A Comparative Study of Times of India & The Hindu on The Basis of The Culture-

Industry, Infotainment & Prominent Events’ Coverage of 2018

Final Project
MA(MC) - 154

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements

For the degree of Master of Arts (Mass Communication)

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Dr. Sarvesh D. Tripathi Ankit Puri
Assistant Professor Enrollment no.: 03320304018
MA(MC) II Semester

University School of Mass Communication

Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University
 Govt. of N.C.T. of Delhi
Sector 16-C, Dwarka, New Delhi

Topic Page Number

Acknowledgements

Certificate

Plagiarim report

Abstract

Introduction

Review of Literature

Objectives

Research Technique

Comparative Study of TOI & The Hindu

Conclusion

Table of Contents
 Acknowledgements

I wish to extend my heartfelt gratitude towards my institution University School of Mass

Communication (USMC), I.P. University for envisaging such a stupendous project.

I owe my deepest gratitude to my mentor Dr. Sarvesh Dutt Tripathi, without whose guidance
this dissertation would have been incomplete. He constantly guided me through my project
and gave his valuable advice and time for the same.

This project wouldn't have been a success without the support of the college management and
library authorities, who co-operated with me every single time, providing me to access to the
wealth of books that the library of IP university possesses. I am also thankful to my family
members for providing me the facilities to carry out this project. 

 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that, Ankit Puri, the student of University School of Mass Communication
(USMC), I.P. University, enrolled in course Masters in Mass Communication, roll number
033 has successfully completed the project on the topic "A Comparative Study of Major
Event Coverage by Times of India & The Hindu in 2018-19" under my guidance and
supervision. This project is in partial fulfilment of MMC 2nd semester programme, IP
University.

This project is independent research carried out by Ankit Puri. This has not been previously
submitted for any reward of diploma, degree, fellowship, or other title and has been
submitted to the subject in charge within a given time frame.

Signature of the Mentor Signature of the

Student

(Sarvesh Dutt Tripathi) (Ankit Puri)

Asst. Professor 033
USMC
IP UNIVERSITY
Plagiarism Report
 Abstract

In India, more than one lakh newspapers are published, among which the Times of India and
The Hindu have a great circulation PAN India. The importance of this study is to find out a
comparison between two major English Dailies on the basis of variables like culture industry,
infotainment; hard news, soft news, tabloidisation, advertising, readership & prominent
events’ coverage repeated during the sample size taken from 10th Dec, 2018 to 20th Dec,
2018 such as Rafale, Me Too, Hyper-Nationalism. It also educates us about the events, the
history of both Newspapers, the extent and actual nature of those changes in the form of
news, by comparison, different newspaper terminologies and also how some news is a
portmanteau of data and diversion which can or can not refers to a general variety of light-
hearted/serious programmes/issues.

The newspapers accomplish their input performance by business facts and opinions of social
connectedness, indicating however the general public feels regarding issues, and choices,
whereas their output role is consummated by providing the general public with info regarding
choices, political and social processes impacting on the culture.

The comparison takes place with the support of Qualitative Content Analysis, an un-obtrusive
research technique that does not take data directly from the people, helps in interpreting the
text, visuals systematically.
 Introduction
Most of the newspapers we have seen publish almost the same news sometimes because of
the agencies they have been affiliated with while others just because of the competition and
pressure, just because one organisation is doing it so will the others too, newspapers are more
than a mere replica of one and other and to find the differentiation if not among, but between
others we have decided to do a comparison between two major English Dailies of India - The
Times of India and The Hindu.

The TOI and The Hindu are major English dailies in India with a circulation of 2,826,164 &
1,397,944 respectively (IRS, 2017). We are going to compare both the newspapers on certain
parameters: (a) Culture Industry (b) Infotainment (c) Tabloidisation (d) Hard News - Soft
News (e) Advertising (f) Readership

Culture Industry
The term culture trade was coined by Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) and goop Horkheimer
(1895-1973). well-liked culture is sort of a manufacturing plant manufacturing standardised
cultural merchandise to govern the lots into acceptance with none selection of their own.
With the increase of the Culture trade, it's argued that culture is currently dominated by the
forces of market exchange and profit The logic of the culture trade is that of the commercial
mode of production and therefore the consumerist behaviour of commercial societies. there's
a loss of the liberty of thought during a culture trade.

