Chapter VI

Conclusion and Suggestions

During 1950s and 60s, it was realized that communication or mass

communication would play a crucial role in a nation’s development. Lerner (1958) and
Schramm (1964) influenced scholars of development and impressed that the growth of
communication channels is necessary for accelerating development. In this context
efforts are made to standardise media useage in countries especially in third world
nations. According to the UNESCO study (1961) the minimum standard for the
availability of mass communication channels in the third world nations are: ten copies of
daily newspapers, five radio receivers, two television receivers and two cinema seats for
every 100 of its inhabitants. In early 1970s, the concept of development journalism
gained ground when the press was playing a vital role in the national development. It
promoted reporting of development processes rather than events in the third world. It
suggested emphasizing on what is happening in development concepts over a period of
time.

Newspapers and Front pages

In the new century, as a result of new technology the media scene underwent a drastic
change. Multiple editions of newspapers in digital format are readily available which can
be accessed from any place on the globe. Even language dailies are no exception. To
thrive in this competition newspapers have been focusing on bringing revolutionary
changes such as content, layout, marketing and paid special attention on front pages.

During the pre-Independence India, development journalism was piloted by Mahatma

Gandhi through his journals – Young India and Harijan. In the post-Independent India,
some experiments like Project Chattera (1969) and Udayavani experiment (1981-84)
were conducted. Despite these experiments, the concept of development journalism did
not gain much ground in Indian journalism. However, it was argued that the press as
fourth estate of democracy should play a constructive role in the national development

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and is expected to focus on the development issues to bring in awareness among the
people in a developing country like India. In order to ascertain whether the Press was
playing a crucial role in development, the contents of newspapers were analyzed by many
researchers in different settings in India.

Though technology has been bringing sweeping changes compared to the past the
contemporary trend of media is no different in coverage of development. Socio-political
changes also swept the country in many spheres of public life. But, there is no perceptible
change of people living in rural areas as they are still anticipating development and
governmental help. In this prevailing situation, the plan documents of the governments,
both the central and state, emphasized various developmental issues. In this context, the
role of newspapers in development assumes importance and it is essential to know how
the newspapers are reflecting the developmental priorities of the people as well as the
government. Therefore, the present study attempts to analyze four newspapers to
ascertain the coverage given to development news after the systematic study done by
Vijai Kumar (2012) of analyzing newspapers. Since he has studied only one year of
newspapers and no systematic attempt has been made to study the newspaper contents in
front pages in Andhra Pradesh the present study assumes importance to ascertain whether
the selected newspapers have increased the coverage of development news. Since the
earlier study is confined to only one year the researcher preffered to study for a long
period i.e. 10 years which is likely to depict a trend. Hence, first pages of one decade
were studied.

Objectives of the study

The purpose of the present study is to ascertain the differential coverage given to themes
as well as the other types of news in four newspapers published from Guntur viz., The
Hindu, The Times of India, Andhra Jyothi and Eenadu. Thus, the study is expected
a) to find out the extent of coverage given to general and development in
particular vis-à-vis various categories of news in the first pages of sample
dailies;

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 b) to find out the frequency of banner stories, other stories as well as photos in
particular on general and development themes which figured in the first pages
of sample dailies.
c) to ascertain treatment given to the general and development news items in the
first pages of sample dailies

Research design
Content analysis is employed for the study as the research tool since the study has
examined the extent of coverage given to various themes as well as development news in
terms of frequency and direction of treatment.

Universe of the study. The universe of the study consisted of all news items published in
the first pages of sample during the period of one calendar year i.e., from 2008 to 2017 in
the front pages of four selected newspapers i.e. The Hindu, The Times of India, Andhra
Jyothi and Eenadu. These dailies were selected keeping in view of their circulation,
geographical location, and language. The method of sampling consisted of sample daily
editions chosen by adopting two methods: continuous week and constructed week. After
adopting this procedure, the total editions came up for analysis were 168, consisting of 42
issues per sample newspapers.
Twelve subject categories were developed for the purpose of coding the units of analysis.
They are 1) Development (2) Politics & Government (3) War & Protests (4) Economic
activity, Travel & Transport (5) Crimes, Moral problems, Conflicts, Law & Order (6)
Accidents & Disasters (7) Science & Invention (8) Public health and Welfare (9) Art,
Education, Popular Amusements. (10) General human interest (11) SC and ST and (12)
Women.
The sub themes under development category consisted of a) Health (b) Education (c)
Literacy (d) Transport Infra (e) Agriculture (f) Industry /Business (g) Housing &Sand (h)
Population planning (i) Energy (j) Ecology (k) Human Rights, and (l) National
Integration.

Major Findings

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 The overall coverage of first pages of the selected dailies shows that among all the
four newspapers The Hindu gave more number of news and stories followed by
The Times of India, Andhra jyothi and Eenadu.
 The year wise distribution of the frequency of news coverage shows that in ten
years English news papers i.e. The Times of India followed by The Hindu
published more news.
 Newspaper organization’s values regarding what is considered to be the key news
items of the day worthy of being presented to its audiences (Lowrey, 1999;
Shoemaker & Reese, 2013). For example, story elements featured on the front
page of The New York Times are considered to be the most critical pieces by that
particular news organization. Thus, it is important to examine how newspapers
present information on their front pages, which serve a particularly important
function in informing the public.
 When the category wise distribution of first page items of the sample papers for
all the 10 years was studied among all the categories Political and Government
news topped the list of coverage. Development was given second place by both
the Telugu news papers i.e. Andhra Jyothi and Eenadu whereas it (10.10%) was
given third place in The Times of India(12.29%) and fourth place in The Hindu
(10.10%).
 Development journalism is the type of journalism which pays attention to the
coverage of ideas, policies, programmers, activities and events dealing with the
improvement of lives of people (Edeani, 1993). Here in this study it has been
observed that the format wise distribution in the form of Banners, others, Photos
also shows that political and government is dominating in all the four papers.
Whereas development is given second place in Telugu newspapers English
newspapers gave second place to Crime, Public, Moral problems, Conflicts and
Law. In all the formats of sample newspapers Women, Public health and welfare,
SC & ST have covered less than 1%.
 When banners and other stories as well as in The Hindu as well as in The Times of
India were studied more than half are Political and Government (58.91%) and

