Commentary
Global Media Journal – Indian Edition/ Summer Issue / June 2011
LANGUAGE PRESS IN INDIA: A STUDY OF CONTEMPORARY
BENGALI JOURNALISM
Tanaya Roy
Lecturer [Contractual]
Department of Mass Communication
Hiralal Mazumdar Memorial College, Dakshineswar
North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India
[Affiliated to West Bengal State University]
E mail: [email protected]
Abstract: Newspapers in India can broadly be classified into two groups - English newspapers and
language newspapers. As the name indicates, English newspapers are published in English language,
whereas language newspapers are published in different Indian languages. Unlike the English
papers, these are available even in the interior villages of the country. Thus they have a major role in
formulating public opinion across our country.
In India, language papers are published in more
than 100 languages. But the main papers are published in 16 principal languages. Language papers
vary from English papers in their style, presentation and approach. The reasons for the growth of
newspapers in India that we have studied so far are equally applicable for the growth of language
newspapers. But there are some other factors that helped the rise of the latter. During the early days,
the language press was looked down upon as ‘vernacular dailies’ by the English press but with the
rise and emergence of language media as a major force this impression has changed. India has the
world’s largest newspaper market after China. While news papers are struggling in Europe and USA,
in India and China there is a boom. It is interesting to note that the world’s three top countries in
newspaper circulation are China with 98.70 million copies, India with 88.90 million copies and
Japan with 69.10 million. At the time when India became independent, the country had only 3533
publications. Among them 330 were daily newspapers and 3203 were periodicals. After 50 years,
there has been a 12 fold increase in the number of publications. In 1997, according to the data
published by the Registrar of News Papers of India, there were 41705 publications among which the
number of newspapers was 4719. In 2006, this has gone up to 45600 publications, in which 5600 are
newspapers. At present, India has 398 major newspapers with an overall circulation of 30,772,000
copies.
1
Introduction
Indian economy is basically a rural economy. More than 60 per cent of our population lives
in the rural areas. According to a survey by National Sample Survey Organization, more than
16 crore households live in the rural areas. A paradigm shift has been visible in the rural
population over the past 50 or 60 years. Indian farmers, who were classified as born in debt,
live in debt and die in debt, have become one of the most influential consumer groups in
society now. Their income levels have increased and along with that, tastes and preferences
have also shown changes. This advancement of the rural mass has resulted in the growth of
language newspapers. A marked change in the coverage of local news by newspapers is
another reason for the growth of language newspapers. Earlier national and international
news dominated the Indian press. But the experiment by some newspapers, especially in the
southern states, of covering local news with prominence gave a big boost to their circulation.
Newspapers from other parts soon copied this. Newspapers started covering issues that were
concerned with the ordinary people. The rural people found that there is a medium to express
their grievances and aspirations. Starting of multiple editions was another factor that resulted
in the growth of the language press. Earlier newspapers were confined to state capital cities
only. But as more and more potential readers emerged from other areas, newspaper owners
started editions from even district centers. Thus multiple editions of newspapers were brought
out the boom in advertising also helped in the growth of the language press. The rural mass
turned out to be the biggest market for any product. For attracting them, advertisers were
forced to give advertisements in local papers. This in turn resulted in an increase of revenue
for the language press. India is the second biggest newspaper market in the world, despite its
poor literacy rate.
According to the Paris-based world association of news papers (WAN) the circulation of
Indian dailies jumped 33% to over 7.86cr. During 2001-05 even as global news paper
circulation increased 9.95% in the said period. It proves that the reach of Indian print media is
expanding. The circulation of Indians dailies consistently increased from 5,91,29,000 in 2001
to 7,29,39,000 in 2003 to 7,86,89,000 in 2005. Newspaper represents a 180 billion $ industry
with more advertising revenue than radio, cinema and magazines says Timothy Balding,
CEO, of WAN. But surprisingly this growth is not due to the growth of English newspaper.
The non-English Indian language press is growing faster than the English dailies. The figure
which was released by the Media Research Users Council (MRUC) proves it. The figures are
shown below:
2
Serial
Name of the newspapers
Readership no.’s
no.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
Dainik Jagaran
Dainik Bhaskar
Hindustan (local)
Amar Ujala
Lokmat
Daily Thanti
Dinakaran
Ananda Bazar Patrika
Enadu
Rajasthan Patrika
The Times of India
Hindustan Times
The Hindu
The Telegraph
Deccan Chronicle
54,254,000
33,432,000
29,411,000
28,720,000
23,276,000
20,305,000
16,741,000
15,318,000
14,726,000
14,205,000
13,447,000
06,254,000
05,140,000
02,877,000
02,816,000
This paper will try to attempt the status of contemporary Bengali press in India. Bengali is on
of the 22 official languages of India. It will try to be representative study of non English press
in India.
