Language newspapers in a metropolis
STUDENT RESEARCH ON THE HOOT: `Obituary pages are a favourite with Malayalis living outside Kerala.’ A reader survey of two Malayalam newspapers, Malayala Manorama and Mathrubhumi, based in New Delhi.
NEENU. P and SHARANYA HRISHIKESH present their findings with regard to circulation figures, coverage of local and national issues, the profile of the readers and the inherent biases of these newspapers.
This project focuses on how two prominent Malayalam newspapers, Malayala Manorama and Mathrubhumi, operate in the city of Delhi. The broader aim of the study was to examine how language newspapers function in a society that is linguistically different from the one in which they are dominant. In a country where states have been divided on the basis of language, English newspapers can claim the position of a ‘national’ newspaper by being circulated in both the northern and southern parts of the country. Language newspapers, published in a language other than English, are considered strongest in the states of their origin, where they have the power to influence socio-economic and political decisions. Malayala Manorama, founded in 1888, and Mathrubhumi, which began publication in 1923, are the topmost circulated newspapers in Kerala, and also occupy places in the list of the top ten Indian newspapers in terms of circulation.
The population of Malayalis in Delhi, according to the official estimates obtained from Kerala House in Delhi, is around 5 lakh. According to the Chief of Bureau, Malayala Manorama, New Delhi, Mr D Vijayamohan, the circulation of the paper in Delhi and other National Capital Regions is around 20,000. The Chief of Bureau of Mathrubhumi, New Delhi, Mr N. Ashokan, says that the circulation of the paper in the aforementioned regions is around 10,000. The study has been conducted among people who are subscribers of either/both newspaper(s) and are residents of the city of Delhi. Hence, the population from which the samples have been selected is limited to the city of Delhi, and does not include other places in the National Capital Region (NCR).
OBJECTIVES:
The objectives of the study were to analyse the nature of the readership of these two newspapers in the city, to compare how these two newspapers report Delhi based news and hence, to identify whether there is a correlation between the nature of readership and news selection. For the first part of the project, a survey was conducted among 100 subscribers who were members of the 2 most popular Malayali associations of the city — Delhi Malayali Association and Janasanskruti —, popular Malayali hotels, students, residential areas, officials of Kerala House and churches. Media persons working in newspapers other than the subjects of the study and academicians have also been contacted.
The time period was between October and December, 2010. This was a period of social and political upheaval in the country. In the pages set aside for Delhi news in these two newspapers, the items were divided into Delhi local news, news related to Delhi Malayalis, news connected to Kerala, Special Features and Others. Each issue of these two papers from October 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010 has been analysed, and the data recorded.
Between the functioning of these two newspapers, there are some noticeable differences. Malayala Manorama continues the tradition of coming out with two editions — one for people from the Malabar region (northern Kerala) and another for people from the Kottayam region (southern Kerala), and distributes them according to the demands of the readers. The major difference in these editions is in the distribution of news from Kerala. In the Delhi edition, the regional news page is replaced by a page for local news from Delhi. Mathrubhumi has only one edition in the city. This newspaper has a common edition for all their editions located outside Kerala, with the difference being in the local page. Their articles are often written in a way that can evoke nostalgia in the Malayali who lives outside Kerala. Hence, they give space to culturally or traditionally significant events for Malayalis. In the out-of-Kerala editions, these events are given more coverage than they would be in Kerala. The detailed obituary column is also a significant feature of Malayalam newspapers. While in Malayala Manorama, the obituary pages merely reproduce the deaths in the respective Malabar/Kottayam regions, in Mathrubhumi, it represents a district wise representation of deaths in the state — what one might call a pan-Kerala obituary page. Malayalis read the obituary pages with great interest to learn about the deaths that have taken place back home. Noted academician and writer Prof. Omchery N. N. Pillai, a long time resident of Delhi, said that Malayalis would subscribe to newspapers even if they consisted only of 2 pages of obituary notices.
NATURE OF READERSHIP:
Out of the 100 people whose responses have been tabulated, 62 are readers of Malayala Manorama while 20 subscribe to only Mathrubhumi. 18 people read both. The nature of readership has been analysed on the basis of gender, economic background and family status of the respondents. People who earn Rs 40000 and more per month are categorise in the High Income group; those earning between Rs 10000 to Rs 40000 in the Middle Income group and those earning less than Rs 10000 as Low Income group. Family status identifies if the respondent is a student, lives with his/her family or is living alone while working in the city.
The biggest limitation faced in this study was that it had to be conducted over a period of two months. The researchers have spoken to about 150 people, and selected 100 responses, on the basis of completeness of information and clarity of responses.
From the limited study that has been done, we find that the majority of Malayali readers depend on these newspapers for receiving news from Kerala. Under these circumstances the news coverage of these 2 newspapers is also influenced by this factor. As outlined earlier, only around 50% of the news reports on the Delhi local pages deal with Delhi local news. While there are news reports on issues like the Delhi assembly elections or budget, if there is a Malayali connection to the story, it is developed and highlighted. For instance, a story on the Delhi Metro, while quoting the Managing Director E. Sreedharan, will include the fact that he is a Malayali as well. The remaining 50% of news items are directly or indirectly linked to Malayalis or Kerala in one way or the other too.