The cultural industries area unit purportedly created from written agreement relationships
rather than individual skills, and cultural commodities area unit usually supported fashions or
fast utilities rather than unchanged creative ideas with made naivety. every bit of media will
have some form of impact on associate degree individual’s life whether or not that be
watching/reading news or taking note of an exact form of music and there may be other ways
that they will influence that influence on somebody may also disagree through their cultural
identity.

Infotainment
Infotainment refers to the segments of programming in news programs that overall contains
each "hard news" segments and interviews, in conjunction with celebrity interviews and
human drama stories, it's a portmanteau of data and diversion refers to a general variety of
light-hearted and non-serious media programmes, that gift event a lot of like featured stories
with no depth. It's associated with profane aspects of events, places, trends that do not mind
to assume however to urge pleased.

Historically, the term Infotainment show was used to discredit girl journalists World Health
Organisation were assigned news jobs. the news was expected to be consumed by sole ladies
(Portraits of American Women: From Settlement to the Present by Barker-Benfield, G. J. (16
October 1998).), however, eventually, it became the norm of stories media generally. skilled
journalism is meant to put a lot of stress on analysis, fact-checking, and public interest as a
result of the term "news" is sort of broad, the terms "hard" and "soft" denote each a
distinction in individual standards for news worth, similarly as for standards of conduct,
relative to the skilled ideals of print media integrity.

Tabloidisation
Tabloidisation is media trend involving a shift “away from government and foreign affairs” to
an additional entertainment-style of journalism (Bird, S. Elizabeth. (2009). Tabloidization:
What is it, and does it really matter?. 10.13140/2.1.2223.0404.), once a newspaper is
reworked into principally celebrity gossip and amusement news, it resembles additional of a
tabloid publication. this will either hurt or improve the ratings of a publication, looking on the
audience and also the nature of the content that was originally printed. Newspapers that
specialise in the news tend to figure arduous filling their empty area with data that would not
be confused with news, or tabloid journalism.

Abloidised news material will interact in political discussion, that includes national problems
and personalities to an equivalent extent as do the moralist spreadsheets. The tabloidised
components are often brought in once the writers report the news things from a private angle,
personalising any political arguments concerned, causing skepticism and pessimism by
implying that what's reported isn't the reality however is receptive discussion. A second issue
that problematises the standard understanding of tabloidisation is that the simple
rationalisation of the propensity to tabloidize as arising only from the urge to form larger
sales. Studies have shown that the tabloidisation method has resulted in serious media
moving towards the news values of tabloids.

However, despite denouncement of tabloids, the extent and actual nature of those changes are
controversial by bound writers. Some have questioned whether or not these changes have
attainable damaging consequences for society resulting in suggestions that tabloidisation
damages the general public sphere by “transforming the print media culture from a supply of
mass enlightenment and civic authorisation to a reason for mass pacification and intellectual
degeneration”.

The media accomplish their input perform by business facts and opinions of social
connectedness, indicating however the general public feels regarding issues, folks, and
choices, whereas their output role is consummated by providing the general public with info
regarding choices, political and social processes and also the form of government This creates
a mediated public sphere, an area wherever the general public will access social dialogues

Tabloidisation mitigates against the general public sphere, by operating on to the creation of
general truths, general principles, that might guide the formulation and implementation of the
mandatory regulation of social life.

Hard News & Soft News

Hard news may be a term most frequently utilised by journalists et al. UN agency add the
media trade, tho' you'll hear others outside the trade use the term. news is that the quite fast
news that sometimes seems on the front page of newspapers. Stories that constitute the
umbrella of news usually take care of topics like business, politics and international news.
Hard news and news area unit thought of the 2 major sorts of news stories on the market.
latest news and events that need immediate news area unit thought of arduous whereas
options and news that's thought of background data or human-interest area unit thought of as
news. the topic matter that's sometimes thought of news includes Politics, war, economics,
and crime. On the flip aspect, the arts, diversion and style stories area unit thought of to be
news in nature.

What defines news isn't regarding the topic matter. Some would possibly decision a
newspaper article news as a result of it's heavily reported—even tho' it's a topic matter
thought of softer (like entertainment). it's doable to examine news' options that will be
thought of each arduous and soft, like a story regarding the business dealings and personal
life of an eminent media mogul, a feat some to marvel if it's a business or a lifestyle story. Or
presumably a story on major vogue or renovation trends touching the sale and price of homes
in a very booming housing market that once more, maybe a mix of style and business.

