Understanding online journalism: Redefining news coverage in India:

Hyderabad in Focus

Presented byDr G Naga Mallika

EFLU

IntroductionHyderabad, a second tier metro in the new

state of Telangana in southern India.Population of the total metropolitan city is 9.1

million approximately (2013)A multi-lingual and multi-cultural city, with

Telugu (state language), Hindi and Urdu predominantly spoken apart from English.

Print media in HyderabadHouses English, Telugu, Urdu and Hindi

media.Nearly 7 to 8 Telugu newspapers (plus local

ones) and 4 to 5 Telugu weekly magazines published from the city.

Five to 6 English newspapers including small ones.

Six Urdu newspapers and two Hindi newspapers.

Apart from this, six private FM channels and All India Radio.

TelevisionNearly 80 Telugu channels including News,

Entertainment, and specialised channels.Includes Doordarshan as well as Urdu

channels. Some English channels dubbed into Telugu

( Pogo, Disney, National Geographic and History channels).

Number of news channels (Telugu) most, when compared to other states, at around 20. Many of them carry special bulletins in English and Urdu.

OnlineOnline media nebulous and emerging. Niche

genres yet to make their presence as most popular websites are those hosted by the newspaper organisations and those of B2B and B2C.

Software companies that offer content to other business entities as well as for commercial purposes are popular.

Other websites that are commonly found are extensions of print versions of news dailies. All newspapers have online versions.

Online Telugu newspapers like Eenadu and Andhra Jyothi very popular with NRIs or Non Resident Indians.

Some Urdu newspapers like Siasat and Rehnuma-e-Deccan also popular in the Middle east countries, including the online versions.

An independent news website is a new phenomenon and a niche area not very popular in Telugu.

There are a couple of such websites from Hyderabad.

For this study, the electronic (television) and the online media are being combined to compare with the traditional print media.

50 journalists across all media (print, electronic and online) from the city have been the respondents for the study.

This is a work in progress and so I will place before you certain broad observations of the profile of journalists, in the preliminary analysis of the data collected.

RespondentsOf the 50 respondents, 27 were male while

23 were female.26 respondents from the print media

(English, Telugu and Hindi) 24 from electronic and online media. ( 20+4)

English newspapers :The Hindu (national news daily)Times of India ( national news daily)Deccan Chronicle( regional)Hans India ( regional)Metro India ( local)

Telugu newspapers: - Eenadu - Andhra Prabha - Sakshi -Namaste Telangana

-Andhra Jyothi -Andhra Bhoomi

Hindi newspaperVishwas Daily

Television channels : All are news channels-N TV

-Mahaa TV-TV 9-CVR TV-T news -ABN Andhra Jyothi-ETV

Online media chosen for the study:Serendipity Authors and EditorsAnd Beyond Telugutv.info

No specific news portals that concentrate on the ‘latest news’.

Profiles of Online MediaTelugutv.info is a portal run by a veteran print

journalist, having worked with both print and broadcast media for more than two decades. Telugutv.info is a portal that carries news analysis, news related to the Telugu news channels and news related to them.

Serendipity authors and Editors is an up-start portal that focuses on writing and other related skills. They have a small component where they air ‘latest news’ but that is occasional.

The same can also be attributed to the site andbeyond.com.

Number of employeesWhile the television channels employ nearly

300 to 400 journalists and non journalists, the online media have a maximum of four to five people to run the show.

Online websites are usually managed by the owner himself/herself, with a designer and a content writer.

Most of them began their websites in the last five to ten years.

OwnershipCross media ownership is a common

phenomenon in Indian media.There are dailies, television channels and

websites owned by the same person, mostly business organisations/individuals, real estate barons, and political parties,  which make the channels a business enterprise than a journalistic endeavour.

ContentAny story written for the print media is also

uploaded on the website of that online newspaper, straight.

For example, Eenadu is a newspaper, while ETV is a television channel from the same group, while Eenadu’s online version is also available.

The news that is printed in the newspaper is simultaneously uploaded onto the online version.

