Deccan Chronicle and Eenadu reflect CWG swings
A comparative analysis of the coverage of CWG game in two southern newspapers reveals that they exercised restraint and balanced the negative stories with many positive ones.
A large percentage of the stories were neutral, find PADMAJA SHAW and G NAGAMALLIKA
The Hoot's Comparitive Coverage series
As a major news event that lasted over 35 days of the monitoring period from 15 September to 20 November, the Commonwealth Games took significant news space in Deccan Chronicle. There were 425 news stories during the period. There were 187 stories (44%) in pre-games coverage, during the games, there were 212 stories (49.9%) and after the games 26 stories (6.1%).
Deccan Chronicle in its pre- and during Games coverage devoted a special page for it, titled ‘Comm’on’ as banner with a brightly coloured montage as the background. Just below the banner, every day the paper carried briefs accompanied by stamp-size photos as a standard layout element.
Throughout the 35 days of coverage monitored,
a large percentage of the coverage (63.5%, 270) was neutral. All stories that gave straight information about the events, performances and players were classified as neutral. In case of medal winners, when the coverage was justifiably positive, the stories were considered neutral. Only when the stories pointed out snafus of the management, administration and corruption, the stories were categorised as negative. Positive stories were those that show cased the venues, arrangements and activities as praiseworthy. By this definition, there were 16.7% (71) positive stories and 19.8% (84) negative stories.
a large percentage of the coverage (63.5%, 270) was neutral. All stories that gave straight information about the events, performances and players were classified as neutral. In case of medal winners, when the coverage was justifiably positive, the stories were considered neutral. Only when the stories pointed out snafus of the management, administration and corruption, the stories were categorised as negative. Positive stories were those that show cased the venues, arrangements and activities as praiseworthy. By this definition, there were 16.7% (71) positive stories and 19.8% (84) negative stories.
If one examines the flow of coverage, before 22 September the stories were mostly either neutral or positive. The coverage on special page had curtain-raiser stories on each sport, with player assessments and brief background on previous performances. There were several stories with very attractive images of the venues, each giving details about the construction standards, seating capacity and other logistics. Some stories also gave an attractive take on how the Game Village had become the most happening place in Delhi and the world-class catering arrangements made at the village. Some of the negative stories also got a milder treatment such as, ‘Officials gear up to sanitise the venue’; ‘OC can’t get monkey off their backs’ (about the monkey menace at Games village); and ‘Out of tune Rahman to set tune straight’. There was also a story on preparations for media centre and TV coverage titled, ‘Cover Story’. Some typical headlines were: ‘Village new hotspot in capital’ (17 September on special page); ‘Bon appétit is caterers’ message’; ‘Looking to make it a fantastic four’.
From 22 September onwards, there was a spurt in negative stories. It also brought the event to page 1. Till then the coverage was confined to the special page. From 22 to 28 of September, every day there were front-page stories and stories on page 7, a large number of the stories being negative. Some typical headlines were: ‘A bridge too far’ (Caption of a stand-alone image of the collapsed foot over-bridge, above the fold on page1); ‘Call off Games, says NZ envoy’; ‘Games going to dogs’ (caption of a PTI image of two dogs against Shera backdrop. The image itself is attractive, with a black and a brown dog turned away from each other but looking at the camera); ‘Fennel fumes, says buck up’; ‘The muck hits the ceiling’ (banner headline on special page on 23 September); ‘Dog’s day out’ (caption for a collage of images with dog paw prints on beds on page 1 above the fold on 24 September); ‘Everything fine, says Cool-madi’ (big headline on special page on 24 September with a picture of Kalmadi and Fennel. After 29 September, the Games went off page 1 to return only on 3 October.
However, once the Games began, from 3 October onwards, the story remained on page 1 but mostly with positive stories. On 3 October, the stories built up positive anticipation about the Games: ‘We’re Game’ (Photo caption for the President and Prince Charles image); ‘Biggest ever Games begin today’; ‘Opener set to light up India’. The inaugural day is unveiled with a large image on the front page with the lead story titled, ‘Olympic start to CWG’. Other stories on the day were titled, ‘Opener sets the tone for the Games’, ‘Over to Athletes’.
After that, it was ‘Over to athletes’ for the next ten days. The coverage lived up to that promise by overwhelmingly concentrating on the events and the sportspersons. On all days, there was a games related image on page1, mostly of sports persons wining medals. The special page expanded to three full pages with extensive coverage given to each event, reaction stories from players and Games sidelights. Every day the paper carried medals tally, statistics on the Games, and schedule of the Games for the day. Much of the coverage is neutral with photos accompanying most stories. Hyderabad stars like Sania, Jwala, Saina and Gagan Narang got photographic and story play in the news. On 15 October the special page carried a composite image of the major sportspersons with the title, ‘India’s top 10’. Some typical headlines were: ‘Vah-lluri does the state proud’ (about medallist Valluri Srinivas); ‘Gagan goes great guns’; ‘Diana’ at opening ceremony’ (about Kalmadi’s faux pas at the opening ceremony speech); ‘Gung-ho! Gagan & co on fire’; ‘No stopping matmen as golden deluge continues’; ‘Indians script punch-tantra’.
On 15 and 16 October, the after glow of the Games is given further coverage with fans’ welcome to players and state felicitations of the players. From 17 October onwards, the negative stories resurfaced, with ‘CWG stars get no official welcome’, ‘OC in a fix over assets disposal’; on 18 October, on page 1, ‘CAG sets itself CWG deadline’, ‘ED looks for foreign files’, ‘CBI to probe tickets scam’. Page 6, had ‘CAG not buying OC justification’, page 19 and page 1 had ‘I-T raids CWG contractors’, ‘Emaar to face action on CWG’, with several stories on page 7 in similar vein. The Emaar story had special resonance in Hyderabad as Emaar was caught in a major scandal along with AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation and that story was been given a good deal of coverage in local media. On 20 October, the last of day of monitoring, also there were 2 front-page stories, both negative followed by two more on page 7.
