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Coverage of International News Content in Indian English Dailies (A study

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 ISSN : 2454-2415 Vol. 7, Issue 6, June, 2019

Coverage of International News Content in Indian English Dailies

(A Study based on news vis-a-vis views classification in The Tribune, Hindustan Times, The Times of
India & The Indian Express)

Vijayta Taneja
Assistant Professor, Journalism & Mass Communication
Lyallpur Khalsa College , Jalandhar
Contact No. 917889132966
vijaytakapoor@gmail.com

Abstract A newspaper bears the burden of

The agenda setting function of news media is always held
responsible for grabbing the attention of masses towards
various local, regional, national as well as international
issues. The Indian English print media, in this context
occupies a special place, as it is the medium which has
been gaining momentum in India even though its
readership has been on decline in Western nations. The
international news content reported in Indian English
dailies in the form of news, articles, features and
editorials frames the perspectives on international issues
in the mind of its readers. Although the news stories
constitute the best format to inform the masses about the
international happenings, but the various newspaper
formats i.e. editorials, articles, features etc. play a
significant role in creating an opinion on the issues
reported through news stories. This research paper
explores the type of formats and the space accorded to
those formats through which the international issues
reach the Indian readers. The two newspapers The Times
of India(1838) and The Tribune(1881) which are
reminiscence of first and second halves of 19th Century
and two other ones. The Hindustan Times(1924) and The
Indian Express(1931) bearing testimony to first half of
20th Century when country was struggling hard to throw
away the British from the country, have been explored
here for their international importance. It has been quite
significant and interesting to note down and analyze the
quantum of international coverage in these newspapers.
Keywords: Articles, Editorials, , Features,
International news coverage, Perspectives
Introduction
The information which travels from the source to the
news organizations via means of reporters, stringers
and correspondents has acquired the status of
commodity which is molded according to different
perceptions before it actually reaches the readers.
Their perceptions are defined in a way in which the
issues are presented to them by their media of
exposure. Hatchens(2011) stresses on the different
shades of the news prism which present the different
aspects of a news item. For instance the standoff
between India and Pakistan as published in
newspapers of China would be biased in favor of
Pakistan. Likewise, the conflict between Israel and
Palestine would be reported differently in different
newspapers around the world.
publishing each kind of story. Each newspaper has
its own set of rules, policies, guidelines, and
priorities. They can never be guided what to publish
and what not to publish. But whatever is getting
published in the newspapers throws reflections on
how these newspapers deal with different kind of
stories. Today, there is no dearth of news sources.
Besides the national and international news
agencies, there are innumerous sources available to
the media organizations due to advent of new
information and communication technologies. What
makes the news depends on the media only. What is
in news or what has to be in the news is completely
the choice of newspapers.
In political, economical, social, diplomatic
and media echelons, the convenience of access to
whatever is getting published on international issues
is very significant as it may underline the
international policy frameworks in the various
countries and draw the attention of the world
community. Moreover, today we exist beyond the
national frontiers. The shift from nationality to
internationality compels the nations to think in
global and glocal context. The world can thus now
not only peep into the international perspectives
through these newspapers but can gauge the
ramifications of international affairs. For instance,
what the Indian media has been talking about leaders
in America, UK or anywhere else or what the
Western media has been talking about the Indian
leaders is highly important to understand not only
the political underpinnings, but is also important to
observe the public mood and opinion across the
world.
Unlike the electronic media, the
newspapers have the added advantage of providing
in-depth analysis of international affairs. The
newspapers may not have the advantage of visual
presentation like the electronic media, yet they are
surely in a position to enhance textual and
contextual value of a story. Thus, the role of print
media seems to be very important in international
communication and thereby the intercultural
communication.