The same news story is also used for the television channels, depending on the suitability of the story.

As stated earlier, this is one of the reasons that independent news websites are few in Telugu media.

Personal blogs are popular amongst journalists, where news on journalists, including gossip is covered. Ofcourse, under pseudonyms.

GenderThe sample has 36 males and 14 female

journalists. Women journalists are found more in the

English media than in Telugu media.For instance, English newspapers have an

almost equal representation of both male and female journalists (8:6) while in the Telugu media the ratio of female to male is almost 1:3 at 8 and 28.

Reporters were generally male until the late nineties, while female journalists preferred the desk.

The increase in the number of media outlets, especially in television, in the 2000s, led to a proliferation of young girls getting into the profession. Still, one finds that a majority of them are in the lower rungs of the ladder than in senior positions.

The number of females compared to men is relatively low in the long run. The factors of personal commitments, odd timings are generally the reasons for women not continuing for long in the electronic media.

However, one can find many of the girls in the online websites, opting for positions in websites, where the timing is not as erratic as that of print and electronic media.

However, such jobs are limited to those with a good knowledge of English writing skills.

Age & EducationWhile the senior positions are with men in their

fifties, middle level journalists are in the age group of 30-39, while the junior level is below 30.

Online media has journalists in the youngest age group, while electronic media has more number in the middle level. However, they are equally divided across all age groups in the print media.

Among the 26 online journalists (23 Electronic Media, 3 Web) 15 of them possess a Masters in Journalism while others have various other specialisations.

Social classOf the entire sample, 8 did not respond. It could

be due to the inappropriate choices specified or by choice.

The urban/ farm workers choice does not quite reflect the Indian social class background.

The journalists with urban background are quite distinct from those with the rural background. Choice of media, and their jobs are dependent on their background. Clubbing the two together could lead to a distortion of the data or might be inadequate for a proper analysis.

Majority (21) had both parents as urban and/or farm workers

9 had one parent with high education 9 had both parents as highly educated but

not journalists 3 of them had one parent as a journalistNone of the respondents had both parents as

journalistsOther respondents had parents as

businessmen, army, home makers, etc. (4)

Specialisation in mediaSpecialisation is not encouraged as most

media expect journalists to multitask initially. So we find that many of the youngsters multitask. Computerisation in the nineties lead to this attitude.

It is ironical that although the number of publications are on the increase, there has also been an increase in the number of lay offs. This has also been one of the reasons why many journalists do more than one work assigned to them.

From the total 50 respondents we received 56 responses (most extra beats were political).

A significant representation of the views of their specialization was as "administrative", "political journalism", "different".

Both the respondents in online and traditional media were specialists in the field of political journalism predominantly.

Permanence of employment Majority of journalists are employed full time

(31). There are several more in the electronic/ online media (17), than in traditional (14).

In turn, working under a long term contract is more in traditional media (6) which is a relatively new phenomenon.

Average monthly income

Majority of the electronic/online media persons (7) earn in the range of Rs 60,000 (735 Euros or 1000 USD) to Rs 70,000 (856 Euros or 1166 USD).

Majority  of traditional media persons (10) earn in the range of Rs 20,000 (245 Euros or 333USD) to Rs 30,000 (367 Euros or 500 USD).  

While the range at the entry level is between 200 to 350 Euros, at the senior levels, it goes up to 850 Euros.

Compared to other industries in India, the average monthly income falls in the middle income to high middle income.

Traditionally, pay in media has been very poor, way below an average man’s earnings. This has changed after the proliferation of the media business in the last twenty years.

The change from permanent jobs to contract jobs has also facilitated increase in pay.

Monthly income sufficient?It is interesting to note that a majority (28)

think that they are worth more. This is also an indication of the fact that

there is a difference between sufficiency and self worth, a change in attitude in the post liberalised India.

Second jobDoing a second job while in a permanent

position is not possible in India. This also is the same for contract jobs.Only those who are not full time in a job

handle two jobs, which is rare.

These are some of the observations from the data collected.

Thank you