarwal (1978a)
reported: 'Our village, Chattera .... is a bold attempt to give rural orientation to the
predominantly urban based and elite-oriented newspapers in the country. It is the form
of journalism that can prove of immense help in bridging the rural-urban
communication gap in the Third World'. Another experiment in developmental
journalism undertaken during 1981- 84 was the 'identify backward village experiment'
(IBVE) by Udayavani, a Kannada daily. In 1981, Udayavani came up with the idea of
identifying and reporting on activities in the 10 most backward villages in South
Karnataka. It identified backwardness as lack of educational facilities, electricity, Post
Office, telephone, medical facilities, clean water and road network. These villages
were identified by the coordinator of the project, Ishwar Daitota, after eliciting
opinions from readers through a survey conducted by the newspaper staff. The paper
then published 30 stories every month on the villages. The Udayavani programme
was successful in getting basic amenities to the villages. In another experiment, a
researcher started a rural newspaper, Gramyavani in 1993 in Deulpadi, a village in
Ganjam district (Orissa) to give information to the rural people. The fortnightly
newspaper reaching eight villages continued to publish for 16 months. The major
objective of the experiment was to provide developmental information to the people.
The contents of the newspaper included agriculture, health, forestry and animal
husbandry. The newspaper brought awareness among the villagers who were exposed
to the newspaper (Jena, 1995).

26
 The studies related to mass media and communication suggests that there is no
remarkable study about the coverage of development programmes in recent years.
Most of the study describes unsatisfactory coverage by print media. At the same time,
it is also a fact that some small newspapers have done remarkable jobs in the field of
development communication. Khabar Lahariya is a weekly rural newspaper written,
edited, illustrated, produced and marketed by a group of around 20 women - most of
them from marginalised Dalit, Kol and Muslim communities in Chitrakoot and Banda
districts of Uttar Pradesh. It has played a very important role in the overage of
development news. Though the regional papers outnumber the English dailies, the
coverage of development related issues has not received much attention in these
papers. This apart, the regional papers also dedicated much space to local issues
unlike the English dailies.

These experiments proved that newspapers follow two types of reporting viz., process
reporting and event reporting. In process reporting, journalists observe the whole
phenomenon of development and report the process. In event reporting, simple events
in relation to development are reported. Apart from process reporting, event reporting
can also highlight certain success stories. In event reporting, success stories of some
individuals can be highlighted. Two examples can illustrate the point. Eenadu, the
largest circulated daily in Andhra Pradesh reported a success story on the front page
on February 18, 2005. The story reported the success of producing power with the
help of bullock cart in a village with a headline on the front-page, ‘Bullock cart in aid
of power generation’.
Hyderabad, Feb 17: Ramesh, Prasanna, Satish Kumar, Paritosh Kumar, Navin
…These five students are among thousands of engineering students who are
about to complete their course. They are studying final year of engineering in
Jatipita Engineering College in Adilabad (Andhra Pradesh). Do you know
their project? Power generation by using bullock carts that are aplenty in
villages. How do they produce power? The movement of the bullock
cartwheel will generate electricity when a transmitter is fixed to the wheel.
Since the wheel rotation is less, an alternator, a device will be fixed to
expedite the speed, which will result in power generation that is stored in
batteries. One KW of power will be produced if the bullock cart works for 6
hours. Gadgets like TV, fans and bulbs can run on this power. However, the
27
 initial cost will be Rs 10000 and the farmers can sell the electricity in the
villages on the festive occasions.