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 next priority was given to Crime, Public, Moral problems, Conflicts and Law
followed by Development. The coverage of Photos is no different than the other
formats and it is obvious that news and stories are supported by those photos only.
In Eenadu and Andhra Jyothi in all the three formats of Banner, others and photos
Political & Government, Development are given first and second places.
 When “banners” and “others” were exclusively studied all the newspapers give
first priority to Political & Government but the second priority changed from
English to Telugu newspapers. Development received second highest coverage in
Andhra Jyothi and Eenadu where as Crime, Public, Moral problems, Conflicts
and Law appeared in the second place in the English newspapers that is The
Hindu and The Times of India.
 The coverage of Photos in front pages of selected dailies shows that in The Hindu
and The Times of India also half of the photos belong to Political & government
category followed by Crime, Public, Moral problems, Conflicts and Law in
English news papers and Development(9.45%) in Andhra Jyothi and Eenadu
(18.26%).
 At individual level in The Hindu as well as in The Times of India except at local
level Political & Government followed by Crime, Public, Moral problems,
Conflicts and Law are dominating. Except at state level in other geographic
categories Development is in third place. In Andhra Jyothi except at the local
coverage at state, national and foreign levels Political & Government,
Development (15.91%), Crime, Public, Moral problems, Conflicts and Law are in
first three places. In Eenadu only at local level Development (31.82%) is in first
place and at state, national levels in second place. Political & Government
dominated in all the non local levels.
 With regard to local, state, national and foreign category wise distribution of the
frequency of coverage in The Hindu and The Times of India national level is in
first place followed by state, foreign whereas local coverage is very meager. In
telugu newspapers state categories (Andhra Jyothi, 74.29% and Eenadu, 64.44%)
are far ahead followed by national, foreign and local levels.

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 With regard to the local coverage all the four news papers have their own priority
as Accidents & Disasters stood first in The Hindu Political & Government
(13.95%) in The Times of India Crime, Public, Moral problems, Conflicts and
Law (16.28%) in Andhra Jyothi , Development (13.95%) in Eenadu. Science &
Invention, SC & ST, Women and Sports did not receive any coverage in all the
news papers whereas Public health and Welfare is noticed only in The Times of
India.
 In state level coverage in all the sample newspapers Political & Government
(53.35%) stood in first page and except in The Times of India in the all the three
papers Development stood in the second place. Crime, Public, Moral problems,
Conflicts and Law is in third place.
 In the national category also first place is given to Political and Government
category only and except Eenadu second place given to Crime, Public, Moral
problems, Conflicts and Law category in all sample newspapers Eenadu gave
second priority in Development which was third priority to the rest of the three
news papers. Just like other category local, state, national categories here at
foreign levels also the uniformity of priority in first (Political & Government)
second (Crime, Public, Moral problems, Conflicts and Law) places is noticed and
Development is far removed.
 With regard to the categories of favourable, unfavourable and neutral among all
the news papers unfavourable category is in first place. Except Eenadu in the
remaining news papers neutral category is in second place followed by favourable
news category which shows that positive items are the last priority for the dailies.
 On the lines of local, state, national and foreign when the categories of
favourable, unfavourable neutral were analyzed in the study with regards to
favorable also political and government stood in the first place followed by
Development.
 When coverage of unfavorable category in first pages in all the sample dailies is
observed Political and Government is in the first place but second priority has
changed as in English newspapers. Crime was in second place followed by the
Development which is wise vice versa. In neutral category again Political and

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Government stood in first place and in English newspapers crime is in second
place followed Development in Telugu newspapers. The following news story is
the example where a combination of all levels i.e. state, national and foreign news
item was given priority in the first page of Eenadu on 24.01.2015.
Microsoft to support AP
Hyderabad: Microsoft founder Bill Gates has assured support in setting
up software development facilities and promotion of education, health and
immunization programmes in Andhra Pradesh. He also promised to
explore the possibility of setting up Microsoft development centre in the
state. N.Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh met many
representatives of global industrial organizations in the World Economic
Forum conference held in Davos. On this occasion both of them discussed
about the innovative projects that are being planned to setup in the state of
Andhra Pradesh. Mr.Chandrababu Naidu informed that the government is
trying to provide broad band connections to every household in the state
and to train one youngster as IT professional and entrepreneurs from each
house hold. Chief Minister has made presentation about the action plan to
be taken up by the state government to promote national exports of
software by 5% at national level.
Madhavi (2013) study also found that in the front pages of English dailies the
social problems received more coverage in all the four papers followed by
government and official activities. The Times of India consistently covered crime
issues on its front page. The reason for coverage of social problems on the front
page seemed to be inclusion of crime news and also moral problems in the social
problems category. Indeed, crime news is given top priority by all the newspapers
followed by government and official activities. Normally, newspapers in India
give much priority to government activities in which ministers and bureaucrats
make promises and issue policy guidelines. Apart from government and official
activities, politics occupy front page coverage. The Indian tradition of news
values since the days of the British Rule was focusing on official and government

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 activities. In the words of Jawaharlal Nehru (2004) about the contents in the
English newspapers in the early twentieth century were:

I remember that when I was a boy the British-owned newspapers in India were
full of official news and utterances, of service news, transfers promotions; of the
doings of English society, of polo, races, dances, and amateur theatricals. There
was hardly a word about the people of India, about their political, cultural, social,
or economic life. Reading them one would hardly suspect that they existed (p
319).

Development
Development news should refer to the needs of people, which may vary from country
to country or from region to region, but generally include primary needs such as food,
housing, employment; secondary needs such as transportation, energy sources and
electricity; tertiary needs such as cultural diversity, recognition and dignity
(Aggarwala, Hemant Shaw (1990: 1035‐36).
 In the current study overall coverage of development news of the sample dailies
shows clear cut demarcation of English and Telugu newspapers. Priority of
subcategories in Development differed from English to Telugu dailies and again
in Telugu newspapers also variation is noticed. Industry/ Business (The Hindu,
33.40% ; The Times of India, 39.18%) is ranked first in English newspapers
whereas in Telugu newspapers Education in Andhra Jyothi (30.96%), and
Agriculture in Eenadu (32.20%) are leading in coverage. In Second rank no
uniformity is noticed and the subjects varied very widely. Education (The Hindu
and Eenadu), Health (The Times of India) and Agriculture (Andhra Jyothi) are
found in second places.
 With regard to the geographical categories and their priorities in all the
newspapers Development news at local level are very less compared to the other
three categories i.e. state, national and foreign. In both the English news papers i.e
The Hindu and The Times of India national coverage is more compared to state,
foreign and local levels. In Telugu news papers i.e in Andhra Jyothi and Eenadu
state level coverage is highly voluminous compared to others.

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 In case of specific newspapers i.e. when The Hindu is analyzed in local category
other than Agriculture (66.66%), Education (33.33%) no other subcategory is
noticed In the state level Education (25.1%), at national and foreign levels
Industry/ Business are in first places. At state, national and foreign levels Ecology
(13.1%, 9.92%, 6.97%) is far better than the rest of the subcategories.
 In The Times of India also except at local level Industry/Business is leading at all
the other three levels and the next most common category is Health which is in
third place. Second place is occupied by varied categories such as Population
Planning, Ecology, Education and Health. News item related to ecological
disturbance was covered by The Times of India as an exclusive banner news story
along with photograph on 15.11.2008.

