The Hindu : New Delhi News : `Cricket news dominated electronic media'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 19, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

`Cricket news dominated electronic media'

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, APRIL 18. Even as the country enters election mode, it is cricket news that dominates the electronic media. And while the main story on most television channels concentrated on the play on the field, for the common man it is the issue of unemployment that is of main concern.

According to a study conducted by Viewer's Forum of Centre for Advocacy and Research, a monitoring of television coverage for the upcoming elections revealed that the number of stories on elections dropped from the first week (March 8 to 12) compared to the second (March 15 to 19) even as elections drew closer. The drop in election stories has been attributed to the India-Pakistan cricket series. In all the six channels - Aaj Tak, DD News, NDTV India, Star News, NDTV 24X7 and Zee News - coverage on election issues dropped during second week.

But while cricket may have dominated news, senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party appeared to be most in the limelight during both weeks. While the frequency of appearance of the BJP members was 114 between March 8 and 12, it rose to 127 during March 15 to 19. On the other hand, the frequency of appearance of senior leaders of the Congress Party dropped to 66 in the second week as compared to 85 in the first week. Among all the senior leaders it is the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, who tops the list in frequency of appearance for both weeks.

Of the top 10 stories, eight stories continue to catch the attention of the media during both the weeks including Mr. Advani's Uday Yatra, Election Commission, campaign by parties, ticket distribution and Leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi's Road Show. On the flip side, it was also noted that stories on the JK Women's Bill which was one of the main issues during the first week became a non-issue during the second week.

Interestingly, it was stories on personal attacks on politicians and public relations and advertisement campaigns that increased during the second week and became one of the top 10 stories for the week.

With election drawing closer, the electronic media also seems to have picked more on development issues in the second week. As compared to a meagre three stories on development during the first week, the number rose to 10 during the second. Also, total number of stories touching on development issues rose to 79 during the second week as compared to 55 during the first week.

For the common man, it is the issue of unemployment that is of main concern as was revealed by a survey conducted among basti viewers in Sundernagri, Seemapuri, Dilshad Garden, Kalyanpuri, Dakshinpuri and Badarpur. However, even though people voted unemployment as the main issue, the number of stories in the electronic media that touched upon the issue registered a drop in the second week. According to the respondents, media gave undue emphasis to the political leaders and failed to give representation to the voices of the marginalised.

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