The major distinction between arduous and news is that the tone within which the story is
given. news sometimes takes on a factual approach that explains what happened, UN agency
the most people concerned were and wherever and once everything happened and why.

Soft news stories will be given in a very style of ways that, however they typically attempt to
entertain or advise the reader in a way. Stories, like "Top ten ways that to Stretch once a Run
to Ease carboxylic acid," area unit thought of news, as area unit a lot of in-depth diversion
options, like the lives and scandals of famed politicians. it's necessary to notice that despite
the fact that some stories could also be thought of news in vogue, they'll use a soft lead-in to
capture the reader's interest (and heart).

In general, news needs a distinct approach to steer writing and area unit usually referred to as
delayed leads as a result of they begin telling a story before reaching to the most facts. Soft-
news lead-ins tend to be narrative or anecdotal in nature, wherever they tell a story rather
than stating necessary facts. Feature stories (soft stories that area unit a bit longer and a lot of
reflective) usually use soft lead-ins and use a lot of descriptive and vibrant language before
inquisitor more. Such stories begin with setting the tone and introducing the reader to the
atmosphere encompassing the story, before jumping into the UN agency, what, when,
wherever and whys. The story might then be finished up with a conclusion like those of a lot
of ancient structures of storytelling.
Advertising in Newspapers
As technology continues to modernise however the information is accessed, advertisers are
faced with the constant challenge of the way to best reach and interact with customers,
whereas there is a range of mediums to settle on from, newspapers (print) still remains
supreme, providing a variety of great advantages that can't be found elsewhere, not even on
the tv, radio, and the internet (newsworks.org.uk). Different type of Newspaper ads are (a)
Display (b) Insert (c) Classified (d) House.

Newspaper Readership
is the number of people who read a newspaper or another publication. To calculate the
readership for newspapers and different mediums, first, confirm the circulation. Circulation
includes all copies within the hands of the general public, whether or not sold-out or given
away. the other part of the print audience is readers per copy, which means that more than one
person can use one copy of a newspaper or magazine. The formula for the audience is RPC
increased by circulation x 2.5. 1000 copies sold would have a readership of 2500 people.
 HISTORY OF THE NEWSPAPERS

The Hindu:

Est. 1878 by a group of 6 men led by G. Subramania Iyer. The newspaper started printing at
its own press, christened 'The National Press', established on borrowed capital. It issued a
quarter-size paper with a front-page full of advertisements until 1958. In the late 1980's its
ownership passed into hands of the family's younger members.

Worldpress.org lists The Hindu as a left-leaning independent newspaper. This political

polarisation is supposed to have taken place since N. Ram took over as editor-in-chief on
June 27, 2003.

The Hindu is a family-run business. It was headed by G. Kasturi from 1965 to 1991, N. Ravi
from 1991 to 2003, and by his brother, N. Ram, since June 27th 2003. Other family members
are directors of The Hindu and its parent company, Kasturi and Sons.

The Times of India:

The Times of India was founded on Nov 3, 1838 as The Bombay Times and Journal of
Commerce, and served the British residents of western India. It adopted its present name in
1861. Originally British owned and controlled, its last British editor was Ivor S. Jehu, who
resigned the editorship in 1950.

The Times of India is owned by Bennet, Coleman & Company (Controlled by Indu and
Vineet Jain) popularly known as The Times Group which also publishes The Economic
Times, Mumbai Mirror, TIMES NOW, Femina & Filmfare, Planet M, Radio Mirchi and
indiatimes.com web portal to name a few.

It has been by and large viewed as a pro-establishment paper. It tends to vary in its support
between the BJP and Congress Party, depending on who holds the reins of the Central
Government. The executive editor at present is Jaideep Bose. It has come under attack
because of tabloidisation of its content and focus on infotainment rather than “hard news” in
recent times.
 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

A newspaper is a publication printed in grey/black on a white paper and issued often,

sometimes once daily or once every week. It provides data and opinions concerning current
events and news. They usually have several topics that embody political events, crime,
business, sports, and opinions, some of them also provide weather updates. Newspapers use
pictures maybe stories; and conjointly typically embody comics and alternative recreation,
like crosswords and horoscopes. several have opinion sections additionally.