52
International Journal of Innovative Knowledge Concepts, 7(6) June, 2019
 ISSN : 2454-2415 Vol. 7, Issue 6, June, 2019
Objectives of the study
This study, based on content analysis of
four leading regional and national English dailies in
India i.e. The Tribune, Hindustan Times, Times of
India and The Indian Express has been carried out
with following objectives:
1. To trace the international issues in the leading
newspapers in India so as to understand the
quantum of international coverage in the
present times and thereby, understand the role
of print media.
2. To analyze the write-up wise breakup of
international stories i.e. news, articles and
editorials so as to understand the nature of
editorial content in these newspapers.
Hypotheses
The hypotheses of the study are as following:
1. Today, in the age of globalization when the
print media too has come of its age, the
newspapers, both regional and national are
in a position to give considerable space of
international issues.
2. The international stories get more coverage
as hard news than opinion pieces i.e.
articles and editorials.
Research Methodology
As the primary focus of this research is to
examine and analyze the contemporary international
issues and perspectives in leading English dailies i.e.
The Tribune, Hindustan Times, The Times of India
and The Indian Express, the most reliable and
appropriate research methodology comes out to be
content analysis only. This is the widely used
method for the descriptive studies, in which the main
focus is to study the content quantitatively. In 1952,
Berelson defined content analysis as “a research
technique for the objective, systematic and
quantitative description of the manifest content of
communication”.
Universe: The universe of this study is English
language newspapers in India. As per the latest
report of Press in India 2016-17(RNI), the total
number of English newspapers and periodicals
registered in India are 14,365.
Sample: Four leading English Newspapers The
Tribune, Hindustan Times, The Indian Express and
The Times of India have been selected keeping in
mind their socio-historical importance, regional and
national prominence and circulation in India.
Sample size and units of analysis: To answer the
research questions raised for this study, the units of
analysis have been withdrawn from all the four
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International Journal of Innovative Knowledge Concepts, 7(6) June, 2019
select English newspapers for a period of six months
beginning from July 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014.
During this period of study, 182 issues of each
newspaper or in other words, total 728 issues of all
these four newspapers have been scrutinized and
analyzed for their international news coverage.
Categorization and Tabulation
The newspaper content including the News
stories, News features, Features, Editorials, Articles
on editorial and op-ed pages have been categorized
for the purpose of study. However certain stories
which have international bearing like sports page
news and page-3 stories or stories having light
entertainment have not been included in the study as
these stories demand specific kind of analysis. The
data collected from all the four newspapers has been
subjected here on the basis of categorizations like
total Advertisement and Editorial content ratio and
total area given to the international news content.
The latter has been further analyzed according to
write-up wise break up, page-wise breakup and
source of news.
Data Analysis and Interpretation
The Indian Readership Survey 2017 report, released
on Jan 18, 2018 places all the selected dailies among
top 10 English dailies in India. However, there is not
even a single newspaper among English dailies to
score any position among top 10 most read dailies of
India. The results of the study show that 39%
Indians above the age of 12 read newspapers, which
points towards bright future of print media in India.
The contribution has risen from the rural India,
which make the findings more significant. The
report mentions that total readership of English
dailies across the country was up by 10% since
2014. As the table 1 indicates, The Times of India is
highly read daily in India and maintains a
considerable difference in its readership figure,
almost double in figures than Hindustan Times and
far ahead of The Indian Express and The Tribune.
On the other hand, The Indian Express, a national
daily and The Tribune, a regional daily, although are
much behind in readership figures than The Times of
India and Hindustan Times, do not differ much in
their readership figures. Here, it is noteworthy that
The Tribune has maintained its existence among
other national dailies in the list of top 10 English
dailies of India. Advertisements have been the most
important source of revenue generation and the
growth of media sector can be registered and
understood in terms of revenue generation only.
Advertising revenues of print media are likely to
grow at a much slower rate than other industries
(KPMG).(p.3) The Table 1 given below, though, do
not elaborate upon advertisements in terms of
 ISSN : 2454-2415 Vol. 7, Issue 6, June, 2019

revenue generation, yet it shows the total share of

advertisements and editorial content in all the four
newspapers selected for the study.
Table 1: Advertising and Editorial Content Ratio
in the Newspapers %
Total Print
Area Total Editorial
Adv (sq. cm.)
No. Total
covered Content(News
Newspaper of Area
under and Views)
pages (sq. cm.)
Advertising (sq. cm.)
(sq. cm.)
22,53,771 39,61,829
TT 3808 6215600
(36%) (64%) Fig 1.1
HT 3205
19,65,600 35,34,180
5499780
The table 1 clearly shows that these newspapers
(36%) (64%) have given due importance to the editorial content
23,46,100 30,54,808 on their pages i.e. news and views. The Ad-Ratio as
TOI 3186 5400907.2
(43%) (57%)
indicated below comes out to be 36 percent each for
12,19,673 45,98,458
IE 3457
(21%) (79%)
5818131 The Tribune and Hindustan Times. However, the
remarkable difference has been noted in the case of
The Times of India(43%) and The Indian
Express(21%). The higher is the circulation, the
more will be the number of advertisements. The
Indian readership survey report for 2014 places The
Times of India as the most read English daily of not
only India but for the world. However, in