Asia cloud over food supply

Pollution Haze could lead to extreme Weather, Harm Farming, says
UN
Thick brown clouds of soot, practices and chemicals stretching from the
Persian Gulf to Asia threaten health and food supplies in the world, the
UN has reported, citing what it called the newest threat to the global
environment. The regional haze, known as atmospheric brown cloud
contributes to the glacial melting reduces sun light and helps to create
extreme weather conditions the impact agricultural production. According
to the report commissioned by the UN environment programmes the huge
fumes have darkened the 13 mega sites in Asia including Beijing,
Shanghai, Bangkok, Cairo, Mumbai, New Delhi sharply dimming the
amount of light by as much as 25% in some places. The reports singled
out of the city of Guangzhou in China South where soot and dust have
dimmed natural light by 20% since 1970s.

 In Andhra Jyothi at local level only Education (50%), Health (50%) are noticed
but state coverage is highest among all with Education (34.21%), Agriculture
(28%), Industry/Business (12.78%) whereas Industry/Business is leading at
national level.At foreign level again Health is half in the frequency.

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 In Eenadu also more or less the same status of Andhra Jyothi is noticed where
except Agriculture (71.40%), Education (21.4%) and Energy (7.14%) no other
category is observed at local level. State coverage has topped the list with 470
items among which Agriculture (33.71%) and at National level also
Industry/Business (23.7%) is leading with considerable coverage related to
Energy (19.1%) whereas foreign coverage is very less. Though many categories
have been noticed they are highly insignificant.
 Frequency distribution of coverage of development at local level for all the 10
years shows that hardly two or three categories are noticed. Agriculture and
Education have been repeated in majority sample newspapers. In The Hindu and
Eenadu Agriculture (66.66%, 71.42%) is leading whereas Education is in the first
places in The Times of India (28.57%) and Andhra jyothi (50%).
 In the state level coverage, Telugu news papers are dominating the English dailies
which are far behind in their coverage of Development issues. In Telugu news
papers also Eenadu is far ahead in its coverage compared to Andhra Jyothi. Both
the English news papers are far behind the Telugu newspapers in the coverage.
With regard to top priority there is no uniformity of coverage of subjects.
 Coverage of Development at national level shows that Telugu news papers are far
behind the English dailies. In the total coverage of development The Times of
India is in the first place followed by The Hindu and in Telugu news papers
Eenadu is in the first place compared to Andhra Jyothi. Category wise distribution
shows that in all the dailies Industry/Business stood in the first place. In the
English newspapers Education was given second place where as in Telugu
newspapers Energy was given second priority. Except Eenadu the remaining three
papers gave third place to Health. Energy has received prominent place in telugu
newspapers. It is evident in this news which was made banner by Eenadu on
3.7.2014.

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 24 hrs power supply
Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh government has assured the industry as well
households in the state of Andhra Pradesh to provide power supply
continuously for 24 hours uninterruptedly. While reviewing the status of
power production in the state at Lake View guest house in Andhra Pradesh
he said that central government has decided to develop Andhra Pradesh as
model state along with Rajasthan. As a part of it a committee constituted
by the central government would visit the state shortly. He informed that
after its visit programmes would be initiated in this direction. He assured
to give priority to power saving measures. He felt that power cost can be
brought down by 20 to 25% if design of 13.50 lakh agricultural pump sets
is changed. He informed that currently agricultural sector is provided
supply for seven hours per day which would be extended to nine hours
later.

 Frequency distribution of coverage of Development at foreign level for all the 10

years shows that compared to Telugu newspapers English news papers published
more Development news among which also The Times of India is leading. In
Telugu news papers hardly four to five categories are noticed in the first page. In
The Hindu and in The Times of India Industry/Business is leading with priority to
Health as well as Ecology (16.94%) whereas in Andhra Jyothi Health and
Agriculture in Eenadu have occupied half of the coverage.
 In the state level coverage, Telugu news papers are dominating the English dailies
which are far behind in their coverage of Development issues. In Telugu news
papers also Eenadu is far ahead in its coverage compared to Andhra Jyothi. With
regard to top priority there is no uniformity of coverage of subjects. The Hindu
gave first priority to Education The Times of India to two different topics which
contradict each other i.e. Industry/Business and Ecology. In both the Telugu
newspapers Agriculture and Education subjects are in the first two places.
 For all the 10 years Telugu news papers are far behind English dailies in the
National news coverage. In English news papers also The Times of India is in the

226
 first place followed by The Hindu. In Telugu News papers, Eenadu is in the first
place compared to Andhra Jyothi. In all the dailies Industry/Business stood in the
first place. With regard to second place in the English newspapers Education was
given second place where as in telugu newspapers Energy was given second
priority.
 At foreign level for all the 10 years English news papers published more
Development news that have come from foreign countries and among the two
English news papers that is The Hindu, The Times of India gave more news.
Except Housing all categories of news are published in The Times of India
whereas in The Hindu only half of the subject categories have appeared. In telugu
news papers hardly four to five categories found place in the first page. In English
newspapers first priority was given to Industry/Business whereas in case of telugu
news papers half of the coverage is about Health (Andhra joythi) and Agriculture
in Eenadu.
Development news should critically examine, evaluate and interpret the
relevance of Development plans, projects, policies, problems and issues. It should
indicate the disparities between plans and actual accomplishments and include
comparisons with how development is progressing in other countries and regions.
It also should provide contextual and background information about the
Development processes discuss and speculate about the future of development. It
should guide and set the agenda by analyzing the positive as well as negative
dimensions of the subject.
 When the directional analysis of coverage of developmental news is done in all
the sample newspapers more than half of the coverage is unfovourable only one
third are favourble and the remaining are neutral in interpretation. When the
category of favourble are studied they constituted 36.66% in Eenadu, 35.50% in
The Hindu, 31.27% in Andhra Jyothi, and in The Times of India (30.14%) is in
last place. In case of Unfavourable items Andhra Jyothi 53.55% is in first place
followed by 52.30% The Times of India, Eenadu (51.16%) and The Hindu
(48.52%). In Neutral category the English newspapers are ahead of Telugu news
papers in the coverage of development. The Times of India (17.55%) is in first

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 place followed by The Hindu (15.96%), Andhra Jyotjhi (15.16%) and Eenadu
(12.60%).
 The distribution of favourable category under Development in English news
papers shows that Industry /Business is in first place and Telugu newspapers gave
first place to Agriculture. With regard to second place except The Times of India
all the newspapers gave second priority to Health.
 In Unfavourable treatment among various sub categories under Development in
English news papers Industry /Business is in first place and in Telugu newspapers
Eenadu gave first place to Agriculture and Andhra jyothi ranked education first.
Education (The Hindu, Eenadu), Health (The Times of India), Agriculture
(Andhra Jyothi) are given second place. In neutral treatment except The Time of
India education is ranked first in all the sample newspapers where as various
categories are placed in second place. They are Industry /Business (The Hindu),
Education (The Times of India) and Agriculture in Telugu News papers. Overall
coverage shows that Human Rights, Literacy, Housing & Sand, Population
Planning, National Integration, and also Transport Infra are found missing in all
the three levels.