A country like India with a population of 1.3 billion has a total of 1,05,443 newspapers/
periodicals registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India as on 31st March 2015.
Some well known among them are The Times Of India, Hindustan Times, The Hindu, The
Telegraph, Deccan Chronicle, Mumbai Mirror, & The Economic Times. To conduct this
research The Hindu & TOI were chosen because of (a) brand name, (b) English language, (c)
TOI is one of the best selling English-language newspapers in India & The Hindu is one of
the most widely circulated one according to the w3newspapers India.

https://www.w3newspapers.com/india/

The circulation numbers are taken from the IRS (Indian Readership Survey).
http://mruc.net/uploads/posts/a27e6e912eedeab9ef944cc3315fba15.pdf

The Indian Readership Survey (IRS) is the largest continuous readership research study in the
world with a yearly sample size exceeding 2.56 lakh respondents. It collects a different range
of demographics like coverage of shopper and merchandise classes, together with cars, social
unit appliances, consumer goods, care and private care merchandise, food and beverages,
finance and holidays. It is not restricted to survey of the audience alone however is
substitutable with each audience & consumption across varied FMCG merchandise
throughout India. It is conducted by MRUC (Media Research Users Council) and RSCI
(Readership Studies Council of India).

BRIEF HISTORY OF NEWSPAPERS IN INDIA

Newspaper in India is that the pharisaical tradition of the overall public, while not news
regarding the country folks cannot keep or survive, it's clad to be the associate avertable
medium of existence. Its major role is to act because the watch-dog of the state and its
surroundings, besides this basic perform it's additionally a very important means that to
education, and recreation. In alternative words, it may be aforesaid that it's the written means
that passing on current info.

Newspapers in India were initially printed on twenty-ninth Jan 1780 by James Augustus
Hicky underneath British people dominion and its name was “the Bengal Gazette” or urban
centre General advertiser or ordinarily called the “Hicky’s Gazette”. the amount was
characterised by strict government management and censorship.
British people Government obligatory strict police work on the medium. The year 1857 is
thought because of the emergence year of journalism in India. This year is marked by the
division of Indian press and British press and as a result of its Vernacular Press Act in 1876.
within the year 1861 the primary edition of “The Times of India” was printed by Robert
Knight. once more within the year 1868 “Amrit Bazar Patrika” was started, this newspaper
principally centred upon the social reformers and political leaders and began contributive
within the field of journalism.

During British people rule Asian country newspaper vastly participated in the freedom
struggle of India. once Independence the role of newspaper modified and it became industrial
and began using a sizeable amount of individuals. Presently missionary part of Asian country
has been replaced with a knowledgeable approach. Modern India is updated by the
knowledge by a variety of agencies. Presently Asian country has four major news agencies
like Press Trust of India, United News of India, Samachar Bharati and Hindustan Samachar.

"Infotainment was expected to be consumed by ladies.."

According to Portraits of American Women: From Settlement to the Present by Barker-
Benfield, G. J. (16 October 1998).

It says in modern society ladies relish AN unprecedented influence inside bound separate
sectors, the bulk of the book consumers still be ladies and volume market is clearly
dominated by feminine authors and readers, the facility of the feminine audience is obvious
in alternative media likewise, ladies are expected to be prime shoppers of the "infotainment"
news programmes and day time dramas, soap operas.

"Tabloidization makes a shift to entertainment source.."

Bird, S. Elizabeth. (2009). Tabloidization: What is it, and does it really matter?.
10.13140/2.1.2223.0404.

This research paper explains the changing faces of journalism: tabloidisation, technology, and
truthiness.

PRINT ADVERTISING
When it involves medium advertising, circulation is everything. The additional circulated a
written publication is, the additional readers the enclosed advertisements receive. The draw
back of print advertising is that even once placed in well-read publications, the ad might
merely not apply to several of the readers.

To counteract the typically lacklustre audience response to a print promotion, an organisation

ought to post the ad during a locally relevant magazine, for instance, an advert a few new
novels would be higher placed during a short fiction magazine with an analogous genre,
instead of the native newspaper, providing a coupon or special discount code on retail
product or services within the ad will facilitate an organisation confirms its effectiveness in
generating new sales.

http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in

The Shodhganga @INFLIBNET Centre provides a platform for research students to deposit
their Ph.D. theses and make it available to the entire scholarly community in open access.
The repository has the ability to capture, index, store, disseminate and preserve ETDs
submitted by the researchers.