This type of positive development reporting may motivate others to follow and shall
also give boost to many others to come forward and emulate the individuals who
made difference in a successful manner. For instance, The Sunday Express,
Hyderabad on December 5, 2004 made a front-page by-lined banner item about the
success story of a lady, Sangeeta, who joined the railways as a porter later became an
assistant station master in the same railway station. The headline was ‘From poverty
to prosperity –scoop it like Sangeeta’ and the intro of the story was as follows:
Tirupati, Dec 4: If N Sangeeta Lakshmi has come a long way in her career-
from a national hockey player to an athlete and a ‘kalasi’ to an assistant station
master-it’s because she never gave up. Sangeeta, assistant stationmaster at
Tirupati Railway Station, can inspire anybody. She works hard and never
takes a ‘no’ for anything. With her mother N K Sulochana –her personal
coach, manager and mentor, all rolled into one-Sangeeta has crossed many
hurdles.
Despite these experiments, developmental journalism has not gained much currency
among Indian newspapers. It is known for its wide coverage of political news, gossip
and sensationalism (Goswarni, 1994; Nandy, 1994a; 1994b). Hence vital issues such
as primary education, population control, the state of urban decay, power crises, etc
take a backseat (Rai, 1992; Singh, 1994; Shourie, 1995). Further, reporting on rural
development does not receive much importance in the press although 70 per cent of
the population in India lives in rural areas. Rural stories rarely get front-page coverage
unless they were disastrous events such as starvation, deaths, flood, famine or policy
pronouncements (Gupta, 1994).

Development reporting
Development reporting covers the entire gamut of socio-economic and cultural
events, and it does not differ drastically from regular news coverage. Rather, its
emphasis is more on developmental aspects keeping in view the context of
development; and it examines critically and reports the relevance, enactment and
impact of developmental programmes. Thus, Mahatma Gandhi in India practiced
28
development reporting even before the term came into existence (Murthy,2010).
Mahatma Gandhi, who was a development journalist, underlined three objectives for
the newspapers: 1) To understand the popular feelings and give them expression; 2)
To arouse among the people certain desirable sentiments; and 3) to fearlessly expose
certain defects in public life. He set an example to the journalists in practicing
development journalism. One example is Gandhi’s writings in his journals, Young
India and Harijan.

Oepen (2000) recognised the planned and strategic use of the communication process
and media products to support effective policy making and public participation which
was geared towards environmental sustainability, as a key approach to raise
awareness about environmental issues. In this way, especially in developed countries,
the media when adequately positioned, has aided to the general level of understanding
of environmental issues to a greater extent. Several studies (Parlour and Schatzow
1978, Schoenfeld et al. 1979, Parlour 1980, Schnelle et al. 1980, Bowman and Fuchs
1981, Sekar 1981, Griffin and Dunwoody 1995, Boykoff and Boykoff 2004) have
highlighted the key role that the mass media play in shaping public awareness of
environmental issues and in changing attitudes and behaviours concerning the
environment.

National Case Studies

Along with the dominant stream of journalism obsessed with politics and concerned
with urban issues and developments there have been some strains in Indian
Journalism as well. The Hindustan Times can claim some credit for starting
development reporting. In the 1950’s extensive reporting about the functioning and
the problems of various public sector projects in India was undertaken by the
Hindustan Times (Yadava, 1998). India was much ahead of all developing countries
in creating an awareness of the role of communication in nation-building and
development and it was also trying to evolve a broad perspective and strategy for
communication planning suited to the goals of national development and social
transformation in a country of sub continental size and diversity with long historic
tradition (Joshi, 1998:206). At the same time the media also has a responsibility.

29
For Gandhi, the key to a newspaper’s role in arousing social awareness was integrity
and credibility. Social commitment was basic. Transparency in all its operations was
essential to maintain its reputation (Bhattacharjee.2003).

Despite giving importance to politics or other issues described above, the role of the
Press in national life cannot be ignored. The Indian press has taken up development-
linked campaigns for the public good. For example, Sainath (1996) India’s premier
development journalist filed about 30 stories on the state of education in the country
to The Times of India.