History Bengali Journalism
The first non English newspaper was named Samachar Darpan, in Bengali language and was
published by Serampore mission press by 1818. In 1821 another remarkable Bengali journal
was Sambad Kaumadi which was published under the patronage of Rammohan Roy. The
other Bengali journals during this time were Samachar Chandrika, Bangadoot, Sambad
Pravakar, Tattobodhini etc. Sambad Pravakar was the first Bengali daily newspaper published
in 1839. Bengali journalism carried the message of Bengal renaissance. Nationalist
newspapers like Sandhya, Jugantar had a mass appeal. In subsequent decades the Bengali
press played significant role to create and sustain public opinion.
Post Independence Era
After independence Bengali press gave up its adversarial role and adopted a supportive
approach to the govt. formed by Mr. J.L Nehru. Soon a press commission was constituted to
review the media scenario in India. Thus the twelve member first press commission was
3
constituted in 1952 (Chairman G.S Rajadhakshya). In 1952 while press commission was
situated the numbers of dailies were 330. Gradually it increased 495(1965), 755(1970),
1173(1979) and 7 crore 23 lakhs 1998.West Bengal is a state with population rate of
8,02,21,171. According to the census report of 2001 the literacy rate of west Bengal was
68.64%. According to national family health survey or NFH`s report (2007) the literacy rate
of west Bengal is 71.6%. West Bengal has nearly five hundred and sixty published
newspapers, four hundred and thirty of which are in Bengali. The list of Bengali and English
newspapers from Bengal is as follows.
•
ANANDABAZAR PATRIKA: - most widely circulated daily newspaper in
Kolkata founded in 1922 anandabazar patrika published from Kolkata, newdelhi
& Mumbai it is published by the annandabazar .
•
AAJKAL: - Leading, newspaper published in Kolkata. The newspaper was first
published in 1981
•
BARTAMAN: - one of the top selling Bengali language newspapers published in
Kolkata. The newspaper was established in 1984.
•
GANASHAKTI PATRIKA: - daily broadsheet newspaper owned by communist
party of India (Marxist), west Bengal state committee
•
SANGBAD PRATIDIN: Bengali newspaper published in Kolkata. The newspaper
was founded in 1992.
Indian readership surveys according to the top 5 Bengali newspaper are (readership figures)
(i) Anandabazar patrika ( 155.14 lakhs)
(ii) Bartaman (81.33 lakhs)
(iii)
Sangbad Protidin ( 41.67 lakhs)
(iv)Ganashakti (33.52 lakhs)
(v) Aajkal ( 29.53 lakhs)
ANANDABAZAR PATRIKA
4
Anandabazar Patrika is the largest circulated Bengali daily. This paper will try to
understand the trend of this Bengali daily and the business orientation of a largest
circulated vernacular press as the representative of Indian language newspaper. Though
this is not based on empirical studies it will only focus on the content analysis of the
newspaper from 1st April 2011 to 10th April 2011. This content analysis will try to
understand how the published items had created impact on the readers.In 1922
Anandabazar Patrika first came out as a four-page evening daily and had a circulation of
about 1,000 copies.Now the total readership of Anandabazar Patrika is 72,95,000
( National Readership Survey,2006) readership in Kolkata 30,61,000( National
Readership Survey 2006) total circulation ( Calcutta and Mumbai editions):12,77,801
( Audit Bureau of circulations July- December`08)
The paper is accepted for its attractive page makeup, news presentation, variety of
content, different supplementary pages etc. It also published exclusive news stories. It is
famous for publishing investigative reporting. The reader can get feature, post editorial
column, letter to the editor, book and film reviews and many other topics which help
them understand any issue or event more elaborately.Recently the news presentations
become more interpretative and for this reason the news lost their objectivity. The
newspaper gives emphasis on regional news. Basically thus the newspaper tries to
increase and sustain its popularity in order to capture the market. The content analysis
will try to prove it.
Content Analysis
The content analysis’s based on the first page of the daily.
A
Date
10th April 2011
Topic
(i) Mainly the news of West Bengal Assembly election ,
Picture, graphics and caption of road show of C.M of
West Bengal Mr. Buddhadev Bhattacharya and
Railway Minister and TMC leader Mamata Banerjee
( 6 columns)
(ii) The news story on W.B assembly election
based on
congress party
(iii)
News story on Tamilnadu election
(iv) Anchor story on IPL written by Cricketer Sourav Ganguly
5
(v) Only one Column news on Anna Hazare
B
9th April 2011
(i) A 3 column news picture of famous actor Shahrukh Khan
celebrating the IPL opening ceremony
(ii) A five column news story on Anna Hazare against the
lokpal bill with a small picture.