Theodor Adorno
was one in every of the foremost continental philosophers of the 20th century. though he
wrote on a large variety of subjects, his basic concern was human suffering—especially
trendy societies’ effects upon the human condition. He was influenced most notably by Georg
Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Marx, and Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche. He was related to The
Institute for Social analysis, within the city college, that was science and cultural intellectual
hub for promoting socialism and overthrowing free enterprise. it had been to blame for the
creation of the philosophical kind referred to as vital theory, that takes the stand that
oppression is formed through politics, economics, culture, and materialism, however, is
maintained most importantly through consciousness. thus the main target of action should
return from consciousness. The Institute of Social analysis deviated from orthodox
communism in its argument that social and cultural factors contend as necessary a job as a
social science in oppression.

Adorno created several contributions to essential theory, notably his read that reason had
become entangled with domination and suffering. Adorno coined the larid ‘identity thinking’
to explain the method of categorical thought in trendy society, by that everything becomes
AN example of AN abstract, and therefore nothing individual in its actual specific
individualism is allowed to exist.

He lamented that the humankind had gone from understanding the globe through the story to
understanding it through scientific reasoning, however, that this latter ‘enlightenment’ was
constant as understanding the globe through the story each mode produce a viewpoint that the
subjective should adapt to an out of doors world to that it's no management. inside this
argument, Adorno saw morality as being stuck inside this feeble subjective: in a very world
that values solely recognisable facts, morality becomes a school of thought, a mere prejudice
of individual subjectiveness. Adorno is additionally famed for his critique of the ‘the culture
business.’

He felt that the show business of contemporary society is simply as mechanical, formulaic,
and dominating because of the geographic point. He argued that humans in trendy society
square measure programmed at work and in their leisure, and although they ask for to flee the
monotony of their geographic point, they're simply ever-changing to a different piece of the
machine – from producer to shopper. there's no likelihood of changing into free people WHO
will participate within the creation of society, whether or not at work or play.

Max Horkheimer
was a leader of the “Frankfurt School,” a group of philosophers and social scientists
associated with the Institut für Sozialforschung (Institute of Social Research) in Frankfurt am
Main. Horkheimer was crucial to classical and Marx-Leninist interpretation of Marxism that:
economic philosophical theory primarily based upon historical materialism; the first role of
staff for revolution; the special role of the Communist Party. Adopting a theory of alienation
and reification in Marx’s Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, Horkheimer took
Marxism as a crucial theory, whose purpose was to emancipate false-consciousness of
alienated and reified man and enlighten man because of the subject of history.

www.iep.utm.edu
The Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (IEP) (ISSN 2161-0002)

was supported in 1995 to produce open access to careful, scholarly, peer-reviewed info on
key topics and philosophers all told areas of philosophy. The Encyclopaedia receives no
funding and operates through the volunteer work of the editors, authors, volunteers, and
technical advisers. At present, the IEP has over 1,000,000 guests per month and regarding
twenty million page views p.a. The Encyclopaedia is freed from charge and on the market to
all or any users of the web worldwide. The employees of thirty editors and more or less three
hundred authors hold degree degrees and square measure professors at universities around the
world, most notably from communicative countries.

“Newspapers (print) still remains supreme, providing a variety of great advantages that can't
be found elsewhere..”
(https://www.newsworks.org.uk/%2FMedia-Centre/newspapers-triple-ad-campaign-
effectiveness-).

Newsworks is the marketing body for national newspapers in all their forms with
stakeholders like dmg media, ESI Media, Guardian News & Media, JPIMedia, News UK,
Telegraph Media Group.
 Objectives
Objectives are the mere set of goals that the researcher wants to archive. They are those goals
for which the researcher plans the whole research and further design those methods which
will help him/her achieve the desired goals. The main aim of this research is to do a
meaningful comparison between the two most prominent English Dailies in India - The
Times of India & The Hindu on the basis of:

1. Finding comparison between the impact on the Culture Industry, Infotainment; Hard news
- Soft news, Pages, Tabloidisation, Advertising & Readership
2. Finding differences on the type of prominent events’ coverage repeated during the sample
size taken from 10th Dec, 2018 to 20th Dec, 2018

 Research Technique
Research is basically a term used for a systematic search for getting relevant answers on any
taken up topic. The methodology may be understood as all those methods and techniques that
are used for conducting particular research. It may include the methods of data collection,
statistical tools for analysing the data, etc. In my research, primary data is used, a direct
comparison of two newspaper is done to drive the conclusion, point out the differences
between the two with the help of Content Analysis.

