Framing public sanitation – An analysis of the newspaper coverage

of public sanitation in newspapers of Tamil Nadu

Mohana sudhan M1 and Dr. Subramani Ramaligam2

1. Mohana sudhan M, MA, NET, (PhD), Research Scholar, Department of Journalism

and Mass Communication, Periyar University, Salem, Tamil Nadu.
2. Dr. Subramani Ramalingam, Associate Professor, Department of Journalism and
Mass Communication, Periyar University, Salem, Tamil Nadu.

Abstract

Environmental issues have increased manifold times since last two decades. The
surge in urbanisation has accounted to higher level of sanitation issues and increasing public
health menace. As a crucial player in informing and managing conflicts, media interference
is essential in the issue. Particularly, in disseminating environmental issues that are a threat
to the society, was always an area of concern in journalistic practice. This study intends to
understand the framing of newspapers on the coverage of public sanitation issues portrayed
in the regional news dailies of Tamil Nadu. The study was based on “Framing theory” to
understand the pattern of coverage of news stories on man-animal conflict. The study
employed quantitative content analysis of the news to identify the nature, volume of
coverage, and authenticity of information carried in the news stories. Further, framing
analysis was used to understand and analyse the frames present in the stories. News stories
in public sanitation issues that appeared in the regional newspapers of Tamil Nadu over a
period of three months were chosen as samples for the study. The study portrayed the
false-positive nature of the representation of coverage. Mostly, the stories carried a Blaming
Frame/ Responsibility Frame, where the government were portrayed as the offenders.
Mostly, Government officials have been the sources of Government Frame stories. The
research found very less advocacy reporting of resolving the issues, whereas revealing the
absence of assigned reporters to cover the environmental beat as the reason for poor
coverage.
Introduction to the study
“Environment” which essentially means everything surrounding us, is the hottest
topic of discussion of the day. The number of issues have become manifold day by day
ranging from increased natural issues climate change to typhoons, hurricanes, pollution (air,
water, soil) and other man made issues like depletion of resources, carbon emissions and
man-animal conflict and so on. While covering the macro issues, micro issues such as public
sanitation, sewage management, waste disposal and others are not taken into much
consideration. But, these issues provide a great threat to the society and can be named as
the major environmental issues to be tackled. A definition by Centre for Disease and
Prevention states Basic sanitation as having access to hygienic toilet facilities, and thorough
cleanliness services for garbage, industrial waste and wastewater disposal and
management. These issues when not treated in a proper way, result in hazardous diseases
including Diarrhea, Ring and Hook worm.

The main aspects of the Millennium Development Goals of UN involved eradicating

Open defecation, creation of toilets for everyone and proper distribution of Water. The
main issues faced by India are Open defecation and Solid Waste management. The 2011
Census of India states that 53.12% of peoples do not have access to any toilet. In 2014, the
government launched the clean India Campaign “Swacch Bharat Mission” to make India a
‘Open defecation free country’. But the government stated in 2019 to have built 11m toilets
in the span of 5 years.2

The role of media in propagating awareness is crucial. The power media has on the
society, it should know their role and it's their responsibility to teach the society in a
constructive manner. Researches have revealed that news media are the substantial
source of data for many people especially about environmental issues (Atwater, Salwen,
& Anderson, 1985; Ostman & Parker, 1987). Media also plays a major role in shaping
and portraying people’s opinion on a wide range of social issues (Bengston, Potts, Fan,
& Goetz, 2005).Like Pillay (2004) pointed out that the “mass media in liberal
democracies is often seen as a conduit of data and concepts that empowers ordinary
citizens”. Tuchman (1978) explains that readers believe first pages are representing the
"reality" of the news, wherein Editorials represent the ideology of the newspapers. In
addition, Tuchman (1978) also reiterates that selection of the front-page news is based
on the opinion that stories that appear on front page are more newsworthy than
others. Kisuke (2004) has confirmed this by stating “the selection of front page stories
calls for a daily editorial conference involving a group of editors whose task is mutually
to negotiate judgments of these stories and accomplish newsworthiness together”.
Anderson (1997) opines that news on environment is distinguished by three factors;
firstly, it's issue -centric, associated to the coverage of all natural
disasters like earthquake, or accidents like oil spills. Secondly, environmental news is
more visual specific, hence the more striking the pictures, the more likely its reach. As
the environmental issues take more time to set phase, they do not fit into daily news
reporting.