Moreover, the degree of media attention given to social and developmental issues
makes people and government take necessary action on them. The Press in India
played an activist role for effecting changes in development. For instance, the
Jharkand-based newspaper Prabhat Khabar has been practicing development
journalism by giving people information on science, information technology,
economics and comparative financial progress of different states (Nornonho, 2010). In
1990-91, the newspaper conducted ‘readers’ courts’ where readers could interact with
journalists and discuss ways of improving the paper. In villages and at the block level,
interactive programmes were organized. The daily linked itself to information about
the people’s movements and during elections, the paper conducted awareness
campaigns (Harivansh, 2005). ‘The newspaper has tried to bring the issues like the
misuse of government facilities, wastage of money on half-completed jobs, lack of
accountability and lies of politicians to the notice of the public (ibid). In the process of
giving information to the people, the Press always exposes the corrupt practices of the
government or the bureaucracy by supplying the accurate information to the public.

Apart from Udayavani experiment, a few more campaigns have also focused on
development news items, and they have been reported by Murthy (2001). Murthy in
his study mentioned that the newspapers through their coverage tried to expose human
rights violation. He referred that in 1994, Indian Express carried out a campaign
against ill treatment meted out to the inmates of three mental hospitals located in three
states viz., Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. On July 10, 1994, the paper
carried a front-page story filed by Usha Rai and Siraj Qureshi on the mental hospital
with a headline, ‘Mental hospital worse than a jail`. The paper wrote another story on
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July 11, 1994 edition about issuing a death certificate to an inmate at the insistence of
relatives with a headline, ‘Death certificate for living’. In response to the public
interest litigation, the Supreme Court delivered the judgment on September 8, setting
up autonomous management committees at the three mental hospitals in Agra, Ranchi
and Gwalior, delinking the government interference.

He also discussed about ecological mismanagement with the example of the tsunami
on December 26, 2004 which left a trail of destruction in the Asian region, killing
more than 1.5 lakh people. The three southern states, viz., Andhra Pradesh, Tamil
Nadu and Kerala have suffered the worst-ever tragedy. After the tragedy took place ,
The New Indian Express deputed three reporters to investigate the reasons for huge
losses suffered by the people. Furthermore, the newspaper published five-part reports
beginning from January 20, 2005 on the human greed, which mismanaged the ecology
for many years. The January 20 report carried with a streamer on the front page, ‘Sea
of life, Sea of death’. The reports focused on the process of destruction along the
coast by digging deep into the facts of official apathy and human ignorance. The
essence of these five reports is presented for the benefit of readers to understand the
height of human greed in destroying the ecology.

Is there any solution to this problem? Can the government redeem the loss on account
of its failure to check the malaise? The reports evoked response from the government
and on January 24 report focused on the government’s plan to grow plants along the
coast.
The state government is planning a massive afforestation drive along the
1032km coastline at a cost of Rs 500 crore to take sting out of any tsunami or
tidal wave. A five-year timeframe has been fixed for the project.

The five-part story impacted the central government, which asked the Chennai-based
Dr M S Swami Nathan Foundation to conduct a study on coastal belt forestry in all
states. In essence, it can be inferred that the process reporting in development
journalism will induce development thinking in the policy makers and the
government.

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Government hospitals. Health upkeep is a serious concern for a common man and
with the rising health disorders; the common man is at wits’ ends to deal with the
situation. State governments spend money on hospitals, yet they lack infrastructure,
making common man run helter-skelter for help. Guntur general hospital which had
earned reputation for pediatric treatment such as separation of Siamese twins had been
an example for such a pathetic situation wherein a new born baby was bitten and
killed by rats. The story reported by media especially newspapers created such a
ripple that even common people started questioning the government and the number
of patients has come down. Later, government took serious steps and tried to rectify
the problems. Now, the hospital could repose confidence in patients by creating
facilities. Eenadu has reported a series of stories in its first pages about them
regularly, in a 13-part series of stories on the state of hospitals in Andhra Pradesh
investigated the reasons for the hospitals’ failure to deliver healthcare to the people.
The paper wrote on the focused theme, ‘Troubled hearts’ from October 6 to October
19, 2004. The October 6 headline, ‘Andhra Pradesh’s medical. The paper reports
corruption is rampant in the hospitals coupled with funds’ crunch to buy equipment.
Combined with these problems, staff positions are vacant. Contrary to Guntur
hospital, the King George Hospital, at Visakhapatnam tells a different story.