Content Analysis is a part of an un-obstructive research that does not collect data directly
from people, but directly or indirectly studies the recorded human communication. We are
not interacting with people in this research, but focusing on the documentation of the
newspapers from a time frame (a set period of time in which covers certain events or in
which certain things are expected to occur. A time frame can range from seconds to
centuries.) of 10th Dec, 2018 to 20th Dec, 2018 from Times of India and The Hindu both
being Manifest content are easy to observe.

Different variables like culture industry, infotainment, hard news, soft news, tabloidisation,
coloured pages, advertising & prominent events’ coverage are operationalised, differentiated
and some of them are tabulated on the basis of which a conclusion is reached.

Content Analysis’s biggest strength is, it is a low cost procedure, all the research just required
an access and subscription to e-papers of both the newspaper, which are basically electronic
copies of real newspapers of the same dates and exact content. While TOI provided the
archives and e-papers for free, The Hindu charged 250 /- rupees a month and provided a
higher definition view available, newspaper, particular news export options in PDF.
 Comparative Study of Various Sections
of The Hindu and TOI

1. FRONT PAGE OF THE TWO NEWSPAPERS

10th Dec, 2018 Front Page

It’s Monday and difference can clearly be seen which of the two dailies are serious about the
content of their newspaper, The Hindu is full of important news and issues regarding different
topics like Centre amends rules for minorities from three nations, RSS tells Centre to fulfil the
promise to build the temple, Key Opposition meet today to give unity call a boost & others
while TOI on the other hand has a foldable full page advert of Mahindra Alturas.

The Hindu only has one large rectangle advert box on the top while even on the next page
TOI again has below the fold filled with two large advert boxes covering half of the page.
Front page contains Logo, Masthead, Teasers, Headline, Photos, Advert, Body, Lead, Stand-
first, Cover story.
 2. COMPARISON OF FRONT PAGE TABS

TOI has images and news hints available on the top to direct users to different pages of their
news paper which look a little messy, while The Hindu maintains a very minimalistic look
with just logo, city edition, number of pages on the right and social media icons on the left.
 3. COMPARISON ON THE BASIS OF CULTURAL IMPACT

Value to The Thoughts of Readers: The Hindu publishes ‘Letters to the Editor’ on its
editorial section on a daily basis and chooses all forms of comments from the followers, in
spite of however crucial they perhaps in contrast to the days of the TOI and the other
newspapers for that matter, most of the comments are crucial in nature and nevertheless The
Hindu publishes them. This shows expertness within the hierarchy of the institution.

News Doesn’t Mean Glamour: TOI indulges more in Bollywood gossips to get more
readers while The Hindu doesn’t think of entertainment as mainstream news.

39.3% of the total news TOI publishes is infotainment, while The Hindu only has a 1.6%.

Focus on The Youth: The Hindu publishes news which is educational, informative and
follows investigative journalism, while on the other hand TOI sometimes even have
objectionable images and photos of the celebrities.
 4. COMPARISON ON THE BASIS OF COLOURED PAGES

12th Dec, 2018 Edition

Consumerism in society drives the newspapers to give out things which attract their

attraction, they present things which are eye-catching and flashy. Since the readers will not
hesitate to switch to their competitors, the newspapers try to increase their circulation by the
help of eye-catching pictures of celebrities and other things.

The Times of India rarely has a section without a celebrity picture whereas The Hindu is
more sedate in this regard with a greater emphasis on hard news.

Newspaper Total No. Pages Coloured Pages

TOI 28 24
The Hindu 24 16
TOI has same number of colour pages as the total number of pages in The Hindu.

TOI has 24/28*100 = 85.7% of Coloured pages.

The Hindu has 16/24*100 = 66.6% of Coloured pages.
 5. COMPARISON ON THE BASIS OF ADVERTISEMENT SPACE

13th Dec, 2018 Edition

The larger space given to advertisements, in general, reflect the consumerist nature of our
society and the increased emphasis on colourful eye-catching products designed to capture
the reader's attention in the newspaper. The newspaper also benefits from the increased
revenue this space generates every day. It also reduces the necessity to come up with extra
columns of hard news for the paper. TOI here also surpasses the Hindu based on the ratio of
ad-space to the total no of pages.

