Personalities drive political coverage

BY Indira Akoijam| IN Books | 07/08/2012

COVERING THE STATES- PART III: Political personalities drive political stories with Mamata Banerjee receiving 33.7 percent of all political coverage in all five newspapers.

Quality and quantity of political coverage are determined by degree of controversy surrounding a state or a leader in particular, concludes INDIRA AKOIJAM.

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Sample and methodology

The Hoot did a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the coverage of Indian states among five English news dailies -- The Times of India, The Indian Express, Hindustan Times, The Hindu and The Economic Times. The Delhi editions of these papers were taken. The period covered was April and May, 2012. News coverage was tracked for 50 issues, in 28 states.

1. All pages were analysed except Delhi/ City, Editorial, Columns and Op- Ed pages

2. Noida, Gurgaon, Faridabad and Ghaziabad that are under the National Capital Region have been classified under states to which they belong

3. The Business and sports pages were included except in the case of Hindustan Times where the business section is a separate supplement.

4. Following subjects have been classified under development news:

· Urban/ rural infrastructure

· Government welfare/ schemes

· Announcement of new Schemes

· Public works development

· Transportation/ roadways

· Governance

5. In tracking issues like political, business and economy only stories that were specific to the state were considered, as opposite to national level news originating from that state.

6. For sports coverage, any sporting event located in a particular state was counted as a state story.

7. Sport categories like football, basketball, athletics, chess, and motor racing have been classified as ‘other sports’. Cricket stories other than IPL have also been classified under ‘other sports’.

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STATE COVERAGE- PART III

How do national dailies prioritize political news? A comprehensive study of 4 national dailies and 1 business daily from April- May 2012 found that political news’ coverage constituted 17.6 percent of the total news items. The study took into account The Indian Express, The Hindu, Hindustan Times, The Times of India and The Economic Times. Political personalities drive political stories with Mamata Banerjee receiving 33.7 percent of all political coverage in all five newspapers.

The Hindu and The Indian Express offered in depth news analysis of the major political issues affecting the states while The Times of India and Hindustan Times barely carried any feature stories on any issue as such. The Hindu and The Indian Express had more of pages dedicated to politics and other states as compared to The Times of India and Hindustan Times. The two latter newspapers on the other hand, reported majorly from New Delhi and NCR regions. The “Nation” pages carried more national news than state specific news with their datelines from New Delhi.

TABLE 1: TOTAL POLITICAL COVERAGE IN NEWSPAPERS

	THE INDIAN EXPRESS	THE ECONOMIC TIMES	THE HINDU	THE TIMES OF INDIA	HINDUSTAN TIMES
TOTAL POLITICAL ISSUES	309	41	268	163	131
TOTAL ISSUES	1340	181	1614	1014	1029
POLITICS AS A PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL ISSUES	23%	22.6%	16.6%	16.07%	12.7%

The Indian Express devoted almost a quarter of its entire coverage to political issues. The Economic Times which had very little states coverage (less than 200 stories) devoted a substantial coverage to this issue. The Times of India and The Hindu were on par with 16.6 and 16.07 per cent. Of the five papers, the Hindustan Times had the least percentage (12.7 per cent) devoted to the coverage of politics.

Factional feuds in political parties were reported incessantly by the daily newspapers. Trinamool Congress’ reported feud before the polls and BJP in-fighting involving Narendra Modi wereas widely reported in two months. Political personalities influenced most of the coverage, with the use of photos of the leaders in ample numbers. Qualitative analysis of the newspapers showed that the coverage of political personalities was more or less along similar lines in two newspapers -- The Hindu and The Indian Express. The two newspapers provided detailed analyses of the political scenarios or political personalities. As in the case of Jagan Mohan Reddy, the CBI chargesheet against his disproportionate assets generated more coverage than the upcoming by-election (June 12, 2012) in Andhra Pradesh. The Indian Express on 5^th April carried a report on the CBI chargesheet that detailed how companies and individuals benefited from the Andhra Pradesh government when his father, the late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, was the chief minister. It mentioned the three companies (The Hetero Group of Companies, Trident Life Sciences and Aurobindo Pharma) and the people who were allotted lands at low rates in exchange for investing in Jagan Mohan Reddy’s business (Jagati Publications in particular).

Narendra Modi, Mamata Banerjee and Jaganmohan Reddy in all the newspapers were much more in the news than their respective parties or other political events. The study on Jagan Mohan’s coverage (April 2) started with the CBI filing a chargesheet against him. Jaganmohan Reddy was in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh as part of his ‘Odarpu yatra’ or the condolence tour. Andhra Pradesh by-elections for the Kadapa Lok Sabha and Pulivendula Assembly constituencies were to be held but the newspapers barely covered the run up to the polls. The coverage mainly covered the CBI’s chargesheet against him and how his mother, Vijayalakshmi had to campaign alone with his wife when he was arrested (May 28, The Hindu). When the West Bengal government released a circular on the censorship of newspapers in public libraries, the newspapers gave more coverage to Mamata Banerjee than the event itself. Similarly, The Hindu (26 April) reported about tapping solar power that would avoid water wastage in Gujarat. A picture of Narendra Modi inspecting the solar panels installed at the Narmada branch canal was used.