Conservation of water. The Andhra Pradesh government launched water

conservation programme in 2000 asking the residents to conserve water. Eenadu, the
largest circulated daily in the State launched a water conservation programme in
support of the governments programme. The paper set an agenda for itself and started
giving positive coverage for the programme “Neeru-Meeru”. Eenadu in all its 23
editions allocated a full page with the title, “Sujalam-suphalam” to create awareness
about water harvesting among people. Slogans, offbeat photos, messages from
intellectuals and details from experts were published in the page. The paper declared
a policy that every year the paper starts the awareness programme in April and
continues it till June 10 by publishing a full page on water conservation. Later form
2010 onwards it concentrated on planting saplings and supporting government
programme as “Vanam – Manam” ( The Forest and We, the people )The case studies
show that the Press can make the people and the governments to participate in
development more vigorously. Earlier to this itself P.Sainath (1996), a Magsaysay
award winner in Journalism has shown to the world that development issues can be as
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popular as entertainment and politics. He specialized in rural reporting and filed
stories from the 10 poverty-stricken districts from different states to The Times of
India in 1993 observed on the state of the Indian press:
More stories on the rights and entitlements of the poor could help. The Press
can and does make a difference when it functions. Governments do react and
respond to the Press in this country. The Indian press has been very strong in
some respects. For instance, in its coverage of events, it could compare with
the best in the world. Even in 1980s, the stories on Kalahandi could force two
prime ministers to visit the place. But it has proved increasingly inept in
covering processes especially development process (1996: 436).

Compared to AIR, the print media in India is in the private hands where development
news is reported as negative or positive depending on the context. Nevertheless, in
understanding the mass communication channel’s role in national development,
researchers measure the presence of development news in the contents of the channel.
Shah (1988) argues that the development news measurement is more quantitative
rather than qualitative regardless of the mass media channel. Further, journalists
perceive the presence of development issue in events will form a part of development
journalism. He cites three reasons for this trend in development reporting: a) mere
presence of development news will contribute for national development; b) each item
can contribute equally to development; and c) the greater the quantity of development
news the greater the contribution of the channel to development. For instance, in a
recent study, Vilanilam (2009) found that political and government news dominated
across the seven dailies he analyzed in Kerala instead of development news. From
2010 onwards newspapers published a whole range of news item under development.
Newspapers started reporting development issues in the first pages itself which are
being noticed by the public. On March 29, 2012 The Hindu reported an interesting
dimension of Cancer in the country.

‘Cancer killed 5.56 lakh in India in 2010’

Chennai: Tobacco-related cancers and cervical cancers caused most cancer

deaths

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 Cancer killed 5,56,400 people across the country in 2010. The 30-69 age
group accounted for 71 per cent (3,95,400) of the deaths. In 2010, cancer
alone accounted for 8 per cent of the 2.5 million total male deaths and 12 per
cent of the 1.6 million total female deaths in this age group (30 TO 69 years).
These are some of the findings of a paper published on March 28 in The
Lancet. The study found that 7,137 of the 1,22,429 deaths during 2001-2003
were due to cancer, corresponding to 5,56,400 cancer deaths in 2010. At
nearly 23 per cent, oral cancer caused the most number of deaths among men.
It was followed by stomach cancer (12.6 per cent) and lung cancer (11.4 per
cent). In the case of women, cervical cancer was the leading cause (about 17
per cent), followed by breast cancer (10.2 per cent). “All major cancers can be
avoided in India,” says Professor Prabhat Jha of the Centre for Global Health
Research, University of Toronto, who is the senior author of the paper.