TOI The Hindu

Front Full Page 2 Medium
Rectangles
East Full Page Zero
North 2 Below the fold 2 small square, 2
large rectangles
West Half Side Full Page
South Medium Zero
Rectangle
Nation Medium Below the fold,
Rectangle classified ads
Nation 1 Medium Zero
Rectangle, 2
Small Square
Editorial 7 Small Squares, Zero
1 Rectangle
Editorial Times Interact Zero
News Below the fold Zero
Foreign 2 Medium Zero
Square
Business - 1 Medium
Rectangle
Business - Two Small
Rectangles
Last Full Page Zero
 6. COMPARISON ON THE BASIS OF PAGES & TYPES

Newspaper Total No. Pages

TOI 42
The Hindu 36

14th Dec, 2018 Edition

TOI is divided on the basis of Times City, Times Nation, Times Interact, Time Trends, Times
Global, Times Business, Times Sport, Bombay Times, Times Auto, while The Hindu, on the
other hand, is in Front, North, East, West, South, Nation(2), Edit(2), News(2), Foreign,
Business(2).
 7. COMPARISON ON THE BASIS OF INFOTAINMENT

15th Dec, 2018 Edition

The Hindu has on an average two articles appearing in the entire newspaper based on
infotainment most them occurring on the International news column and a few on the second
page which mostly concerns about health tips and talk of the town. Times of India has a bare
minimum of one article based on infotainment in each separate section on the newspaper.
There are celebrity pictures which attracts the attention of the readers.

Infotainment percentage in The Hindu = 2 article/total number of articles * 100

= 2/120*100 = 1.6%
Infotainment percentage in TOI = (2*total number of pages)/total number of articles*100
= (2*24/122) * 100
= 39.3%

TOI The Hindu

December 15th

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4

Graph showing the percentage difference between infotainment news shared between
Times of India & The Hindu.
 8. COMPARISON ON THE BASIS OF READERSHIP

16th to 20th Dec, 2018

The Times of India: 13047 readers in a month

The Hindu: 5300 readers in a month
(RSCI NEILSEN 2017)

The majority of the English dailies are sold in urban industrialised areas. The readership
consists of people living in the late industrial phase in a consumerist society. This makes it
imperative for the newspapers to be eye-catching and glamorous in order to survive the
competition.

In such a scenario, we can see how the Times of India with its increased emphasis on the
infotainment and tabloid styles news events to garner more readership with a more colourful
presentation and eye-catching photos of models and celebrities in nearly every page as
compared to the more sedate The Hindu. The Times of India with its freebies, eye-catching
presentation, and increased visibility is clearly able to capture the majority share of the
readers in a consumer based economy and is hence the largest read English newspaper in the
country.

The general trend among students wanting a greater emphasis on hard news is towards the
Hindu while a majority of the students prefer the Times of India for its eye-catching the news
and its special focus on glamour and pin-up images.

Approx Readership % of TOI in 5 Days (16th to 20th Dec, 2018) = 13047/31 = 420
5 days = 420 * 5 = 2104
% = 2104/13047 * 100
= 16.1%

Approx Readership % of The Hindu in 5 Days = 5300/31 = 170

5 days = 170 * 5 = 850
% = 850/5300 * 100
= 16%

Both the newspaper share the same percentage share of readability in five days according to
their respective monthly readership thus makes the each-other perfect for comparison.
 9. COMPARISON ON THE BASIS OF NEWS EVENTS

(a) THE STORY OF RAFALE

The Rafale deal controversy is a political controversy in India related to the purchase of 36
multirole fighter aircraft for a price estimated at €7.8 billion by the Defence Ministry of India
from France's Dassault Aviation. The origin of the deal lies in the Indian MRCA competition,
a multi-billion dollar contract to supply 126 multi-role combat aircraft to the Indian Air Force
(IAF).

The Hindu’s Headline for News on Rafale

TOI’s Headline for News on Rafale

Just from the title of both the newspapers we can see that The Hindu is trying to explain the
Supreme Court’s verdict and is trying to bring the Rafale controversy on a bigger canvas
while TOI is trying to grab eye balls with PM Modi, Congress and Allegations keywords in
the title. After reading both the articles it is found that TOI lacks behind investigative
journalism in case of the same, The Hindu did broader stories in comparison to TOI.
(b) HYPER-NATIONALISM STORIES

George Orwell who in his essay Notes on Nationalism published in May 1945 says,
"Nationalism, is inseparable from the desire for power. The abiding purpose of every
nationalist is to secure more power and more prestige, not for himself but for the nation or
other units in which he has chosen to sink his own individuality. A nationalist is one who
thinks solely, or mainly, in terms of competitive prestige. He may be a positive or a negative
nationalist — that is, he may use his mental energy either in boosting or in denigrating — but
at any rate his thoughts always turn on victories, defeats, triumphs, and humiliations.

