Coverage of the North East declines

IN Books | 20/04/2013
In 2012 the North East made more news than usual on the front pages of national dailies and on prime time news. But this was not sustained.
INDIRA AKOIJAM finds that 60 per cent of the January coverage was in the form of briefs.
How often do we read news from North-east India in our national dailies? Is enough space devoted to reports from the region? Unless there is a significant event, the space  given  in their national pages is small enough to be ignored by readers. Instances like the North-east exodus from Bengaluru in August 2012 saw extensive reporting by the mainstream media. The exodus followed rumours of Muslims planning attacks on people of the North East to avenge deaths in ethnic clashes between Bodos and Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam’s Kokrajhar.
 
This study is aimed at finding out if the North-eastern part of the country has become a more mainstream region of coverage in the Indian media after events like the N-E exodus and the Guwahati molestation case.
 
But it finds that the national media continued to maintain its indifference in coverage of the region.  A comparison of the coverage of the region over a month in 2012 and 2013 respectively, shows a decrease in coverage by 31 per cent. And indicative of the manner in which these   states get covered, 60 per cent of the total stories covered in national dailies were only briefs: full-fledged stories from the eight states find very little space in newspapers.
 
We analysed the Delhi editions of four national dailies: the Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Hindu and Indian Express in the month of January 2013. The figures were compared with the study conducted last year in the month of May 2012. The coverage of the North-eastern region in May 2012 was more than January 2013 with a total of 103 stories. The number dropped to 72 in January this year.
 
Table 1
TOTAL STORIES
MAY 2012
JANUARY 2013
103
72
 
Of the four newspapers, Hindustan Times carried the maximum stories in both January 2013 and May 2012. Indian Express had 36 stories originating from the region in May 2012, while in January this year, it was merely 11. Coverage of three dailies – the Times of India, The Hindu and Indian Express plummeted in January 2013 to a considerable degree.
 
Table 2
TOTAL NUMBER OF STORIES IN NEWSPAPERS
YEAR
Hindustan Times
The Times of India
The Hindu
The Indian Express
Total
January 2013
45
6
10
11
72
May 2012
36
12
19
36
103
 
Why is media reportage of the region so selective? It  not only got scanty coverage in the national dailies, only one or two states were covered regularly while the remaining states received no coverage. Newspapers focused particularly on Assam. Out of the total 72 stories from the North-eastern states, 40 were from Assam in January 2013. Similarly, 70 per cent of the total coverage of the North- eastern states was from Assam in May 2012. Also, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Tripura, Nagaland, Mizoram and Sikkim accounted for less than a 100 news stories in the 2012 study. Dailies like the Times of India did not cover states like Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim at all in the entire study period.
 
Manipur too received fair coverage with 22 stories out of the total coverage of N-E states in 2013. Hindustan Times carried the maximum stories (13) from Manipur. The number of stories from the state doubled in 2013 while a total of only nine stories were carried in May 2012.
 
A comparison (Table 3) of the coverage of the eight states by the four dailies showed the dominance of stories from Assam in all the newspapers. The coverage of Assam, however, dropped in the month of January 2013 in comparison to May 2012. Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram remained the least covered states during the month of January 2013 with only one story each. Tripura, on the other hand, was covered only by Hindustan Times in both the years.
 
TABLE 3
STATE-WISE STORIES PER NEWSPAPER- MAY 2012 AND JANUARY 2013
 
 
 
STATES/ NEWSPAPERS
The Times of India
Hindustan Times
The Indian Express
The Hindu
Total
MAY 2012
JAN 2013
MAY 2012
JAN 2013
MAY 2012
J AN 2013
MAY 2012
JAN 2013
MAY 2012
JAN 2013
Arunachal Pradesh
-
-
5
1
1
-
1
-
7
1
Assam
10
3
22
26
26
7
15
4
73
40
Manipur
1
3
 