Development was seen as a wide participatory process of social change that

allows for better realization of human resources and values that allow the society
to have a greater control over its environment and shape its own political destiny
(Rogers, 1976: 117). This would be more pronounced in banner news items of
any newspaper.
 With regard to Banner items in sub categories of Development a kind of similarity
is observed among English and Telugu newspapers. In English newspapers first
place was given to Industry /Business whereas Telugu newspapers gave first
priority to Agriculture. Agriculture was given second place in The Hindu, and
Andhra Jyothi. The Times of India gave second priority to two subjects i.e. Health
and Ecology whereas in another Telugu news paper Eenadu Education news and
stories are ranked second in the first pages. It is observed that English newspapers
published more or less items of the all the sub categories under development as
banner stories and the differences among their frequencies are also minimum. But

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 in Telugu news papers few sub categories are given more coverage and the rest
are very less. Few sub categories are not at all observed which include Literacy,
Transport Infra, National Integration, Human Rights, Population Planning.
 When compared to banners in “others” category except in Andhra Jyothi first
priority is same in the sample news papers. Industry/ Business were given first
place in both the English newspapers whereas education topped in Andhra Jyothi
and Agriculture in Eenadu. Education is in second rank in English newspapers
and Eenadu. Here in the others” category not many sub categories are missing.
Compared to the banners and other items of front pages in photos coverage
Industry/Business is in first place in The Hindu (29.17%) and The Times of India
(33.67%) whereas Agriculture received top priority by Andhra Jyothi (30.41%),
and Eenadu (33.45%). Ecology and Education are in second places.

Discussion
In terms of front-page content important attributes such as timeliness,
prominence, proximity, magnitude, conflict, impact, and oddity were analysed
(Bridges, 1989) and a replication of this study was done in 1993 (Bridges &
Bridges, 1997). Both studies found that hard news dominated the front pages, and
little had changed over the course of several years. There may be certain
unwritten standards that guide attention to certain pressures/interests, or a
mechanistic approach is at play when selecting the news.

In this study the overall coverage of the sample newspapers reflects the general
trend that English newspapers publish more pages in the newspapers. In front
pages also compared to Telugu English newspapers have been publishing more
number of items. The possible reason behind is that due to the vast area of the
advertisements the space is very much limited in the first pages of telugu
newspapers which reflects the commercialization of newspapers. In first pages
whatever coverage is observed is also mostly in the form of index news.

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The subject category analysis is also depicting the same old pattern observed by
Vilanilam, Murthy, Vijai kumar etc. All the news papers still continue to give
importance to Political and Government whereas Development was relegated to
second place. This is the obligation of media houses as they feel event reporting is
essential and it is their duty to inform. The priority of Crime, Public, Moral
problems, Conflicts and Law and its related coverage also substantiates the
argument that newspapers are limited to mere dissemination of information to
public rather than guiding them in the direction of Development which improves
their living standards. Earlier in 1991, Yadav opined that the Indian press is more
concerned with political developments, events and personalities than economic,
social and cultural issues. The salience of politics to the extent of being obsessed
is the dominant feature of the Indian press today.

The present study indicates that newspapers give importance to issues keeping in
view of their area of publication. The English dailies devoted more news items
and letters-to-the editor to national issues while regional papers did put more
emphasis on local issues both in news items and in letters-to-the editor. This
analysis is quite consistent with two earlier studies done in Kerala (Raimole,
2010) and in Andhra Pradesh (Murthy, 2001, Vijai kumar, 2010).

It is obvious that the same trend would be observed in banner stories. But it is
interesting to know that items other than banner are also dominated by the earlier
three categories and nothing has changed in the news papers for many decades.
This is in line with C. S. H. N. Murthy et al.(2010) content analysis of the first
page reporting priorities of the four leading news papers The Hindustan Times,
The Indian Express, The Times of India and The Hindu. It revealed a number of
interesting shifts in the paradigms of news reporting and values. The analysis,
which involves the first page news coverage (including headlines, type of content,
photos and advertisements), offered an insight into the departures from the
traditional news values witnessed a growing trend for first reporting and
investigative reporting, treating news as a commercialized commodity for mass

230
consumption, filled with crime, legal disputes, politics, etc. with economic, social
and development news taking a backseat.
Pasternack and Utt (1986) focused on examining the main topic of stories. The
relationship between proximity of stories and images were also examined by other
scholars (Bridges & Bridges, 1997; Fahmy et al., 2007). Here the coverage of
photos portrays that they are also mostly on the same lines with some popular and
human interest based categories like crime, disaster, art and media as they appeal
to the public independently.

Even the frequency of Political and Government category is much more than
other subject categories such as Development which is highly minimal in news
papers. Even the economic activity, public health which are highly significant for
the society are neglected in the coverage. Since these subjects need special
understanding to learn about in depth data and demand lot of time to present in
the first page the journalist might be avoiding them.

Even highly important subjects that determine the fate of the society like War and
Protests are not found in the banner items and it is mostly event based or inform
about the statements made by political parties and governments. Even serious
news such as the hardships of people in JK are missing. Media take the issues that
are visible and don’t take the issues that have indirect impact and is a serious
crime or attack takes place on day one and two it would be reported in first page
and is relegated to inside pages as nonseriously. It has become very routine in
Jammu Kashmir and Maoist infested areas of the country.

The “other” items are also on the same lines of subjects like Political and
Government, Crime is traced to be the follow up of the events happened in earlier
days on the particular occasions. This is mostly on the lines of the Second Press
Commission (1982) report which said that all the newspapers in the country
consistently allocated more space to politics and conflict news than to
development news. The Commission observed that the English papers devoted

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nearly 50% of the space of front page and inside pages to news on politics and
conflict. Developmental news occupied only (12.2%) and (17.2 %) on the front
page in comparison to (52.4%) and (42.8%) for politics and conflict.

This ten year analysis shows that compared to Science and Invention as well as
Public health and welfare, Art and popular amusements have been dominating.
Especially in photos the English newspapers give priority to Media, cinema and
entertainment very regularly instead of important issues like ecology, climate
change that would have created awareness among the readers. Telugu dailies
seem to have not given much priority to this popular entertainment and
concentrated on serious business like health and education.