Interestingly, the bureau chiefs of both the newspapers concurred with this observation, and told us that while they publish local news from Delhi, priority is given to the ones which have a Malayali angle to them. News about Delhi Malayalis includes reports about the activities of the associations and other gatherings, even religious ones which provided a platform for Malayalis. The reports at the local desk of the bureaus also agreed with this view.
OTHER OBSERVATIONS:
1. One of our main observations is that these newspapers give the Delhi local desks a stepmotherly treatment, as their first priority here is the national desk. While both these newspapers are among the top ten newspapers in India in readership figures and have a good circulation department, they are not able to take advantage of the number of Malayalis in the city (around 5 lakh, as mentioned earlier) as is obvious from their circulation figures. In this regard, Malayala Manorama’s performance is comparatively better than Mathrubhumi’s, as their circulation department is much more aggressive. In the six years that Manorama has started an edition in Delhi, they have conducted a readership survey among their subscribers thrice to understand their needs and wishes. Other major advantages they have are the two year head start they have over Mathrubhumi in Delhi and their layout and design, which is very attractive and reader friendly. Malayala Manorama is also far ahead of Mathrubhumi in circulation figures, especially in Kerala, and many survey respondents told us that the biggest reason they chose to subscribe to Manorama is because they were so used to reading it back home.
2. News about religious activities and association activities find place in the Delhi local pages every day, and often the majority of the space is reserved for these news items. Answering to a question about this tendency, both bureau chiefs replied separately that it helped in increasing circulation, and the Chief of Bureau of Malayala Manorama also added that he did not think there was a problem in publishing this, as these were forums for Malayalis to gather together. A major reason for this is that often, the same associations and organizations are the source of these news reports, and their members form the majority of the target audience as well. Hence in some cases, it becomes difficult for the newspaper to avoid publishing these reports as well.
The`Malayala Bhasha Padana Kendram' initiative of the Kerala government has been revitalized by the activities of the two Malayalam newspapers, which run regular features on the need to teach Malayalam to the younger generation of children in the city.Mathrubhumi regularly publishes a feature called ‘Ente Bhasha, Ente Amma’ (‘My Language, My Mother’) which focuses on the functioning of the different centres in the city. Malayala Manorama also circulated a Malayalam alphabet chart to their subscribers along with the newspapers. This initiative has been praised by many respondents. This can also be read as a long term marketing strategy, as the future of the Delhi editions will face problems if the generation growing up is not fluent in the language.
3. The reporting style of the two newspapers is open to a lot of criticism. The reports about associations and organizations that are published in the newspapers are often obtained from press releases that have been provided. More importantly, even while conducting the survey, the researchers encountered many non resident Keralites, especially in the unorganized sector, who face a number of problems while living in the city. The number of reports about these are so few as to be negligible. While talking to the reporters who cover the local beat, we have realized that except in some cases, the news published about Delhi Malayalis is often obtained from the same sources, rather than from reporters in the field. Mathrubhumi is slightly better than Malayala Manorama in this regard, but the researchers feel that the claims of the newspapers to represent the Malayali population in Delhi are questionable due to this. News regarding the Muslim population in the city is also almost invisible.
The researchers also spoke to journalists working in other prominent Malayalam dailies like ‘Madhyamam’ and ‘Deshabhimani’ (which do not have editions in Delhi) to obtain the opinion of people with experience in media. Some pertinent observations were that the reporting of the newspapers was not issue based, and they were often unable to put pressure on the relevant authorities. The reporters also observed that the newspapers were often willing to fill up the Delhi page with any news that they received. The local news from Delhi was often a day late, since they were copied from English newspapers. An interesting feature about many reports filed is that the journalist is also a participant in the activities, unlike the traditional division of the journalist being the outsider who asks questions and writes a report. We also observed this at a church we had visited for the purposes of the survey, where we were introduced to a member of the congregation who also wrote reports about the activities of the church.
The researchers also asked the respective Chiefs of Bureau about the importance the newspapers ascribed to reports about development. N. Asokan, the Chief of Bureau of Mathrubhumi, said: “Politics is the first priority for any newspaper from Kerala, given the socio-political conditions there. But our newspaper also gives importance to development issues, especially news on environment as well as issues regarding caste. We have also consistently treated Maoism as a developmental issue rather than a grave internal security threat.” The Chief of Bureau of Malayala Manorama, D. Vijayamohan, also said that political news remained the first priority for the newspaper. “Malayala Manorama has consistently supported social initiatives in Kerala and outside. For example, in Delhi, we ran a campaign on the importance of cleaning the river Yamuna.” In Kerala, both newspapers have been at the forefront of initiating change. For example, Manorama runs a successful campaign on the need for rainwater harvesting, called ‘Pala Thulli Peru Vellam’, while Mathrubhumi came up with a campaign called ‘Harithakam’, whereby they provide seeds to school students to build gardens in their schools. The researchers note that the newspapers seem reluctant to take up social initiatives in Delhi.
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