Time
Band:
Languages
covered:
Sample Size:
In
all 301 issues of 17 mainstream Indian newspapers comprising Hindi, Urdu and
English languages and 150 issues of each of the three US and British dailies
and about 150 dispatches of select news on Kargil from three Pakistani
newspapers downloaded from internet were included. Besides six magazines, four
Indian and two international comprising in all 60 issues were also included in
the study. The data provides some interesting insights about the coverage both
qualitative and quantitative.
In
all, 751 issues were analyzed.
Limitations
of the present study :
Pakistani
papers turned out to be the proverbial Achilles` heel. Despite our best
efforts, we could neither buy newspapers from any source in India, nor the
Press Attaché in the Pakistan high commission was of any help. We tried to get
through the Army sources, but the reply was that the coverage is highlighted,
the moment the newspapers are received and obviously what is highlighted can`t
be shared. The Internet proved another mirage at least for sometime as far as
reaching Pakistani sites were concerned. However, good luck prevailed and in
the month of July we were able to access the Pak official site, which has a
variety of fare. The site has Government`s propaganda agenda, select
opinionated articles and editorials from two newspapers, viz., The Nation and
The News, select reproduction of articles, highlights from articles of Indian
journalists appearing in Indian newspapers, and select articles from other
overseas newspapers especially the US and the British. There is no gainsaying
the fact that only those articles were included which were critical of the
Indian Government, policy or "losses" suffered at the front. Since we
did not have access to full newspapers, we restricted our analysis to
qualitative only.
For
the US and the British newspapers, both Internet and copies of newspapers,
whichever easily available were used.
MAJOR FINDINGS, TRENDS AND OBSERVATIONS
(Quantitative
Analysis)
Space