Nash (1998), a former journalist, argues that competition for audiences is driving
a trend towards trivial news. He argues further, ‘by chasing the passing whims of
focus groups and surveys, most news papers have shriveled coverage of major
political, economic and social issues in favor of soft features, personality profiles,
how to advice and focus on the process rather than the substance of governance’.
For a news organization, a strong market orientation implies that the newspaper,
magazine, or television station will aggressively seek to determine the kinds of
information that readers or viewers say they want or need and will provide it, says
Randal (2003).
The overall subject wise analysis as well as the frequency distribution of banner
news shows that issues related to “women” are hardly 1%. Setvenson Katrin and
Cecilia (2011) found that 69 articles that highlight gender inequality and women’s
empowerment in the selected English Dailies and the most common topics of the
articles found were about law, amendments, women’s movement, political power,
reproductive health and development. The Hindu and The Times of India reported
more on gender inequality and women’s empowerment.
Habtemichael Seare (2012) opined that Media is weakening women
instead of empowering them. It reinforces the conservative view of women and
ignores their economic participation and economic contribution of rural women.

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Further, it has been observed that instead of challenging the stereotype view of
women, the Media is reinforcing women as inferior, subservient, unimportant.
The women’s concerns and interest of women remain unarticulated in the Print
Media and remain neglected. Furthermore, it mentioned that there is a ‘symbolic
annihilation’ as far as communication support to the development of women is
concerned. The study concluded with a note that, public should be motivated and
sensitized to the issue of criminalization, politicization and commercialization of
women and their projection in the Media in a healthy manner.
“With post cold–war globalization, the US inspired news and entertainment
programs made up of game, chat, and reality shows; programming that Clausen
(2004) calls ‘ the transnational genre conventions’ has come to dominate the
mediascape of the South, including the content of the Indian media” (Shakuntala
and Johal, 2007).
With regard to local, state, national and foreign the reason for giving English
newspapers more national and foreign news is that they are national news papers
and reflect the happenings of all the states and the national interests are linked to
international issues like business, economics and war etc. The English news
papers have prioritized and published more national and international news and
limited state news.

At the same time telugu newspapers have covered state news to a greater extent
for the reason that their circulation is maximum in telugu speaking states such as
Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Since the people are provided with district
editions which provide broad coverage of local news the front page of main
newspapers is dominated by state news. The same reason that is preference of
state news in the front page of the readers has been forcing the vernacular
newspapers to publish insignificant number of foreign news. This is better
understood in the context of Jeffrey (2000) who in his exhaustive study on Indian
news paper revolution placed much of the emphasis on the strategies the strong
corporate houses adopted, which got Indian print media in treating the localization
of news as a saleable commodity. He observed that commercialization of local

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news in the form of color supplements on a variety of sub sects has been the
singular strategy for increasing advertisements and revenues, besides expanding
the readership zones at state and district levels. At local level the range of subject
category is broad as people look forward for the information about all the subjects
that are regularly related to their lives.
The directional analysis of the first page coverage also reflects the old pattern
where in majority are unfavourable and the other two categories are very minimal.
The gap between the political and other categories is small because the
organizations feel that the good work in various subject categories should be
highlighted and political as well as government sectors are impregnated with
negativism. In all the four newspapers the same trend of minimal support to
positive news is observed. In unfavourable category also political and
Government is dominating. Compared to English, telugu newspapers highlight
negative tendencies in Political and Government as well as development sectors
as the management owe it to the concept of social responsibility and agenda
setting. They opine that the media have to address serious issues like corruption,
non accountability of politicians and bureaucrats. Compared to English dailies
they publish more investigative as well as follow-up stories so that they can
pursue issues continuously and force the government as well as politicians to set
things right in the society.
The subject of crime as well as accidents are also more in this unfavourable
category as the media makes a continuous follow up for months together to
pressurize the Government to mend their ways of functioning and ultimately pay
attention to the rehabilitation of victims. In a way this is justified because unless
the media sets the agenda for Government and political parties by highlighting the
misdeeds of men in power pressure cannot be built up.
In a positive perspective compared to earlier days newspapers of this decade have
been evincing interest in neutral news also. This also reflects a change in the
attitude of media wherein in 21st century the newspapers would like to offer the
premium space of first pages to political parties and Government. Like never

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before they probably take it as social responsibility to provide voice to the public
as well as to the rulers.

Development
The coverage of development is also bogged with priorities with the undercurrent
of their assumptions that development is of no interest to common reader whose
priorities reflect the pattern of circulation and readership. The English newspapers
provide majority of the space to industry/Business and education as their readers
are mostly middle or high income groups and they prefer to know more about the
Development in these two categories. This is a deviation from earlier studies of
Murthy (2000) and Vijai kumar (2010) who observed that education is
highlighted more by the English news papers followed by industry. Health is
more or less on the same lines and energy has improved its position. The priority
of Energy and Ecology by English newspapers is also evident as they are also
more or less linked to the Industry/Business. The subcategory of agriculture is at
its lowest ebb as the readers are hardly directly influenced by its policies and
updates of the sector.
Basically, it is assumed that journalism is able to influence the development
process by reporting on development programmes and activities. Accordingly, it
is the journalists’ duty to ‘critically examine and evaluate the relevance of a
development project to national and local needs, the difference between a planned
scheme and its actual implementation, and the difference between its impact on
people as claimed by government officials and as it actually is’ (Aggarwala 1979:
181). In the current study quit contradicting perspective is observed in telugu
newspapers as a great majority of the readers are low and medium income
sections who prefer to know more about agriculture which is their prime lively
hood. This is much better than the earlier studies of Murthy and Vijai kumar
where in the first pages have hardly any coverage of Development.
Among the telugu newspapers Eenadu is better placed than Andhra jyothi.
The telugu news papers have given equal importance to agriculture and education
which reflect the pattern of readership which includes majority from the

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 agricultural families and middle income groups who prefer to know about the
immediate needs such as health and education. The Hindu which is a national
newspaper gave top priority to national news among which also industry is far
ahead of health, agriculture and ecology. The same status is observed in state,
national, foreign levels where the large gap between the subjects of development
shows that prime issues such as agriculture and health are undermined and
information required by elite class such as ecology, energy are highlighted.
In The Times of India the same status is observed and in fact the news paper
portrays more of commercial elements related to both national and international
levels. Popular and entertainment elements are also found regularly on a day to
day basis in the form of photos with captions. This is in line with the page 3
culture for which this newspaper is popular. Amidst this trend of
commercialization of Agriculture is found to be neglected.
In India, the increasing commercialization of news, Thussu (2005) argues, has created a
façade of media plurality when in fact it is ‘contributing to a democratic deficit in the
world’s largest democracy’. The mediascape of the South, writes Thussu (2007) has been
transformed in the 1990s under the impact of ‘neo-liberal, market-oriented economic
policies’ that encourage privatization and deregulation. In his book, ‘News as
Entertainment’, he argues, ‘fierce competition between proliferating news networks for
ratings and advertising has prompted them to provide news in an entertaining manner and
broadcasters have adapted their news operations to retain their viewers or to acquire them
anew’.
In Andhra Jyothi high polarization of news towards state level is observed. Local and
foreign based Development news are conspicuous in their absence. This is evident due to
the regular publication of mini tabloid editions at district levels. At the same the telugu
state governments have been doing tremendous work to promote education and health.
The combined state has witnessed voluminous growth in the sector of education as
governments have promoted information technology and biotechnology with special
reference to pharma industry. The last decade has experienced revolutionary progress in
education for the reasons that companies like Microsoft, Google, and national level
companies such as Wipro, Infosys etc expanded their activites.. The state as well as

