Savitribai Phule Pune University

Department of Media & Communication Studies

M.Sc. Media and Communication Studies

(Media Research)

Research Design – Idea Pitch

Semester IV – Research Dissertation
By
Prathamesh Ninghot
Communicating ideologies through the memes: Content analysis of the Indian
political Internet memes.
Introduction, Scope and Relevance:
Internet memes have established themselves as the powerful phenomenon which can make
the certain socio-cultural, religious, ideological meanings dominant for a huge audience in a
short amount of time. In India since the explosion of social media use in youth, the meme
culture has been evolving. The Indians are known to have spirit of debate inherited within
them. This spirit of debate in today’s day and age can be seen a lot on the social media like
Facebook and Twitter, especially when it comes to political ideologies. Memes provide a
creative freedom within a minimal structure for the construction the message. Hence, since
last few years, social media discourse for the political ideologies is mostly found through
memes. In the last couple of years India has seen some major contemporary events, such as
Protests against CAA and NRC, Maharashtra Elections, The Delhi Riots, Pulwama Attack, Delhi
Elections, Namaste Trump, The Coronavirus Pandemic, Lockdown, Tablighi Jamaat Episode,
The Migrant labours Crisis, Sushant Singh Rajput’s Suicide, The Ayodhya Verdict, Bihar
Elections, TRP Scam, The protest against farm bills, etc, etc. And these major events and issues
are discussed on social media through various forms, such as, through articles, blogs, videos
and photographs. But memes are created with the multi-model approach where the certain
image is altered and associated with the certain text, or the two images are placed together
to signify the similarity/differences/justification of certain acts. Apart from that memes are
also created in AV format, where several clips, images and sounds are combined to create a
completely new meaning which most of the times, is associated the trending or relevant
topics. The large chunk of the discussion around these major events evidently points toward
the differences between the ideological perceptions within people. The government has the
eternal limelight in media and it gets even brighter in the case of impactful events like
protests, riots, tensed border situation, the pandemic, elections, etc. Hence the government
and its policies around such events are largely discussed. Through internet memes, this type
of communication has become even more creative, attractive and effective.
Literature Review:
Memes- Dawkinsnian Concept:
Patrick Davison highlights the Dawkinsnian concept of memes in his article for “The Social
Media Reader, 2012. He explains Dawkins’ identification of two areas where evolutionary
theory might be heading next. That is where the term “meme” was first introduced by
Dawkins. According to Dawkins, much of human behavior does not come from genes but from
culture. He proposes that any nongenetic behavior be labelled as a meme and with this idea,
Davison raises the question “can the application of genetic logic to memes be productive?”
Then he further explains, “Genes determine an organism’s physical characteristics. A certain
gene causes an organism to have short legs, or long. Memes determine the behavior of an
organism. They are either taught to an organism or learned through experience.”
“While genes rely on the physical process of reproduction to replicate, memes rely on the
mental processes of observation and learning. The passing meme successfully replicates itself
in a new organism without the all-or-nothing cycle of life and death. This highlights one of the
critical differences between genes and memes: speed of transmission. Compared to genetic
changes (which span generations upon generations), memetic changes happen in the blink of
an eye. Offline memes, cultural cornerstones like language or religion, are hyperfast when
compared to their genetic counterparts. Internet memes are even faster”. (Davison,2012)
Memes and Internet Memes:
Bradley Wiggins in his book “The Discursive Power of Memes in Digital Culture”, assesses the
Dawkins’ original idea of memes. He argues that the Dawkins’ definition of meme does not
align with internet memes due to the differences in their formation, spread and primarily due
to the dependence on human-computer interaction for their further development. He
supports his argument with Dawkins’ own opinions of the internet meme. According to
Dawkins, internet memes is a “hijacking of the original term”, the term he proposed in “The
Selfish Gene”. Dawkins (2013 n.p.), as cited by Wiggins (2019),
“The very idea of the meme, has itself mutated and evolved in a new direction. An internet
meme is a hijacking of the original idea. Instead of mutating by random chance, before
spreading by a form of Darwinian selection, internet memes are altered deliberately by
human creativity. In the hijacked version, mutations are designed – not random – with the
full knowledge of the person doing the mutating.”
Apart from Dawkins’ interpretation of internet meme, Wiggins also studies the digital version
of definition of internet meme for his own operational conceptualization of the phenomena.
He says that the internet meme as message is a visual argument rather than just an attempt
of producing humour. Memes and internet memes align conceptually and practically only in
two ways, 1) in terms of demand of human attention, 2) easily reproducible. He also cites
Shifman’s (2013) assessment of internet memes, where she considers meme as groups of
content units rather than a single content unit.
“Furthermore, Shifman (2013) explores areas related to memes such as diffusion of
innovation studies but notes that these often overlook “the complexity and richness that may
be ascribed to the [meme] concept” (p. 367). Accordingly, she returns to Dawkins in her
introduction of what she calls a typology of memetic dimensions.” as cited by Wiggins (2019)
Political Memes:
“The gravity of political memes is dependent upon the degree of perceived importance about
the given issue. For example, a meme that remixed the assassination of John F. Kennedy may
be less relevant than a meme of a sitting US president perhaps mired in scandal or in the
spotlight due to a soundbite taken out of context. Succinctly, political memes and their
perceived importance often follow the news cycle. This means that while particular memes
as reactions to a political issue/event may be short-lived, their discursive function remains a
tenable option for later use.” Wiggins (2013)
Aim:
To analyse how political ideologies are communicated through memes by the popular Indian
Facebook pages while commenting on major events in last 2 years.