It tried to highlight the reasons that were identified by the experts for spread of the
deadly disease.

Tobacco-related cancers. The most striking find is that tobacco-related

cancers accounted for 42 per cent of all male deaths and 18.3 per cent of all
female deaths. There were twice as many deaths as a result of oral cancer (due
to tobacco chewing), compared with lung cancer. The percentages translate to
a huge mortality number. Nearly “1,20,000 [84,000 in men and 36,000 in
women] deaths from tobacco-related cancers were seen in both urban and rural
areas,” Professor Jha says. “About 20 per cent was due to chewing of
tobacco.”

At 57,000, rural men were twice more likely to die from tobacco-related
cancers, compared with their urban counterparts (27,000). Besides causing
specific cancers, smoking contributes to overall deaths from other diseases. In
a February 2008 paper published in The New England Journal of Medicine
(NEJM), Prof. Jha and others reported that the total mortality from smoking in
India was one million a year. Bacteria/virus infection caused 19.6 per cent of
infection-related cancers cervical (human papillomavirus- HPV), stomach
(Helicobacter pylori) and liver cancers (hepatitis B and C). Similarity and
34
 differences in cancer mortality in men and women were seen in rural and
urban populations. For instance, oral cancer was the leading fatal cancer in
both rural and urban areas in the case of men. This was followed by lung
cancer in urban areas, and stomach cancer in rural areas. “It is a combination
of chewing tobacco and smoking, particularly by men,” says Prof. Jha,
explaining why oral cancer was the leading cause in urban areas.
In the case of women, though mortality from cervical cancer was three times
higher in rural areas than in urban areas, the rate of cervical cancer deaths was
nearly the same in both the areas. Likewise, similar mortality rates were seen
in the case of breast cancer in both the areas. But rural women had higher
stomach cancer rates compared with urban women.

Since it is a serious issue and had been assuming dangerous proportions in prevalence
the newspaper tried to drive the regional differences and religious specificities.
A 30-year-old male in northeast had about 11.2 per cent chances of dying from
cancer before he turned 70. It was 6 per cent in the case of women. Contrast
this with the less than 3 per cent risk for men in Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha.
Tobacco-related cancer deaths in men in Assam and other northeast States
were “greater than the national rates of deaths from all cancers.” “Common
and long-term use of tobacco is seen in Assam and other northeastern States,”
he explains. Big variations in cancers not related to tobacco are seen in India.
“We have no idea why [this is so]. Further research is required,” he says.
“That will be useful for India and the rest of the world.” In the case of cancers
common to both sexes, the variation between States was nearly four times.
Northeast States, Kerala, West Bengal and Kashmir recorded “particularly
high rates of these specific cancers.”Men and women in the nine poorer States
(Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan,
Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh) had lower risk than the richer States.
It has also deal with the sensitive topic of religion and tried to highlight information in
that context.
Cancer in Muslims
An interesting find is that in States where Muslim population was higher,
cervical cancer risk was “much lower.” For instance, Jammu and Kashmir and

35
 Assam, which have 75 and 40 per cent Muslim population respectively, have
“less than a quarter of the national rates of cervical cancer,” the authors write.
As seen internationally, circumcision in men greatly reduces the chances of
sexual transmission of HPV virus. Women also had lower incidence of oral
cancer. However, breast and stomach cancers were much higher. Muslim men,
however, had higher mortality rates than Hindus in the case of all cancers
except liver cancer.