Both before and after the games, there were some 8 dope-related stories. The paper did not play up any of them excessively. Some of the stories actually struck a hopeful note like: ‘Lifters ready to erase dope shame’, which was a special story on 26 September.
There were as many as 259 photographs. Out of the 39 page one stories, 25 were positive and 14 were negative. There were 16 special stories with 15 photos. Of these, 5 were neutral, 9 positive and just 2 negative.
During the monitoring period there were 5 editorials and 1 edit page article and one op-ed piece. The edit page column was by Arun Nehru, and the op-ed written by Shobha De. Both the pieces were critical of the corruption surrounding the games.
The editorial on 20 September titled ‘A minor scare on eve of the games’, discusses the ramifications of the shoot-out in Delhi for the games. The tone of the editorial underplays the incident while cautioning that security must be taken seriously at all such major events. On 22 September, the day negative coverage began to pick up, the hard-hitting editorial titled ‘India’s games shame growing’ says, ‘`Long back, when it first became evident that there were problems with so many areas related to the event, action should have been taken and those responsible removed or sacked. Nothing was done other than mouthfuls of platitudes to try and reassure ….’’ It concludes saying, ``In many societies, those guilty of such massive fraud — for this is nothing less — and misuse of public funds would have long ago been severely punished or at least got the boot. We, however, have not only had to lump their doings, but look on in increasingly impotent rage as tales of mayhem and mismanagement continue to sprout and proliferate. Shame on us!’’
The editorial titled ‘CWG mess: at last centre gets cracking’ invokes the international opinion appearing in media abroad and the international response on the sidelines of UN general assembly to discuss the CWG mess and the remedies attempted by the central government. On the opening day, 3 October, the editorial says, ``Seven years and over seventy thousand crore rupees after the 19th edition of the Commonwealth Games were first awarded to India, it is time to set the scandals, withdrawals, delays and organisational glitches to one side and celebrate what is certain to be the biggest ever gathering under the flag of the Commonwealth starting with Sunday’s opening ceremony.’’ It goes on to say, `‘At the end of it all though, come October 14 and the end of the Games, and Delhi will emerge with the nucleus of an infrastructure that can help catapult it into the league of “global” cities. That will be the one big plus the city can walk away with, though it has paid a terrible price for the privilege.’’
On the whole, Deccan Chronicle covered the Commonwealth Games without undermining the spirit of the Games and sportsmanship but giving the required space for the negative stories that were emerging in the run up to the Games and also after the Games. The ten days of Games coverage was comprehensive, by way of statistical information, backgrounders and photographs. Through editorials, the paper indicated its positive stand towards the Games, yet being critical of what was wrong. The paper was able to strike a balance among all the aspects of coverage, negative and positive, without turning away its readers from the Games experience.
Comparative look at CWG coverage in Eenadu and Deccan Chronicle
It was our observation during monitoring of the two newspapers that Eenadu (broadsheet) is on an average 16 pages while Deccan Chronicle (DC) has 18 pages. On an average Eenadu has 130 to 160 news stories every day while DC has about 100 to 110.
This makes it interesting that Eenadu had almost half the number of stories (226) that DC carried (425) about CWG. DC did extensive coverage of CWG. While both papers had similar percentage of negative stories, Eenadu had half the positive stories (8.4%) compared to DC (16.7%). Though in terms of actual numbers, DC had 270 neutral stories and Eenadu had 164 neutral stories, in terms of percentage coverage, Eenadu had more (72.5%) neutral stories than DC (63.5%).
During the pre-Games coverage, Eenadu had 129 stories of which 21 (37.5%) were negative and 5 (9%) were positive. This is in contrast to 187 carried by DC, of which 74 (39.6%) were neutral, 55 (28.9%) were positive, and 58 (30.5%) negative. Considering the political affiliations of the two papers, (Eenadu for Telugu Desam and DC mostly for Congress), this is an interesting finding. Eenadu carried more negative stories in a far more limited coverage it gave the Games, while DC carried a more or less equal number of negative, positive and neutral stories in a far more extensive coverage.
Both the papers gave overwhelmingly neutral coverage during the Games, with Eenadu giving 108 (84%) neutral stories while DC gave 188 (88.7%) neutral stories.
However, during the post-games period, the two papers differed significantly. Eenadu had 39 stories, 26 (66.7%) of which were neutral, 4 (10%) were positive and 9 (23%) were negative. In contrast, of the 26 stories DC gave, 8 (30.8%) were neutral, 2 (7.7%) were positive, while 16 (61.5%) were negative.
While both the papers had edit page pieces, Eenadu showcased female athletes on its women’s page. Though the stories were inspiring success stories, DC has mainstreamed the women sportspersons by highlighting them sometimes on the special and sometimes on page 1 as the general coverage demanded.
Another major difference in coverage was the number of page 1 stories/photos in DC. DC gave a photo on page 1 almost every day of the Games. Both the papers carried similar number of photos, Eenadu 250 photos and DC 259.
The comparative analysis of the two papers found that broadly the percentage coverage of neutral and negative stories was similar in both the papers but DC managed to get in many more positive stories. Significantly, those positive stories appeared in the run-up to the games. In post Games coverage, there were many more stories that were negative in DC. Over all, Eenadu appears to have given a lot less coverage for CWG than DC and was also a lot more tentative in its coverage.
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