(iii)
Another news story on the hanger strike
and the
political debate
(iv)News story about West Bengal assembly election the story
is based on the bias between congress and TMC
(v) Another story is about Majid Master
C
8th April 2011
(i) The news story on assembly election the lead story is
based on the congress TMC bias in North Bengal
(ii) A three column picture of Congress leader Adhir
Chowdhury and Sayeed Alamgir
(iii) News story on Jamuria ( Burdwan district) The main
Victim Dinu Bauri`s surrender in the charge of
murdering TMC leader Kaji Rabin
(i) One column news on Majid Master who is a victim in
many murder case and his relation with the ruling party
(ii) There is three short news story in a single column based on
Anna Hajari`s hunger strike, Rijwanoor Rahman case
and on IPL cricket match
D
7th April 2011
(i)
A four column news picture based on Anna
Hazare`s hunger strike and the common
people`s support with candle light in front of
India gate
(ii)
News story on Sharad Pawar`s resignation from
his post with graphics
(iii)
A four column news on W.B assembly
election .The news is based on TMC leader
6
Railway Minister Mamta Banerjee
(iv)
News story on Indo-Pak relationship and the
probable visit of Indian cricket team
(v)
An anchor story based on soft topic
(vi)
In a single column there is a two short stories
on W.B election
E
6th April 2011
(i)
News picture of TMC leader Mamta
Banerjee with caption
(ii)
News story on Mamta Banerjee`s
procession in Jamuria ( Burdwan ) in
the protest of TMC leader Kaji Rabin`s
murder ( a short graphics)
(iii)
Story on Netai a village in East
Midnapur
district
where
common
people was gunned down on 7th Jan and
the complaint was the ruling party is
directly related in the case
(iv)
Anchor story on the census report and
current status of the men women ration
in West Bengal with Graphics
(i) A single column news story on Netai
F
5th April 2011
(i)
Banner headline on how the
CPIM is on Blackfoot before
assembly election
(ii)
Picture of TMC leader Probhat
Chatterjee
in
Jamuria
after
attacked by CPIM member
(iii)
News story agitation of TMC in
Jamuria police station
(iv)
Headline on CBI charge sheet
against CPIM leader Anuj Pande
(v)
7
Murder of TMC leader Kaji
Rabin in Jamuria
(vi)
Three soft stories on world cup
cricket
G
4th April 2011
(i) A four column picture of M.S Dhoni, the captain of Indian
Cricket Team after the victory in World d Cup
(ii) Four column news on cricket
(iii)
News on W.B election
(iv)News on the CPIM Party
(v) Single column three news stories
H
3rd April 2011
(i) The full page story on the victory of Indian Cricket Team
in ICC Cricket World Cup 2011
(ii) Banner headline
(iii)
Four column story on World Cup cricket.
(iv) Four column picture of Captain M.S Dhoni and Yuvraj
singh at the moment of victory.
I
2nd April 2011
(i)
Banner headline on cricket World cup News
story picture, graphics based on the final match
of Cricket world cup ` 2011
(ii)
Only one single column news on TMC leader
Mamta Banerjee and future planning as a C.M
J
1st April 2011
(i) Cricket world cup`2011 story with banner headline news
picture of Sachin Tendulkar and Muthaia Murliharan
( Srilanka ) graphics about their record
(ii) News story about Indo-Pak relationship
(iii) Anchor story on the TMC and gorkha alliance in north
Bengal which TMC leader denied
(iv) One single column report on census report
The first page content analysis of the April month (2011) shows that the
news covered by the daily is totally based on the reader’s interest. The
8
news coverage is broadly issue based such as world cup cricket and
assembly election. The Anna Hazare and Indo Pak relations have been
published. But these issues were covered with a high degree of angles thus
the news stories lost its objectivity and become biased.
Though it might be an insufficient data (in this content analysis first page
news coverage ) to get a complete trend about the content design. trend
cannot be understood only by the content analysis of few days’. It is not
sufficient. But it also shows the tendency of capturing the market. The first
press commission (1952-54) stated that journalism is now is just a
profession-not a mission. Where every media is tried to increase their
circulation by presenting what the readers only want. The public service
role of press is now the secondary objective of the press. It can be proved
true in this case.
In its report the first press commission hinted at the dangers of cross media
ownership which has become recent trend of big publications. The
Anandabazar group owned a 24 hours news channel with joint
collaboration with another big media group STAR` - namely `STAR
Anando`. It also reflects the business policy of this house.
The first Commission said for the control on monopoly and gave
importance on the service role of media. It stated that newspaper is not a
business for earning money. But the tendency of monopoly cannot be
reduced. In 1954 the Mohalanovis committee in its report The Distribution
of income and levels of living expressed the same tone. In 1965 Monopoly
enquiry commission stated the same in its report.
So, today’s Bengali newspapers have turned into profit hunting business
enterprise but in a democratic country like India print media has great
impact to keep the democratic right of the common people.
9