Objectives:
1. To find which memetic structures, functions and characteristics emerge in memes
featuring political ideologies
2. To analyse the narratives communicated around the major events through political
memes by the popular Right-Wing and Left-Wing Facebook pages.
3. To find which themes referring to Indian right- wing and left-wing ideologies immerge
in the political memes.
4. To study which ideological values are emphasized in the political memes commenting
on these major events.
5. To locate the direct/indirect dialogue through memes between the LW and RW
political ideologies.
6. To locate and categorise the hypo texts and hyper texts within the political memes on
Facebook.

Operational Definitions:
Facebook: A popular social networking site.
Indian Right Wing: The Indian right wing believes in the conservation of the culture, religious
ideas and practices, rules and the laws mentioned in the Religious Scriptures of the majority
population, and India’s majority of the population belongs to the Hindu Religion. The Right -
Wing idealists do not appreciate the socio-cultural change which has been brought by the
globalization, and apparently from the western liberal ideologies. The Indian conservatives
supports the idea of the Government being inclined towards the majoritarian religion. The
current BJP (Bhartiya Janata Party) government is popular amongst the Indian masses
because of its firm stand for the idea of “Hindutva”, meaning prioritizing Hindu-ness and thus
the interests and the sentiments of the Hindu population of India. The justifications behind
the conservative and orthodox approach generally are,
1. India being the country of the origin of Hindus, their identity and philosophies and the
only country which possesses the Hindu majority in the whole world.
2. India has been invaded and ruled by various foreign invaders, such as Mughals and
British. Hence the Hindu Majority has suffered numerous socio-cultural damages.
The Right-wing supporters have created their significant presence on the social media
platform. They communicate their views and ideological stands in support of current regime
every passing second on the social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. However, any
group which primarily supports their own religious ideas and identity can be considered as
Right Wing.
Indian Left Wing: The Indian left wing believes in the liberal idealism, where the orthodox
sociocultural and religious approaches and frames are constantly challenged and modified.
The left wing supports the globalization, open boarders for immigrants, separation of religion
from the government, welfare state, socialism, social equality, etc. In India, the left wing
constantly expresses its descent against the current right wing supported regime for their
policies and their frequently polarizing approaches. Rather than emphasizing on religious
values, traditions and sentiments, it extends its support for the Constitution of India. The left
believes in equal rights for women, secularism, and pluralism. It firmly believes in the idea of
India, i.e., “Unity in Diversity”. The current regime has always prioritized their efforts of image
building on social media and hence left wing has also made their presence visible by criticizing
the Right-Wing ideas time to time.
Classification of Political Parties in India on the basis Left wing and right-wing
• Socially right-wing: There are three socially right-wing parties in India on the aspects
of religion. These are: - the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena, All India Majlis-e-
Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM);
• Socially left-wing: Remaining parties are socially left-wing because they are secular
parties. These are: - the Indian National Congress (INC), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Janta
Dal-United (JDU), All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), Communist Party of India-
Marxist (CPI-M);
• Economically left-wing: – Almost every party in India is economically left-wing because
they support subsidies and want to increase taxes. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
was closed until the 1990s in India.
At the same time, they oppose the death penalty and support same-sex marriage which
shows characteristics of left-wing ideology. But parties do not support or oppose any issue
openly in India. (Kumar, 2020)
Methodology and Method:
Qualitative analysis: For the qualitative analysis of memes, textual analysis is proposed with
the approach of semiotic analysis. The theoretical framework of semiotic analysis will be used
to identify the signifier and the signified elements in the meme. Apart from that, the choice
of word, design elements and location of the text will be analysed.