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national Governments have initiated a good number of programs such as Sarvashika
Abhiyan, RUSA, Make in India and Skill India. Even state Governments have been
promoting skill development programs in massive level. In keeping pace with the large
number of initiatives taken up by the governments these newspapers seem to have taken
up the mantle to create awareness about these programs among the public especially
youth. In fact education has overtaken agriculture and other themes such as health and
business.
Eenadu which is far ahead of other 3 newspapers in terms of frequency of items covered
in Development has also been found to be covering them on the lines of Eenadu. But
Eenadu has given more or less equal coverage to Agriculture and Education. With regard
to education Eenadu has been found to work on the lines of Andhra jyothi and
highlighted the revolution of software sector and the opportunity of courses and jobs
available for the youngsters. Since more and more number of youth have started going
abroad for studies and employment from Andhra Pradesh the news paper highlighted the
opportunities and changes in the policies of governments in foreign countries such USA,
UK, Australia etc. But as the newspaper has initiated and conducted programs such as
water conservation and large scale plantation in various parts of the state for many years
the coverage of agriculture and irrigation has increased phenomenally.
Herman and Chomsky (1988) say the capitalist mass media are characterized by five
filter functions: profit orientation; advertising; the dominant information sources;
excessive criticism; and anti-communism. As a result, corporate media report news in a
certain way, which avoids questioning their corporate masters and reproduces dominant
ideologies. “The contemporary news media thus is a flawed embodiment of the 19th
Century ideal of the Fourth Estate” (Schultz 1998, p. 233). The Indian news media
industry, which is largely dependent on commercial revenue despite its size and growing
reach, is not immune to these corporate dominance and hegemonic tendencies
(Rodrigues, 2015).
The directional analysis of Development themes is also on the lines of general categories
where more than 50 percent are unfavourable and nearly only 30 percent are favourable.
Around only 15 percent are neutral category. As the news papers generally monitor the
functioning of political parties and government on a day to day basis they might prefer to

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concentrate on the irregularities done by the government. They preferred to set the
agenda by concentrating on corruption, lack of facilities to the public as well as problems
faced by them.

At the same time a good sign of positive attitude is noticed where as they preferred to
publish positive items in the front page so that the government and the general public are
motivated and put up hard work and conceive innovations at massive level. The coverage
about innovations especially in Agriculture and health are noticed in all the newspapers.
In neutral category all the news papers have given importance to announcements of
innovative programs and policies by the governments made over all these 20 years.
Digital India, Skill India, Make in India are highlighted by the news papers during the
initial days of announcement of these programmes and later also.

The theme wise analysis is also on the same lines of geographical levels i.e. local,
state, national and foreign levels as earlier the English newspapers gave priority to
Industry/Business followed by Agriculture and Education with of support to Energy and
Ecology. In English newspapers though there is not much difference in the frequency of
favourable and unfavourable it is very wide in telugu newspapers. As discussed earlier
Education is critically analyzed by all the newspapers especially telugu newspapers this
is evident in Education as in the last decade governments raised the allocations of funds
to Education drastically. Many of the Government functionaries were assumed of
misusing them. The privatization and globalization have had resulted in the negative
impact on the Government Education sector. Continuous corporatization of education at
all levels that is primary, secondary, higher as well as technical education institutions
could not with stand the competition from private players.

In The Hindu’s favourable and unfavourable analysis industries is far ahead of

other themes that is Education and Agriculture. In The Times of India also this is more
glaring as Industry/Business is highly voluminous whereas the most sought after themes
such as Health and Education are lagging far behind. Agriculture in this newspaper is
highly insignificant and those that were published in first page were mostly unfavourable.

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 In telugu newspapers Agriculture and Education are in neck to neck tie in both
favourable and unfavourable directions. As discussed earlier the introduction of new
concepts such as organic farming, in agriculture and new procedures in the treatments,
medicines have been highlighted in both favourable and unfavourable tones. In the new
millennium Hyderabad has emerged as the nodal center for the world class academic
institutions, Hospitals such as Bhasava Tharakam Cancer Institute and Asian Institute of
Gastroenterology. Patients from many nations visit these hospitals which provide world
class treatment for liver problems. Andhra Pradesh has emerged as state of medical
tourism where innovative procedures like organ transplantation and stem cell therapy are
promoted. Apart from this both the news papers have published more unfavourable news
which dealt mostly with Government schemes and programs and their failure to reach the
masses.

Health is one very important area of Development issue where a large number of
Progarmmes are being conducted both in rural and urban areas for different group of
society. Health communication encompasses the study and use of communication
strategies to inform and influence individual and community decisions that enhance
health. There are several health programmes for almost all sections of society. However,
the report of such programme in news form is rare. There is a weekly page on health
related issues “Sukhibhava” in Eenadu published regularly on Tuesday with the editorial
page. But it does not inform anything about those development programmes which are
being conducted in the health area by state or central governments.

The overall coverage of Development news in banner is highly insignificant in all the
newspapers. Especially English newspapers have not paid much attention to the
Development themes. Though many of the important themes like Agriculture, Industry,
Education have found place like earlier Industry/Business is far ahead in both the English
newspapers. The rest of the sub categories have had a very meager presence in telugu
newspapers agriculture is predominant in the coverage by occupying one third frequency.
Andhra Jyothi seems to have paid more attention to Industry/Business and Energy in the

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first page banner items this newspaper is often found to link the development with
Economics which is highly influenced by energy sector. The steep raise and fall of
energy prices in the last decades forced the newspaper to give coverage in the first page.
The follow up of raise in the prices of petrol has led to protests which also were covered
in the front pages.