Even Telugu newspapers couldn’t publish many stories in the front pages. Except
very few almost all those that were covered is news only and are event based. Though
a very insignificant number of them are published they also cover only few categories
in general and in development also. Hardly few education, health news are observed
in telugu newspapers. The other category that is most common is housing and sand.
After the formation of new governments in the state as well as at the centre housing
has been given utmost priority. Both the governments are dealing with this subject
competitively by allocating good number of funds. Sand has also become a very
important subject as it has been a revenue generation resource and at the same time it
is a very important component in the construction which is essential for both the
residential purpose and for the real estate which is again another field of hectic
activity in the dimensions of revenue and employment creation.
Andhra Jyothi has published a series of stories exclusively on housing.
Andhra Jyothi 6.03.2017
Housing wrought with corruption
It has been observed that though there are only 1.26 crores of households in
the state whereas, the government of Andhra Pradesh has received 40 Lakh
applications for sanctioning of pucca houses in 2016. It is evident from this
data that large scale irregularities have taken place in the state between from
2004 to 2014. The government has constructed 42 lakh of houses in which 14
lakh are missing. It has been estimated that 4800 crores of rupees were
embezzled in this scheme.

On 7.03.2017 even Eenadu published news items related to housing in the front page
recently. According to it

36
 Houses missing
Indiramma Housing Scheme has witnessed large scale corruption in the state
and it has been noticed that large scale payments were made by the
government to the beneficiaries illegally. Some of the beneficiaries have
received money without constructing the houses. In some cases payment was
made for two bills against single unit. It has also been noticed that large scale
corruption was noticed in the payment. At the field level, many of the houses
that were paid money are conspicuous in their absence.

On 10.11.2017 Andhra Jyothi provided an interesting news to the public

RTC employees to get new houses

APSRTC has initiated novel scheme for its employee as the organisation made
a statement to support employees to acquire a own house. It has been declared
that 55000 labourers are eligible for this scheme and it has been announced
that HUDCO approved to extend loans to the employees. The beneficiaries
would be paid subsidy to the tune of Rs. 2.67 lakhs. Beneficiaries drawn from
11 cities come under the jurisdiction of 128 bus depots in the state.

On 3.3.2016 again Andhra Jyothi reported an interesting story. It has published a

news item related to sand as banner story which shows that the news papers are
setting agenda for the government to take up sand issues seriously.

Sand would be free of cost

After a series of irregularities were noticed in sand distribution the
government has finally decided to distribute sand at free of cost to the public.
The news paper published it very prominently. It said that Sand would be
offered freely to the public. The cabinet approved the proposal to distribute
sand freely. The cabinet of ministers which met on yesterday decided to
provide sand freely for the construction purposes. Strict guidelines have been
framed to stop illegal transport of sand to outside states. It has been decided to
lay down stringent measures to prevent the transport, mining and distribution
of sand and was placed in the list of essential commodities. This exercise will
37
 be taken up for one month on an experimental basis and later would be
reviewed before finalizing the policies. It has also been decided to set up a
task force with Collector as chairman at district level.

In another news item Andhra Jyothi has published details related to sand, an important
component of construction on 6.04.2016. It says that
Aaadhar for sand too
The state government has elaborated the policy taken up for mining,
distribution and transport of sand. Taking this as a prestigious scheme the
government has decided to link it to Aadhar. It feels that Aadhar would help in
controlling the illegal hoarders in state. As a part of this the government made
Aadhar card as mandatory while transporting sand. With this practice the
details about the volume of the sand transported, details of individuals who are
involved would be known easily. The transport department would setup 68
check posts across the state to regulate the distribution of sand.

As an exercise to empower the people to fight against corruption and to promote

transparency and accountability among government employees Eenadu started an
exclusive page “Mundadugu” on every Monday in its tabloid about Right to
information. Started in 2010 the newspaper published stories, news, interviews and
question answer sessions to inform, educate and motivate the public to make use of
RTI and ultimately to enhance the output of government offices. It lasted for more
than three years and a team of dedicated staff reporters were appointed to conduct
awareness programmes in various places like schools and colleges.

On 23.04.2017 The Hindu covered a small story on the compulsion of a section of

those who risk their lives in search of mines and precious stones.