Sampling:
Non probability purposive sampling method is considered for this research study.
The popular pages on Facebook India will be first identified and categorized on the basis of
their own claims and content as either “Right leaning” or “Left leaning”. The content posted
by these pages referring to the major events in the last two year of India, will be considered
for sampling.
Bibliography:
Cannizzoro, S. (2016). Internet memes as internet signs: A semiotic view of digital culture.
Sign Systems Studies. Lincoln School of Film and Media, U.K.
Chandler, R. (2013). Meme World Syndrome: A Critical Discourse Analysis of The First World
Problems and Third World Success Internet Memes, University of Central Florida.
Davison, P. (2015). The Language of Internet Memes. Social Media Reader. NEW YORK
University Press. (p. 120- 136)
Huntington, H. E. (2017). The Affect and Effect of Internet Memes: Assessing Perceptions and
Influence of Online User-Generated Political Discourse as Media. Colorado State University.
Kearney, R. (2019). Meme Frameworks: A Semiotic Perspective on Internet Memes. VIDEO
JOURNAL OF EDUCATION AND PEDAGOGY
Kulkarni, A. (2017). Internet Meme and Political Discourse: A study on the impact of internet
meme as a tool in communicating political satire. Journal of Content, Community and
Communication. Amity School of Communication.
Riabko, C. (2019). Political Memes in Canada: Participation and Justin Trudeau, University of
Calgary.
Shifman, L. (2013). Memes in a Digital World: reconciling with a conceptual troublemaker.
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. Department of Communication and
Journalism, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Wagener, A. (2020). The Postdigital Emergence of Memes and GIFs: Meaning, Discourse, and
Hypernarrative Creativity. Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Wiggins, E. B., (2019). The Discursive Power of Memes in Digital Culture: Ideology, Semiology,
Intertextuality. Routledge.
Discord: A new space for online communities and social interactions.

Introduction, Scope and Relevance:

Discord is an American Voice Over Internet (VoIP), messaging and online networking platform
designed for creating communities. The Discord allows the user to create their own server
and add members to it. A discord user can also create channels dedicated for various
purposes, such as for discussions over text and voice chat for his/her community members.
So, in a way, servers are a collection of persistent chat rooms and voice chat channels. Discord
was ideally focused on the communication amongst the gamers/e-sports players while
playing a game, which later on allowed them to form communities, the idea which was
originally implemented by Twitch. According to Wikipedia, in July 2019 Discord reached to
250 million mark in their user count.
In India, the discord was popularised by the Youtubers such as Tanmay Bhat, Samay Raina,
SunRayBee, The Deshbhakt (Akash Banerjee), Thugesh, etc. These youtubers formed their
own communities by constantly promoting their Discord servers in their YouTube videos.
Avalon Meta founded by Varun Mayya, identifies itself as a virtual campus. The Discord server
of Avalon Meta provides numerous educational resources to its communities through various
channels as well as conduct skills- based training webinars. Apart from this many of the Indian
discord servers are dedicated for gaming. The Discord also provides the option to keep a
private server. In this area, many of the students these days have created their study circles,
book clubs, or a safe online space to carry unbothered discussions and many other activities.
The Discord application is still fairly new in India, however, the popular online multiplayer
games such as “Among US”, “PUBG”, Call of Duty”, etc. have brought this application in
mobiles, tablets and laptops of the Indian millennials. The Indian Youtubers have transmitted
this application even further in their audience. The Discord application has the potential to
gain even more popularity amongst Indian millennials. Maybe in a few years it may give
Facebook a tough challenge. It has already surpassed the old player like Skype. Hence it
becomes important to explore the functionality of this new medium and its uses and
gratifications for the Indian youth.

Literature Overview:
Computer Mediated Communication:
Luppicni (2006), cites Elmer-Dewitt (1994) While explaining the concept of Computer
Mediated Communication (CMC), “computer-mediated communications (CMC) are described
as communications, mediated by interconnected computers, between individuals or groups
separated in space and/or time. Common characteristics of CMC include: asynchronous and
synchronous communication capacity, high interactivity, and multiway communication. CMC
was first implemented in the United States through a computer network called ARPANET.
ARPANET offered a restricted multi-communication pathway linking universities and
government research institutes.”
In her assessment of Computer-Mediated communication on the Internet Susan Herring
traces the steps further from ARPANET to Usenet, the asynchronous bulletin board system in
which email messages are posted to a publicly available site. From Usenet, CMC further
evolved into Split Screen Protocols to chat (A synchronous message by message
transmission). On the internet, users would go to chat site, join “channels” (on IRC) or
“rooms” (on AOL). Apart from public chat, the platforms for the private chat were also availed.
With the help of ‘CUseeMe’ program people could interact audio-visually with the each other
for the first time. In 1995, www.pulver.com introduced free telephony through internet.
Herring in her conclusion, states the future scope for CMC,
“It has been said that Internet years are like dog years-one Internet year is equivalent to seven
pre-Internet years in terms of the amount of change that takes place. If that is so, then we
have already experienced in the past fifteen years more than a century ‘s worth of change-
longer than the average human life span. And many of us are not yet old, meaning that we
can look forward to more change (and more learning) in the future. One of the great promises
of CMC research, with all its interdisciplinary diversity, is that it will eventually reveal to us
the underlying principles, the systematic dimensions of variation, that can account for the
relationship between features of communication media and human communication more
generally.” (Herring, L.)
While Discord might market itself as an alternative for gamers, and its core functionality of
text- and voice-based communication is comparable to (if perhaps more sophisticated than)
that of similar programs like Skype, its cultural significance and purpose is determined not
just by its developers but by the many different groups of Discord users.
James Baguley in his research study of “Gates and channels: An ANT-oriented approach to
understanding fan community behaviour and identity on a Discord chat server”, provides the
overview on online community formation in his literature review. He sites Coleman (2011), to
establish the idea of internet- enabled communication technologies have removed the
geographical boundaries and proximity as necessity for socialisation. Pointing towards the
convergence on media platforms, Baguley makes the case of digital communities which are
based on common grounds such as hobbies, ideology or shared consumption media, rather
than place. Scholars in cultural studies and media studies recognise internet-enabled
communities as fertile and evolving locations for research into new forms of communication
and social space. (Squire and Johnson, (2000) as cited by Baguley, (2019))

Uses and Gratification Theory for social media:

The Uses and Gratification theory discusses the effects of the media on people. It explains
how people use the media for their own need and get satisfied when their needs are fulfilled.
In other words, it can be said that the theory argues what people do with media rather than
what media does to people.
There are several needs and gratification for people. They are categorized into five needs.
 ▪ Cognitive needs
▪ Affective needs
▪ Personal Integrative needs
▪ Social Integrative needs
▪ Tension free needs (Communication.org)

Kearny (2018) in her study, mentions Katz (1973) where her suggested, the uses and
gratification theory identifies that there are certain motives for media users for choosing the
platform to satisfy their needs, they are not merely the passive audience of the medium.
Whereas, the uses and gratification theory can’t be ignored in the age of new media, it has
offered the ultimate individualism with the help of CMC. Internet has enabled the audience
to be more active by providing the personalized mass communication medium (Ruggiero,
2000) as cited by (Kearny, 2018).
Social Networking sites are fairly new, hence mass communication researchers find the area
of U&G theory research for SNSs to assess the reasons of users to use a certain platform on
new media. The previous research has shown that the gratification of SNSs could be from
information distribution to a getting a venue for feedback to a platform to promote
organizations or even an opportunity to participate in a community of connected individuals
(Stassen, 2010) as cited by (Karimi, Khodabandelou, Ehsani, Ahmed, 2014)

Aim:
To study the functionality of Discord application and analyse the uses and gratifications of
Discord users in India.
Objectives:
1. To identify various features and communities on the Discord application.
2. To study the use cases of the functions availed on Discord Application.
3. To identify the demographics and psychographics of Discord users in India.
4. To find the various Discord use behaviours of Indian Youth.
5. To find the main gratifications of using Discord by Indian Youth.
6. To identify the competitive advantages, Indian Discord users find over other social
networking platforms.

Operational Definitions:
Discord: Discord is an American VoIP application, which allows users to create their own
server and for a community where, the members can communicate via text and voice chat,
they can also have video chat or share their device screen. Discord was publicly released in
2015, by the Jason Citron owned Hammer and Chisel company. As of 2019, Discord reached
250 million users mark worldwide.

Methodology and Method:

The objectives of this study seek to categorise the Discord user own the basis of their
demographics and psychographics. Apart from the structural research, the study also seeks
to find the behavioural practices of the Discord users on the platform based on their motives.
Hence the elaborated surveys as well as the in-depth interviews of the Discord users is
proposed for the study.
This research also plans to study the functionality of the medium, hence the features of the
medium will be observed and Qualitatively analysed.
Hence the study has to be carried with the Triangulation method, where, the qualitative
analysis of the features of Discord and the content of in-depth interviews along with the
Quantitative analysis for the categorization of themes and use cases, could effectively
complete the proposed objectives.

Sampling:
For the sampling purposes, non-probability purposive sampling will be used.
1. Various Indian public and private discord servers,
2. Survey Questionnaires
3. In-depth interviews.

Bibliography:
Baguley J. (2019). Gates and Channels, An ANT-oriented approach to understanding fan
community behaviour and identity on a Discord chat server. Cultures Program, Department
of Media and Communications. University of Sydney.
Herring, S. Computer-Mediated Communication on the Internet. Herring Indiana University.
Karimi, L., Khodabandelou, R., Ehsani, M., Ahmed, M. (2014). Applying the Uses and
Gratifications theory to compare higher education students’ motivation for using social
networking sites: Experiences from Iran, Malaysia, United Kingdom and South Africa.
Contemporary Educational Technology. (p 53-72)
Kearny A. (2018). Uses and Gratification of Posting Selfies on Social Media. Rochester Institute
of Technology.
Luppicini, R. (2006). Review of computer mediated communication research for education.
Department of Communication, University of Ottawa.
Reality Check with Satire: Content analysis of the Indian current-affairs based
satire shows on YouTube.