In all mainstream dailies, Mamata Banerjee got the most coverage. She was in the news for all the wrong reasons in the month of April. Out of the total stories (492 stories) from West Bengal, 16 per cent was on Mamata Banerjee (79 stories) to the exclusion of all other issues. Censorship of newspapers to be read in public libraries created a public outrage against her and the coverage of Mamata Banerjee during this period considerably increased with every statement made by her making news. She was also in the news on May 13^th when she completed a year as the West Bengal Chief Minister. Hindustan Times carried a full page feature with interesting graphics and quotes that laid out her performance during the one year period as the CM and a UPA ally and all the controversies surrounding her.

Moreover, the West Bengal state education board under Mamata’s command tried to amend its educational syllabus. It was reported on 6^th April that Marxist leaders would be taken out from the West Bengal Board history books. Not only was she under the media scrutiny for curbing freedom of expression but other incidents like 4 high profile rapes cases, her fear of Maoist controversy, 60 infant deaths in West Bengal hospitals, all the more added to the coverage of Mamata Banerjee.

TABLE 2- PERSONALITIES AS A PERCENTAGE OF POLITICAL STORIES

POLITICAL PERSONALITY (%)	THE TIMES OF INDIA	HINDUSTAN TIMES	THE INDIAN EXPRESS	THE ECONOMIC TIMES	THE HINDU	TOTAL
Mamata Banerjee	14.11	12.2	4.8	13.9	7	33.7
Narendra Modi	4.2	3.8	5.8	4.6	3.7	14.5
Jagan Mohan Reddy	4.3	8.3	2.3	16.2	2.2	13.6
Akhilesh Yadav	3	3	3.5	-	4.4	7.69
Mayawati	3.68	3	1.6	-	0.37	6.8
Jayalalithaa	2.45	1.5	1.9	-	0.74	5.9
PERCENTAGE PER NEWSPAPER	33.1	32.8	20.2	22	36.5

Not only did coverage of the CM soar in the mainstream media, but as the papers reported, were strongly felt on social media platforms as well. She was trending on Twitter and her cartoon went viral on Facebook. She alone accounted for 33.7 per cent of the total political coverage.

Narendra Modi, Gujarat’s Chief Minister was the second most-covered political personality with 14.5 per cent. Not only was the SIT report that stated the non-involvement of Narendra Modi in Gujarat riots in news, a trivial issue like Modi's portrayal as Krishna that sparked a controversy also made news on 7^th April which still simmered the next day as the headline in The Hindu said “Depicting Modi as Lord Krishna is an insult to Hindus”. Newspapers are far more inclined to cover the leaders making news than the issue itself. Even when the SIT report was released, the headlines in all the newspapers highlighted Narendra Modi on April 11 such as SIT report clears Modi, 61 others (The Indian Express) and SIT finds no proof against Modi, says court (The Hindu).

Jagan Mohan Reddy was the third most-covered political figure with 13.6 per cent of the total political stories. The Economic Times, a business newspaper gave the highest coverage (16.2 per cent) compared to the other newspapers. This is on account of fewer political and state stories in the paper. Hindustan Times gave the highest coverage to Jagan Mohan Reddy with twice (8.3 per cent) as much as The Times of India (4.3) in comparison to other mainstream newspapers. The least coverage was given by The Indian Express and The Hindu respectively with 2.3 and 2.2 per cent of the total political coverage. While the above figure of The Economic Times was based on political coverage, there was a business report in the business daily on May 29th that reported on the dropping of stocks of Hyderabad-based Ramky Infrastructure as its 2,400 acre-Pharma City at Visakhapatnam came under the scanner after the arrest of Jagan Mohan Reddy.

The newly appointed Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav, was the fourth most-reported political personality with 7.69 per cent of the total political coverage. More than half of the stories about Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati were inter-related. For instance, The Hindu on May 11, carried a news story on Akhilesh Yadav scrapping 26 programmes and schemes named after Dalit icons that will enable the government to save Rs.4,861.72 crore. After Mayawati’s government was toppled, many of the pending construction projects under Maya’s tenure were being foiled by the present government. Mayawati’s coverage therefore closely followed his at 6.8 per cent of total political stories. Much of her coverage dealt with the various populist schemes that she implemented during her tenure out of which many of them had not been completed. In the same news story in The Hindu, it said that reservation for Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes contractors in government construction up to Rs.5 lakh was introduced by the Mayawati government through a government order dated June 30, 2009. The quota fixed was 21 per cent for SC contractors and 2 per cent for those belonging to the STs.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa received 5.9 per cent of the total political coverage.

Unlike the top three political leaders, Akhilesh Yadav’s coverage was in a positive light. His incentives to bring in development by making UP an IT hub received much coverage in all the major newspapers. His initiatives to bring Uttar Pradesh to the notice of IT companies were reported widely in all the dailies. While some newspaper (The Times of India, April 2) merely reported the meeting between Akhilesh Yadav and Shiv Nadar, The Hindu on 3^rd April carried a report laying out details of the proposal. It was proposed that HCL will facilitate the use of information technology at primary schools in the state and how IT will open up job avenues and improve the State's economy. The Indian Express was another daily that reported on this meeting with much detail. The Chief Minister’s efforts to develop the state education sector were also substantially covered in The Times of India (May 22) which reported on the budget of the government to procure laptops and tablet PCs for students who pass out of their Xth and XIIth UP board exams. The coverage of Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati was in a way contrasting as the news stories in all the papers drew a comparison between Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati as Chief Ministers. He revived Janta Darshan, a practice where the CM keeps a day aside to meet the public, which Mayawati during her tenure had discontinued (reported on April 19^th in The Indian Express).

The newspaper study over the two months showed that the quality and quantity of political coverage are determined by the degree of controversy surrounding a state or a leader in particular.