North India, where this representative sample has newspapers like Hindustan Times and The Times of
been chosen from, The Tribune stands first in India in providing more space to international
circulation figures. Yet, the Ad-Ratio in all these coverage.
four newspapers has been within the considerable Table 2: Write-up wise breakup of international
limits. In other words, this Ad-Ratio leaves an ample coverage
scope for the coverage of news and views or in other
words, the readers get sufficient material to read
from their respective newspapers. International news (%)
As this study is focused on coverage of international
news stories in all these newspapers, the six monthly TT
data reveals that international coverage in The
Tribune, Hindustan Times, The Times of India and HT
The Indian Express remained 11%,10%, 9% and
TOI
16% respectively. It is evident from table 2 that The
Indian Express has given more coverage to IE
international news and views than The Tribune,
Hindustan Times and The Times of India. Besides
The Indian Express, only The Tribune as a regional
newspaper has maintained its lead over national

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International Journal of Innovative Knowledge Concepts, 7(6) June, 2019
 ISSN : 2454-2415 Vol. 7, Issue 6, June, 2019
Fig 2.1
Figure 2.1 further elaborates that though there is not
remarkable difference among three newspapers as
only The Indian Express(16%) is seen having more
international coverage but The Times of India lags
behind the others when it comes to total percentage
of coverage of international news stories. The Times
of India (9%) the most circulated English Daily in
India and in the world too, is specifically seen in
these two figures having lesser international
coverage than the others.
Fig 2.2
It is clear from above figure that The Indian Express
remained at top with its 2926 international write-ups
to be followed by Hindustan Times with its 2847
international write-ups and then The Tribune with its
2470 write-ups. The Times of India remained far
below with its 1766 international write-ups. All
these stories in IE, TT, HT and TOI respectively
covered 16%, 11%, 10% and 9% space with respect
to the total editorial content excluding
advertisements in these newspapers. Break-up of
these international write-ups into news stories,
editorials, articles and news features shows that
most of the international coverage remains in the
form of hard news only.
Here, a national newspaper(The Indian
Express)competes with another national
newspaper(Hindustan Times), whereas a regional
newspaper(The Tribune) is far ahead of a national
newspaper with world’s highest circulation(The
Times of India). Going by the number of total write-
ups i.e. both news and views, the table 3 clearly
shows that it is only The Times of India, which lags
behind from rest of the newspapers under the study.
Here, it is seen as publishing only 1766 write-ups,
whereas The Indian Express, Hindustan Times and
The Tribune are fairly above this figure. On an
average, these three newspapers have been
publishing 487, 474 and 411 write ups respectively
to explore information of international importance.
Compared to these three newspapers, The Times of
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International Journal of Innovative Knowledge Concepts, 7(6) June, 2019
India is seen publishing 294 write-ups only in a
month. However, when the total count of these
write-ups spread over six months is seen in terms of
space covered in square centimeters, it is only The
Indian Express, which is much ahead of the others.
The table 3 shows, it is more than 7 lakh square
centimeters space in The Indian Express and though
The Tribune and Hindustan Times are at second and
third position but their space-wise coverage ranges
between 3.5 lakhs to 4.5 lakhs square centimeters.
The table highlights that The Indian Express is fairly
exceeding the remaining three newspapers as far as
the total editorial content is concerned.
International coverage in all these four
newspapers comprises of mainly the news content.
In Hindustan Times, The Tribune and The Times of
India, newsfeed is seen to be 95%, 93% and 92%
respectively, whereas in The Indian Express, it is
81%. The data shows that these newspapers have
been fairly reporting current activities of
international importance. News is defined as the in-
depth report of an event. Therefore, the readers of
these newspapers have been getting news about
what has been happening in the world. Moreover, it
is the hard news, which catches the readers or in
other words, the readers largely turned to the
newspapers for hard news.
The opinion of the editors and editorial
boards in the form of editorials is backbone of the
newspapers. These are those pieces, which present
the official stance of a newspaper on various issues
and let the others to understand the policy of the
newspaper or the organization. The table 3
highlights that these newspapers provided a
bountiful supply of editorials (3-4% of total
international coverage) on international issues and
helped understand their perspectives on
international affairs. Besides news stories and
editorials, The Indian Express remained ahead of
other newspapers while publishing articles and news
features on international affairs. Here too, The
Indian Express remained at the top with its 303
articles. The rest of the three newspapers remained
far behind. Only The Tribune, somehow reached at
83, while Hindustan Times and The Times of India
published only 47 and 43 articles respectively. All
these findings highlight that The Indian Express has
been doing exceedingly well than rest of the
newspapers in international coverage domain.
Conclusion
Being the oldest mass media, the
newspapers still have an edge over the other media