Introduction, Scope and Relevance:

The news related content or the informative content are mostly conveyed in a serious
manner, where the facts are discussed on the basis of their logics far away from any humorous
undertones. In India this construct about the informative content first seemed to be altered
in the news parody show by Cyrus Barocha, “The Week That Wasn’t”. Cyrus starts the show
with a cold open monologue about the contemporary current affairs, and hit the viewers with
the tagline, “It’s called the week that wasn’t!”. The show takes the very alternative take on
the current events, by imitating their context in exaggerated fictional situation. The similar
kind of structure could be seen in NDTV’s show in 2000’s called “The Great Indian Tamasha”,
in which, the parodies of the prominent personalities used to be created with the help of
puppets. Here again, the contexts of the real-world contemporary events were parodied by
re-constructing in puppetry world. The humour in informative content in India then further
evolved on new media. The group of comedians called the “All India Bakchod” (AIB) gained
popularity by making the comic sketches on YouTube. In 2015 they created their very own
infotainment show called “On Air with AIB”. In this show, a bunch of comedians: Tanmay Bhat,
Gursimran Khamba, Rohan Joshi and Ashish Shakya used to take a contemporary social issue
and highlight the issue by incorporating satire in its explanation. The show was earlier
launched on HotStar (Currently Known as Disney Hotstar), was later on aired on the Television
GEC called Star-Plus. It lasted for 3 seasons and later called off. This show was the first
instance ever where somebody was explaining the news in the lingo of Indian millennials and
youngsters. The “On Air with AIB” show inspired many other content creators to produce the
content with satirical approach for the contemporary issues and current affairs. Several
Independent media companies on digital platforms such as YouTube have taken specialised
efforts in recent times to create the content which presents the facts about the current affairs
and later take the sarcastic and satirical take on it, or sometimes they make a parodical
sketches around these issues. The examples of such content creators are: “New Laundry”,
“The Satya Show”, “News Clickin”, “The Deshbhakt” (Akash Banerjee) and “Fun Tantra” (RJ
Ronak), etc. The presenters on these YouTube channels have developed their own style and
structure of communicating their views about the current contemporary issues mainly in the
context of Indian sociocultural, political and mainstream media practices. The previous
studies have shown that the political satire or satirical takes on the current affairs have had a
massive shift in the news consuming patterns of the audiences, specifically in youth of current
generation. The mainstream Indian media does not hold the same reputation once it had in
the history. Now a days, mainstream media is accused of their biased approach towards the
government and unethical media practices such as TRP Scams. In such times, the independent
infotainment content creators on YouTube India have come to the rescue of the Indian
people. Indian netizens not only get their news but also get a few laughs from otherwise
depressing issues. Hence to acknowledge such content creators and to provide the academic
presence to their content becomes very important. This study proposes for the content
analysis of the Indian independent content creators on YouTube, by studying their narrative
styles, the ways the incorporate humour in their content, and also the interrelation between
the contexts of their satirical approach and real-world issue.

Literature Overview:

Infotainment: News with Entertainment

The term “infotainment” is amalgamation of two different terms, ‘information’ and
‘entertainment’. The genre of presenting facts in satirical, parodical and sarcastic manner to
invoke humour, gained popularity in Western countries, through the shows like “Real Time
with Bill Maher”, “Last Week Tonight” by John Olivier, “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah”,
etc. etc. Turner (2016) in her analytical study of the show, “Last Week Tonight”, gives the
overview of the research done on the infotainment genre in academic studies. She refers to
Russell (2013) while explaining how the phenomenon of fake news was first associated with
“the form of remix which employ, irony and/or satire to imitate popular news forms,
sources, and content in order to critique them.”
While giving the reference of study of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart (McKain, 2005),
Turner (2016) highlights that “Jon Stewart draws on corporate news media culture, mocks it,
offers people an alternative, and contributes to the construction of forms of engagement
that are acting partly at least to revive civic culture”, where as in Jon Stewart is mentioned
as one of the founders of the fake news comedy programs in American context.
Postman (1985) as cited by Turner (2016), was not in the favour of incorporating the
entertainment in politics. He did not appreciate the broadcast media’s entertainment focused
approach to production of news programs. He argued that, it blurred the line between the
information and fiction, of entertainment and work. In his words,
“demarcation line between what is show business and what is not becomes harder to see
with each passing day,”
However, in the counter view, researchers like Van Zoonan, saw politics, entertainment and
news in positive light.
The political society has been infused with entertainment hence understanding the benefits
of this fusion to the public proves to be useful. Van Zoonen recognizes the flaws within the
popular culture, but she also highlights the potential of popular culture in creating an effect
in public discourse. Van Zoonen disagrees with Postman, and believes that infotainment does
not destroy the forms of discourse, on the contrary, it has given one more way of
communication.
“van Zoonen’s advice has particular relevance when examining a program like the Daily Show.
Scholars have debated if the program makes citizenship pleasurable, engaging and inclusive,
or if it leaves citizens feeling disillusioned and bitter about political society”
“With this merging of entertainment and politics, programming must accomplish dual tasks:
These programs must be “entertaining in the sense that they make citizenship simply more
pleasurable for more people, but they also offer instruments to think about what citizenship
should mean, and they invite a hospitable surrounding for the performance of citizenship,”
(van Zoonen, 2005, p. 147) as cited by (Turner 2016)

Aim: To analyse the humorous approach of the Indian Digital Media in current affairs
commentary shows on YouTube.
Objectives:
1) To study the which kinds of humour is incorporated in the content of the Infotainment
content creators on YouTube.
2) To study the Satirical approach of the Infotainment content creators in their
assessment of the Indian contemporary current affairs.
3) To study the Satirical approach of the infotainment content creators, in their
assessment of the mainstream (TV) news media.
4) To study the different narrative styles used in Digital media’s content for producing
humour through the information.
5) To locate the references the infotainment content creators take, from entertainment
media and traditional journalism.

Methodology:
The research deemed the ‘triangulation’ approach to be the best fit for the purpose of this
study. Qualitative approach will form a major part of this study followed by quantitative
approach.
Methods –
Quantitative method – Content Analysis
Primary stages of the analysis will comprise of conducting a Content Analysis on the selected
sample in order identify and enumerate the individualities of the messages inscribed into the
text as an approach encompassing the broader, empirical elements of the narrative.
Qualitative method – Textual Analysis
In order to trace out the objectivity and humor adopted in the infotainment show, textual
analysis was chosen to be the most appropriate method.
Sampling:
Non-probability purposive sampling was considered to be the most suitable for this research
taking into consideration its requirements. Textual analysis as a method requires a certain
amount of subjectivity on the researcher’s part. When following a qualitative research design,
non-probability sampling techniques, such as purposive sampling, can provide researchers
with strong theoretical reasons for their choice of units (or cases) to be included in their
sample. Thus, non-probability purposive sampling will allow the researcher to select articles
in order to build a strong argument.

Sampling Source:
As the research is focused on the independent infotainment content creators on YouTube,
the samples will be decided from either of the following shows.
• “Bharat Ek Khoj”: Sanjeev Rajora, (News clickin)
• Bhakt Banerjee, and The Deshbhakt with Akash Banerjee
• TV Newsance: Manisha Pandey (News Laundry)
• NL Tippani: Atul Chaurasiya (News Laundry)
• The Satya Show
• Funtantra (RJ Ronak)

Bibliography:
McKain, A. (2005). Not necessarily not the news: Gatekeeping, remediation, and The Daily
Show. The Journal of American Culture, 28(4), 415-430.
Postman, Neil & Postman, Andrew. (2005). Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in
the Age of Show Business.
Russell, A. (2013). Networked: A contemporary history of news in transition. New York, NY:
John Wiley & Sons
Turner, B. (2016) Conversing with the Catatonic: An Analysis of Humour and Hostility,
Education and Mobilization in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver Department of Media
Studies. University of Colorado Boulder
Zoonen, L.. (2005). Entertaining the citizen: When politics and popular culture converge.
Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.