He sees history, especially contemporary history, as the endless rise and decline of great
power units, and every event that happens seems to him a demonstration that his own side is
on the upgrade and some hated rival is on the downgrade. The nationalist does not go on the
principle of simply ganging up with the strongest side. On the contrary, having picked his
side, he persuades himself that it is the strongest, and is able to stick to his belief even when
the facts are overwhelmingly against him.

Nationalism is power-hunger tempered by self-deception. Every nationalist is capable of the

most flagrant dishonesty, but he is also — since he is conscious of serving something bigger
than himself — unshakeably certain of being in the right." The word hyper has been
originated from a prefix appearing in loanwords from Greek, where it meant “over,” usually
implying excess or exaggeration (hyperbole); hyperactive or unusually energetic; on this
model used, especially as opposed to hypo-, in the formation of compound words
(hyperthyroid). Now Hyper-Nationalism means: over or excess or exaggeration of
Nationalism and people who profess themselves to be nationalistic becomes hyperactive and
unusually energetic in pushing their point.

The Hindu covers eleven stories on Hyper-nationalism and related &

while when compared with TOI there were eight mentions in the duration of 10 days most of
them highlighting only one political party, BJP.
(c) #METOO CASES
The Me Too movement (or #MeToo movement), with a large variety of local and
international alternative names, is a movement against sexual harassment and sexual assault.
The movement began to spread virally in October 2017 as a hashtag on social media in an
attempt to demonstrate the widespread prevalence of sexual assault and harassment,
especially in the workplace.

It followed sexual-abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein. Tarana Burke, an American

social activist, and community organiser began using the phrase "Me Too" as early as 2006,
and the phrase was later popularised by American actress Alyssa Milano, on Twitter in 2017.
Milano encouraged victims of sexual harassment to tweet about it and "give people a sense of
the magnitude of the problem".

The Me Too movement in India is a manifestation of the international Me Too movement that
is currently taking place in parts of Indian society including government, media, and the
Bollywood film industry.

In India, the Me Too movement is seen as either an independent outgrowth influenced by the
international campaign against sexual harassment of women in the workplace or an offshoot
of the American "Me Too" social movement. Me Too began gaining prominence in India with
the increasing popularity of the international movement, and later gathered sharp momentum
in October 2018 in the entertainment industry of Bollywood, centred in Mumbai, when
actress Tanushree Dutta accused Nana Patekar of sexual harassment. This led to many
women in the news media, Indian films, and even within the government to speak out and
bring allegations of sexual harassment against a number of men.

The Hindu covered six stories on #MeToo while on the other hand TOI did eight, the major
differences between the both publication’s stories were the tone and way the news/articles
were presented, considering the seriousness of the issues still TOI maintains an informal tone,
but The Hindu presents it in a professional yet a neutral way.
 CONCLUSION

Through this research, 'A Comparative Study of Times of India & The Hindu on The Basis of
The Culture-industry, Infotainment & Prominent Events’ Coverage of 2018' we have
concluded that:

(a) The Hindu presents news without any sensation or masala because of which a person who
seeks entertainment everywhere finds it boring and looks toward different options
available like Times of India who have a great entertainment section, catchy headlines.



They have a different style of writing and language, which is an acquired taste. This is
why the Times of India is the number one selling newspaper in our country while The
Hindu isn't.

TOI has 85.7% of colour pages, more the colour more flashy and attractive the content. The
Hindu has 66.6% coloured pages.

(b) The Hindu has a very evident liberal-leaning and that is something it should be proud of.
Liberal views are progressive. The very purpose of journalism is to be a Beacon of progress,
to represent the leaps and strides we've achieved as mankind, to be free thinkers and this can
be easily concluded from the prominent events they covered in the selected time frame of
December 2018, the headlines, the content were neutral as compared to the TOI who had
more catchy titles even for serious issues like #MeToo.

(c) TOI has almost the same number of advertisements as total content on The Hindu.

(d) The Hindu is known for its one of a kind investigative journalism team which broke the
Bofors scam, Rafale and many more. Although the Hindu has been embroiled in ownership
and editorial conflicts involving family members of N. Ram. But they have always been
transparent about their process of publishing the ongoings and proceedings in their
newspaper.

(e) The infotainment news coverage by The Hindu was just 1.6% while TOI had a major
focus with 39.3% of their newspaper covered with the same.