when it comes to informing the world as the printed
word command comparatively more trust and
credibility and thus help shape and reshape public
opinion to a large extent. Contrary to global trends,
 ISSN : 2454-2415 Vol. 7, Issue 6, June, 2019
India publishing industry will continue to grow,
driven by expected significant increase in literacy
levels, educational needs and aspiration to consume
news in local languages, as stated in the PWC’s
report based on 54 countries. The growth of online
and e-newspapers has further increased the reach of
print media.
First hypothetical statement of
this study that today, in the age of globalization
when the print media too has come of its age, the
newspapers, both regional and national are in a
position to give considerable space of international
issue has been found true as these newspapers have
given due importance to the editorial content on
their pages i.e. news and views. The Ad-Ratio comes
out to be 36 percent each for The Tribune and
Hindustan Times. However, the remarkable
difference has been noted in the case of The Times
of India (43%) and The Indian Express (21%) only.
The higher is the circulation, the more will be the
number of advertisements. The Ad-Ratio in all these
four newspapers has been within the considerable
limits. In other words, this Ad-Ratio leaves an ample
scope for the coverage of news and views or in other
words, the readers get sufficient material to read
from their respective newspapers.
As this study is focused on coverage of
international news stories in all these newspapers,
the six monthly data brings to the fore that
international coverage in The Tribune, Hindustan
Times, The Times of India and The Indian Express
which amounts to be 11%,10%, 9% and 16%
respectively is a good international treat for the
readers. On comparative notes, The Indian Express
has given more coverage to international news and
views than The Tribune, Hindustan Times and The
Times of India. The Tribune, though has been behind
The Indian Express in this regard, yet in spite of
being a regional newspaper, it has taken a lead over
the other two national newspapers Hindustan Times
and The Times of India in providing more space to
international coverage.
The second hypothesis of the study i.e. The
international stories get more coverage as hard news
than opinion pieces i.e. articles and editorials has
been proved true. The objective behind this
hypothesis was to analyze the write-up wise breakup
of international stories i.e. news, articles and
editorials so as to understand the nature of editorial
content in these newspapers. Going by the number
of total write-ups i.e. both news and views, data
shows that it is only The Times of India, which lags
References
Berelson, B. (1952). Content analysis in communication research. New York: the Free Press.
Hatchens, W. A. & Scotton, J.F., (2011). The world news prism: challenges of digital communication. (8th ed.).
New York: Wiley Publishers.
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International Journal of Innovative Knowledge Concepts, 7(6) June, 2019
behind from rest of the newspapers under the study.
On the basis of the findings, it can also be concluded
that the role of print media, especially the leading
English dailies, is highly significant in international
communication. This kind of communication is
necessary to understand global issues in varied
perspectives. In the age of social media, people
cannot be far away from each other and may have
firsthand account of many international issues on
their own. But the mass media dependence can never
be seen in minuscule proportions with the advent of
new media. The role of newspapers is going to be as
strong as ever. Newspapers still remain the powerful
light houses for the human caravan moving ahead in
varied directions with varied goals. What hits the
headlines, though, solely is prerogative of
newspaper, yet most of the international
communication reaches the readers as newsfeed.
During the period of study, these
newspapers provided a bountiful supply of editorials
on international issues and helped understand their
perspectives on international affairs. During the
period of study, 124, 80, 72 and 71 editorials were
published in The Indian Express, The Tribune,
Hindustan Times and The Times of India
respectively. For a six month period of study, these
are very promising figures as far as international
issues are concerned. Again, The Indian Express
remains much ahead of the other three newspapers.
Likewise, the articles too are important opinion
pieces in the newspaper. These opinion pieces on
editorial and op-ed pages not only provide a
platform to the writers, subject experts, eminent
personalities, freelancers or commoners to get
published in a newspaper but become an important
source of coverage for the newspapers. The diverse
opinion from diverse people for diverse walks of life
makes newspapers more rich and informative for the
readers. Moreover, opinion pieces on international
affairs present a global approach of the newspaper
and thus help the readers understand international
events, issues and affairs in a better perspective.
The bigger is the number of issues, the
wider is the coverage of nations, and the more will
be the awareness level of the readers. The frequency
of international news items in a newspaper also
reflects the editorial policy of a newspaper towards
a country, event or any occurrence. The events or
countries which are given more coverage in a
newspaper carry more importance than other
countries or events which are usually ignored by the
media of a country.
 ISSN : 2454-2415 Vol. 7, Issue 6, June, 2019

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International Journal of Innovative Knowledge Concepts, 7(6) June, 2019

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