2
13
3
1
3
5
9
22
Meghalaya
1
 
1
1
1
2
-
-
3
3
Mizoram
-
-
-
-
1
1
-
-
1
1
Nagaland
-
-
-
-
3
-
-
-
3
-
Sikkim
-
-
1
-
1
-
-
-
2
-
Tripura
-
-
5
4
-
-
-
1
5
4
Total
12
6
36
45
36
11
19
10
103
72
 
We also observed an interesting trend during the study of the eight states in the month of January 2013. The election coverage (polling was in February 2013) about party campaigns, security measures at polling stations, etc, from the states of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura was absent from newspapers. Although there were reports of the state elections in the webeditions of the respectivepapers, there was not a single mention in the Delhi editions except Hindustan Times. However, three small briefs carried by Hindustan Times on the Tripura elections, which could have been easily missed by the readers, cannot be attributed as a meaningful coverage. 
 
Table 4
TYPES OF STORIES IN NEWSPAPERS- JANUARY 2013
 
NO. OF STORIES
THE TIMES OF INDIA
HINDUSTAN TIMES
THE INDIAN EXPRESS
THE HINDU
TOTAL
BRIEFS
1
40
1
 
42
REPORTS
1
5
9
10
25
FEATURES
4
-
-
 
4
PHOTO FEATURES
 
 
1
 
1
TOTAL
6
45
11
10
72
 
Almost 60 per cent of the coverage by the newspapers was in the form of briefs. The table above clearly indicates that the space given to the states was not enough to get anyone’s attention. Small briefs barely containing 50 words showed the mainstream media’s bias in giving newspaper space to these states. News reports from the region that find space in mainstream dailies almost appear like doles unless there is a special coverage.
 
For instance, ToI carried four feature stories: one, an account of the killing of a tea estate owner and the state of the tea pickers and special features on the ToI Social Impact Lifetime Contribution Award. Naga Mothers Association and Meira Paibi of Manipur, two women’s empowerment groups respectively, won the TOI Social Impact Lifetime Contribution Award. It was the front-page lead of the paper on January 10. Two photos each of the winners were also carried on the front page. Further, on a special page, a four-column feature was carried on the work done by these women’s groups in their states. Similarly, another feature was carried on January 31, the occasion of the award ceremony, when these winners were presented their awards. 
 
We also need to look into what kind of news (issues) gets reported from the region. How many reports were by correspondents stationed in the North-eastern states other than Assam? What is it that makes these states difficult to cover? 
 
Often, the coverage by the national media remains stereotypical with issues of conflict and underdevelopment mostly making it to the mainstream papers. However, the study showed that it was not conflict stories alone that were reported but crime was prominently covered in the newspapers. Other issues that were also covered include politics, insurgency, accidents and law and order.
 
Top 5 most reported issues in the N-E states
 
 
Out of the total crime stories (21), 16 were from Assam alone with the maximum stories on crime being carried by Hindustan Times (11 stories). And interestingly, the state study conducted last year also showed crime stories to be one of the most covered issues in the national dailies for all states. Political stories from the North-eastern states, particularly from Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura were reported. As we mentioned earlier, the national dailies except for Hindustan Times did not carry anything on the elections to be held in February in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura.
 
The space given to stories in national dailies also determines the extent of their importance. More than 60 per cent of the news stories that appeared in the national dailies were small briefs. Only 5 and 3 per cent of the total coverage of the news stories were photo features and op-ed respectively. Stories from the North-eastern states that are mostly news briefs find space only on the national page. It’s very rare that a North- east state is given space in the front page. Even if it does it’s almost negligible.
 
According to a study conducted by Centre for Media Studies, North-eastern states were given less than 1 per cent of the total space on the front page. Assam received 0.99 per cent of the total space in the front page of the mainstream newspapers in January 2013 while in May 2012 it was 1.13 per cent. Manipur and Meghalaya were given a dismal 0.14 and 0.07 per cent respectively in the front page of the national dailies in January 2013.

Mainstream or not, the media realises that a region is worthy of coverage only when there is a story that will stir the entire nation. Readers of the Delhi edition barely know what’s happening in the North-eastern part of the country and the snippets that make it to these dailies hardly qualify as coverage.