newswatch.in has been publishing a number of research studies pertaining to news media content. The series is brought out under the slug Contentious.

How the Indian news media covered the tiger census report launch

In early 2005, wildlife officials in the Sariska Tiger Reserve discovered that poachers had wiped out the entire tiger population in the protected area. Once the lid was blown off, the tiger remained in the media limelight. Through the constitution of the Tiger Task Force to the launching of its controversial report on the status of tigers in the country, the big cat kept making headlines.

Sariska had been the tip of the proverbial iceberg; but the actual aggregate of tigers in the wild in India degenerated into being a guessing game for all and sundry. As mudslinging went on between the so-called wildlife elite and their neophyte critics, there were conservationists who waited with bated breath for the real numbers to come out.

This did eventually. On February 12, 2008, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) announced in New Delhi that just 1,411 adult tigers remained in the wild in India. It was official, it was big news. Or so it ought to have been.

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How the news media covered the killing of a CEO by axed workers

On September 22, 2008, the chief executive officer of a firm in the industrial town of Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh was killed by some sacked workers. Gory incidents like these, usually, bring out contentious issues that form the backdrop — provided those are contextually highlighted by the news media.

Newswatch decided to look at the news media coverage that the incident generated. The study was conducted over a four-day period starting the day the CEO was killed. It was meant to be a qualitative analysis, not a quantitative one. The idea was to look at the way the news media covered the issue, and not quantify the exact number of publications or news outlets that did a story, or did not.

After the preliminary data collection, 114 news items were shortlisted for analysis. Inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and preponderance of anti-labour quotes marked the findings.
Most of the initial reports — those of the brutal murder of the CEO — were attributed to either police or company sources. Technically speaking, police sources are traditionally preferred as sources when the news is about violence, especially one in which there has been a death. In reports about conflict – in this case, workers vs management – a variety of sources brings about a more balanced coverage of the incident. Only five of the 25 stories quoted a worker. A number of news outlets also used multiple sources for a wider perspective. As many as six of the ‘breaking news’ stories did not menion when the incident had occurred.

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