In Eenadu the concentration is more on agriculture and Education because the

Governments have revolutionized the systems of admissions, entrance examinations and
skill development programs in the last decades. This is in tune with Bansals (2006) study
which found that the overall coverage of education news was low, which increased
marginally in study and it was relatively higher in Hindi newspapers. Hindi newspapers
gave more coverage on the front pages largely relating to problems of Teachers, crimes
(sexual harassment, assault on girl student) and announcements made by the ministers of
governments.
Interestingly even though to a small extent English newspapers have given some space to
human rights than the telugu newspapers. Literacy, Transport Infra, National Integration
have been ignored in the news papers. When photo graphs are concerned the same trend
is observed in all the news papers as the photographs are based on the banner items.
Comparatively the number is more because the news papers have initiated the trend of
exclusive photographs of the day’s events in the front pages. The number of photographs
related to development themes is more in telugu newspapers because they preferred to
publish photos for major events as index in the first page and take the text to inside pages.
This reflects the changes brought out in the design, layouts and priorities of front page in
newspapers they are designed to high light the agenda of issues to be taken up by the
political parties as well as the Government and make a visual appeal to the reader and
attract his attention. This visualization is more pronounced in telugu newspapers
compared to English. Murthy et al.(2010) study says that the pages of the news papers
are filled with increased use of large and small color photos (especially photos of the
main players in each story), and the use of long titles and large fonts for even short
reports to make up the space of the first page look compact, suggesting a crisis for news
due to intense competition and acquiring contours of magazine journalism/tabloidization.

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These findings read with the characteristics of market driven journalism, originally
emanated from the US in 1990s, suggest an increasing tabloidization and trivialization of
news. This study applies the strong and weak market orientation theories of Randal Beam
to the Indian media, and attempts to correlate developments in India’s newsrooms with
respect to print media‘s ability to retain accountability to the public.
Therefore, an opportunity to offer the readers a quick look at the important stories of the
day in a shortest possible time (Nash, 1998). Extensive photos, graphics, and summary
boxes and navigational tools might be viewed as effective tools to appeal to audience
with comparatively low level of education, opined by Randal (1998).
Even Ninan (2007) and Robin (2000) had observed the use of larger fonts
disproportionate to the titles, unnecessary graphics and pictures including inset boxes,
besides advertisements in the lead lines or headlines. They opined that localization of
news as a market driven journalism had engendered such lay out systems from the big
corporate houses. Further they too recorded that as the competition grew between the
print media no two news papers had similar news and that there was a severe demand for
news to fill up the district editions. As such, some of the characteristics which we found
as mentioned above could be space filling strategy of the front page.

A number of Indian media organizations have multiple platforms for their content, and
focus on specific niche markets in terms of their content genres, languages and specific
states and regions. India’s huge population allows multiple media organizations to
survive and thrive, and yet a criticism of their content and tactics is not far behind,
including a ‘sameness’ in their news content; urban centric news coverage; biased
reporting; advertisement disguised as news; and sensationalization of news (Mudgal
2011; Majumdar 2013; Rodrigues 2014a). P.Sainath (in Newsclick.in 2011) notes that
corporations who own the media in India use them to advance their own interests and
predominantly as a revenue stream. The convergence of commercial and political
interests means the news media can no longer take up the issues of everyday corruption
and those living in poverty in India (Sainath in Newsclick.in 2011).
While news media (or journalism) is one of important instruments for national
development (McDaniel, 1986; Singhal & Rogers, 2001), there is a controversy between
Western and Eastern professionals on how development journalism should be practiced.

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It is suggested that coverage of development news heavily depends on official sources,
and critics tend to point out such coverage could be associated with government effort to
manage news content that publicly promote political figures (McDaniel, 1986), and thus
seen as “government say so” journalism which appears in Asian development news
(Lent, 1981). A prominent text by Rajasundaram (1981), widely used in Asian region for
development communication trainings warns that development communication in some
countries is confused with publicity for government projects. The government as the
chief designer and administrator of a country’s development plans should rightfully tell
people what is being done for them. But development communication is more than that
(pp. 17-18).
A news report fulfills the minimum criteria for development journalism if it consists of at
least one of the following points: stresses the process and not the event, maintains a
critical perspective on development plans, emphasizes people’s needs, presents a
background for development issues, predicts future needs, considers the effect of plans on
people, compares the development process to similar processes in other places, compares
the plan with implemented results, critically surveys stories of success, and points out
people’s needs (Badii and Ghandi, 2001, p.425).

Suggestions
The press as a Fourth Estate in a democracy has a greater responsibility and play a
constructive role in the society. Since people depend on newspapers for their day-to-day
information needs, newspapers should act as purveyors of information in order to inform
and educate people on social issues. Thus, the socially responsible press makes the
citizens well-informed of the issues of immediate concern. Moreover, the amount of
media attention given to social problems leads people to believe that these issues are
important. Implicit in the theory of social responsibility, the press is expected to play an
important role by defining issues and by setting the public agenda by influencing what it
is that people should think about. Therefore, the newspapers involuntarily assume the
role of agenda-setter in a society. In the light of this study, it may be stated that the
newspapers in the country are not much committed towards their role in society as
agenda-setters. As prime channels for disseminating information newspapers are

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expected to diffuse information on a whole range of concepts that influence nation’s
development.
Since development is a priority issue in the national agenda of the country where crores
of people suffer from problems like poverty, corruption, malnutrition, unemployment,
illiteracy, ill health, lack of drinking water etc., the press as a public institution is
expected to support the Government which launches schemes to provide basic needs to
people in tune with its plan priorities. Since information is a key factor in national
development, newspapers should take part in the national development by increasing the
coverage of social problems or development linked issues. However, it is believed that
the rapid dissemination of information about innovations and development especially by
highlighting front pages shall bring in growth among the people in due course of time.
The present study is descriptive in nature; the results can be compared with few of the
earlier studies. Crime news receive more coverage in all the dailies as was found by
Murthy (2001), and Vijai Kumar (2010). The present also concurs with the earlier
studies done by these two authors. Preethi and Karippai (1996) study found that the
coverage of environmental news was less, the present study agreed with their
observation.

Vilanilam , Abraham (2010) study….

The present study shows that newspapers occasionally covered the developmental
issues in-depth. Such serious reports can have considerable influence on policy-makers.
Success stories involving individuals, policy-makers and administrators from different
provinces can benefit their counterparts in other provinces. The study makes it clear that
developmental news got less front page coverage in comparison to sensational and
amusement news. Hence, newspapers shall allocate considerable space to developmental
issues on the front page as well. The study also found that newspapers had consistently
given negligible coverage to public welfare issues such as public health, hygiene, etc.
Newspapers can improve the coverage of this subject category in relation to news.
English language newspapers gave less coverage to these issues than the Telugu
newspapers.

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 The most common and sought after concerns such as Population Planning, Public
health and environment etc. are not finding much coverage in the run for commercial
news which would fetch advertisements. The starling reality is that concepts like health
and agriculture are not being addressed regularly. If the newspapers pay sustained
attention it would adequately hold the attention of policy-makers and readers and
mobilize them into action. Though public health, population explosion and others are
priority issues for the country, their coverage in the four newspapers were found to be
woefully bad in the four sample dailies.