In the quest of yet another Koh-i-noor

Prospectors flock to Kollur mine area as the KL Sagar waters recede

While India’s battle to reclaim the Koh-i-noor diamond continues, summer has
given a new lease of life to the mines along the Krishna river that spawned the
38
 crown jewel. They have surfaced after months under the waters of the
Pulichintala irrigation project in Guntur district. And as the deserted villages
in the 2.4 lakh sq. km. catchment area reappear, prospectors flock to the area,
hoping to find another Koh-i-Noor. The Kollur mine, the ‘Eldorado’ that
yielded the enigmatic diamond and the eponymous village in Andhra Pradesh
lie in a forested region some 100 km from Vijayawada, enveloped by
Pulichintala project or the Dr. KL Rao Sagar project on the Krishna river.

Mining activity
The region has been home to diamond mining for centuries, reaching its zenith
under the Qutub Shahi dynasty with their capital Golconda a global hub of the
trade. Millions of carats of diamonds are believed to have been mined from
Kollur between the 15th and the 19th century. The Koh-i-noor was mined
during 16th century and was sold in Golconda. The mines along the Kollur-
Paritala belt were active till the 1830s but were gradually given up. Kollur and
the region along the Krishna river surfaced in public attention again in the
1990s when the Maoists held control of the region and distributed close to
1,000 acres to the landless poor. And then in 2004, the Y.S. Rajasekhara
Reddy government initiated the Pulichintala multipurpose irrigation project.

Environment, another delicate subject of the living being which is threatened to the
core was also dealt by the newspapers especially English news papers such as The
Hindu. A series of stories were published against the thermal as well as nuclear power
plants in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh. Being the most backward district it
was sanctioned 6 thermal power plants and a nuclear power plant in Kovvada for the
first time in the entire country. But due to severe opposition fuelled by media reports,
public especially back ward sections like fishing community have forced the
government to back out of them.
In the same district, a vast stretch of coconut cultivation “Uddanam” has proved to be
a hell for lakhs of house holds. Due to unknown reasons, thousands of the people, the
bread winners in the families, children who have started developing problems related
to kidneys. Media has reported the issue consistently on which later the government
instituted a committee to study the problem. Sensing inability of patients to earn

39
livelihood later, it also announced pensions for the patients and also started dialysis
units which are very much essential as patients need blood purification regularly.

Need and significance of the study

In the new century, change as a result of new technology the media scene
underwent a drastic change. Multiple editions of newspapers were launched from
many places in different languages, reaching the nook and corner of the country.
These apart, socio-political changes also swept the country affecting many spheres of
public life. But, there is no perceptible change in the lives of people in rural areas, still
anticipating development and governmental help. It is essential that we examine how
media content represents, or more accurately ‘re-presents’ the realities involved in
social, economic and political relationships (Devereux, 2003). For any newspaper
front page is considered as the face as it reflects the previous days events and also
showcases the stand of the newspaper towards issues as well as problems of the
public. By merely making a glance at the first page one can assess what kind of
agenda the newspapers want to set for the government, the political parties as well as
the public at large by focusing on them. In the context of phenomenal growth in the
circulation of news papers it would be of interest to find out how the newspapers are
making difference in setting the agenda of development. It would help in
understanding on what issues it is laying stress and ultimately guiding the
functionaries in democracy. Thus, this study, in an attempt to address this gap, seeks
to compare the front-page elements of four major national/regional newspapers in AP.
This study attempts to analyze four newspapers to ascertain the coverage given to
development news after the systematic study done by Murthy (2001) and Vijaikumar
(2010) of analysing newspapers. They have studied only one year sample and it is nit
easy to understand whether there is any paradigm shift in giving priority to
development and tried to set the agenda of development. Hence, it has become
imperative to study front pages for considerably a long period. Since no systematic
attempt has been made to study the newspaper contents in the entire country for such
a long period present study assumes importance. In this context the researcher made
an attempt to ascertain whether the selected newspapers have increased the coverage
of development news in the front pages. By adopting content analysis method this

40
study aims to assess how these newspapers presented the most important events of the
day in unique ways.

41