The presentation of environmental information by the press needs to move

beyond mere reporting of news events to analyzing environmental events and issues in a
form that is relevant to problems of everyday life in order to communicate meaningfully
to the public. In this regard, the press media must work towards a balanced analysis of
issues. Implications, choices and alternatives need to be presented in environment reports
to have positive impacts in terms of public understanding. In particular, such analysis
would also touch on how these issues should be addressed by relevant stakeholders. For
this to be actualised media organisations in developing countries must seek to consult
experts in the field of environment and development to contribute to environment reports
since most media organisations do not have in-house personnel with the requisite
training/capacity to cover the environment in a manner beneficial to the public.

Finally it can be understood that the present study could not be compared with the
overall analysis of development by any researcher, as the specific study in relation to it
and media was not found in Indian setting. The present study is significant in the context
of India’s situation of finding solutions to some of the social problems. The elite English
dailies can set an agenda for the government; the newspapers need to analyze each aspect
related to development with better in-depth analysis. Since, the present study found that
the news items were event specific; it is advised that newspapers must go beyond event
reporting. Keeping the local needs in mind the English news papers also should highlight
the stories as banners but not as anchor stories in first pages. In The Hindu front page on

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April 6, 2010 a news item with the headline was observed at the bottom place where as it
could have been made a banner.

Rosaiah for new growth agenda

Special Correspondent
HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah on Monday
said a concerted effort from all quarters was required to ensure that the
State did not suffer energy shortages.
Addressing members of the Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambers of
Commerce & Industry (FAPCCI), he said that for the economy to grow at
12 per cent per annum, an 18 per cent increase in power generation was
essential, in tune with the recommendations of the Rakesh Mohan
Committee.
Private investments
This called for massive mobilisation of resources from private investments,
he told the gathering at FAPCCI's 92nd annual function, before giving
away awards to entrepreneurs. “I would like to chart out a new
development agenda for the State to transform and modernise the economy
in about a decade and I seek your support in this endeavour,” he said.
Stating that agriculture continued to be the mainstay for 67 per cent of the
State's population, Mr. Rosaiah said that apart from initiatives taken to
improve the lot of the rural people, the ambitious irrigation programme
‘Jalayagnam' was being given the highest priority.

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Rosaiah 6.04.2010 The Hindu

Such news items should be covered on the front page instead of inside pages. The
wrong-doers should be exposed to create deterrence in them when they indulge in
corrupt activities. Nevertheless, population explosion and urbanization received
nearly six percent of the total coverage given to the social problems. Newspapers
need to focus on the ill-effects of urbanization to make the governments think of
remedial measures. The three themes prostitution, pornography & sex trade,
unemployment, alcohol & drug abuse need to be given more coverage as the three
themes received less than two per cent of coverage in all the four dailies. Since
unemployment is a national issue confronting all the states in India the newspapers
can give front page coverage to specific issues instead of reporting government
measures.
The newspapers as well as journalists act as catalyst between government and people;
the newspapers can debate and discuss development issues and problems for making
an impact on the government as well as on the public.

 Newspapers should be made an integral part in the process of development.

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 Both frequency and space also should be increased because sometimes the
coverage is in the form of index only which may not hold the attention of the
reader.
 There must be some regularity in giving news related to development
programmes.
 Readers can benefit if the newspapers devote more space to analysis and discuss
themes relating to development focusing on policy perspectives relevant to the
country’s needs. If the newspapers carry more opinions of readers on
developmental themes that will certainly reflect the developmental concerns of
the paper, as well as those of the readers.
 The number of investigative and human interest stories may be raised as they
would help in setting the agenda for the government machinery to take up the
activities as per the needs of the public.
 The number of positive stories should also be raised that would motivate others to
try and follow them.
 The format of coverage also should be changed from descriptive to analytical as
television channels would cover incidents and events in a detailed manner and
would be updated regularly throughout the day.
 More local and international items may be published to inform them about what
has been happening around in their own place and in other countries also. The
foreign stories raise knowledge levels and motivate them.
 The news may be given different treatment as it would remove monotony and
attract the attention.
 State and central governments, as well as newspapers should give more thrust to
developmental journalism/communication while implementing developmental
programmes in the ensuing five-year plans for the benefit of larger sections of the
population.
 The feedback of common people about the implementation success and failure of
development programme should be continuously given.

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 The development stories about various programmes should be increased in
newspapers for more publicity. More coverage about other categories of news and
stories such as economic, business, science and technology should be taken up.
 If necessary special training may be given to journalists to cover these topics as
they need technical knowledge about the jargon and aspects.
 The feedback of common people about the implementation, success and failure of
development programme should be continuously given.
 The public opinion about development programme should be given as a part of
the story coverage. Newspapers should invite the opinion of common people
about development programme.
 There should be continuous review of the development programmes on front
pages as a series.
 The newspapers shall reflect participation of all the persons associated with the
process of development.
 The newspapers may take any particular programme for case study with reference
to its success and failures.
 In the first page the advertisements shall also be restricted and the rule of 60:40
should be strictly followed.
 Keeping in view the extent and nature of coverage given to developmental themes
in the Indian newspapers, the proposed national policy should include guidelines
for offering incentives in the form of subsidies to newspapers for the best
coverage of developmental news.
 The government shall set up a research unit at the national level to examine ways
and means for encouraging the newspapers to cover developmental news. More
specifically, a national developmental communication council can be set up as
part of the planning commission to review and suggest steps for the improvement
of developmental communication strategies from the grassroots to national level.
 The departments of journalism and mass communication in the country should
undertake more research on developmental communication so as to develop
empirical and quality data for the benefit of policy-makers, as well as newspaper
organizations.

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  Furthermore, the journalism programmes in the country can focus on specialized
courses on developmental communication keeping in mind the needs and
problems of the country in general and their regional needs in particular.

It may be argued that the survival of a newspaper depends on twin reasons (1) The
quantity of circulation and (2) the garnering of advertisements. Since circulation is a
key factor for attracting advertisements, newspapers adopt various strategies to boost
circulation. And in the process, the newspapers identify themselves with a
commercial enterprise in pursuing profits than as a public institution to serve the
society.

Future Research

The development of the nation depends on many parameters but the mass media pays an
equally important role in the nation’s development. Earlier many studies in India dealt
with development news but were limited to only one year. Though they were done with
periodical gap the model of study was more or les s the same. But the current research
has dealt with the coverage of news exclusively in front page of news papers. Since the
front pages are important for setting the agenda for government, functionaries as well as
for the publics to notice the changes and the progress. The sample newspapers include
both English as well as Telugu news papers published from the state of Andhra Pradesh.
Hence, in future the same practice can be adopted in other languages as the development
functionaries, Government employees might notice the news published in languages
more quickly, react and attend to the problems and needs of the people. Even the same
can be applied to English news papers published form various states around the country.
As the number of studies increase in number and cover various places the old as well as
the contemporary problems that surface over a period of time would be identified and
resolved effectively.

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