Review of Literature
Environmental coverage in newspapers have been an intense area of research in the
recent past. The review aimed at how researchers perceived the news representation,
identify the various factors they employed to study the news values and to know the various
frames researchers have employed across the research.
Dutt, Garg and Bhatta analysed the portrayal of environment nin 31 English
language newspapers from India fro thematic representation using Framing Analysis.
Semetko and Valkenburg study on Dutch newspapers used generic frames to identify
the coverage of stories and found that more importance was given to Responsibility Frame
reiterating the significance of political context.
Nirmala et al. (2016) on the framing of environment in English and Tamil newspapers
have further supported the Neverla et al. findings that only English newspapers mainly
covered a political frame rather than a scientific approach. They identified that Tamil
newspapers concentrated on international and national issues and there was a visible
negligence of local issues. The authors also recommended the need of training and
knowledge impartment to journalist covering environmental beat.

A Chennaiaha et al study found that the drinking water in their area of study was
unfit for drinking. The study also identified that more emphasis on installing laboratories
and on water monitoring kits.
 Frank S Arku and Doris Fiasorgbor (2013) studying the advocacy role of media in
achieving Millennium Development Goal in Ghana, identified the lack of importance to rural
sanitation.

Following the understandings o present research, the issues in sanitation has been broadly
classified into three types:

 Issues in water management and distribution;

 Public sewage system management;
 Waste disposal
 Open defecation
 Swacch Bharat mission coverage

The study intends to identify and analyze the framing of public sanitation news
stories in the regional news dailies of Coimbatore to meet the below mentioned objectives:
 To examine the nature of coverage of public sanitation stories in regional
newspapers
 To understand the framing of public sanitation stories in regional
newspapers.

Methodology and theoretical perspective

The study works on the principle of ‘Framing analysis’. The researcher has employed
Entman’s frames to identify the framing nature of the stories. Content analysis of the stories
both quantitative and qualitative was done. A structured coding sheet has been employed
to identify the framing of news stories. The researcher has found four frames of
representation: political, sensational, governmental and environmental frame. Mews
articles on public sanitation appearing in the newspapers Dinamalar, Daily Thanthi and
Dinamani over a period of one month has been taken for analysis. Quantitative variables
were analysed following the category wise segregation of news stories followed by
qualitative approach to identify the frames provided by the journalsts.
Analysis

The study identified 186 articles spread across the three newspapers. The stories
were analysed for position, size, location and type of story.

Analysing the presence across newspapers, Dinamalar carried 84 articles, Daily

Thanthi carried 66 stories with Dinamani carrying only a least of 34 stories. Mostly, the
stories were Hard news (72percent), followed by Opinion piece/Editorial (22 percentage)
and very less importance was given to features. The study showed that major articles were
reporting in local Sewage Management (81 stories) and Water Distribution (61 stories) while
Swacch Bharat and Open Defecation had very less presence. Analysing the framing of the
stories majority of the stories had Sensational (44 percent) and Governmental frames (32
percent) and less importance was given to Political frame(14 percent) followed by
Environmental frame(10 percent).

Conclusion

The study identified the status quo of the journalistic approach towards environmental
journalism in Tmail Nadu. Though a short period of coverage has been taken for the study,
the representation clearly states the status quo of the representation. The analyses
identified a sensational approach was mainly employed, creating a tie off between the
players involved. The status of people affected was not given due importance, and no
advocacy role, has been played by the newspapers. This also shows the lack of scientific
knowledge of the journalists concerned. An in-depth analysis of the stories was not made,
as the time period of study was limited. But the results suggest a healthy journalistic
practice towards environment as the need of the hour.

Chart 1: Distribution of stories across publication

90
80
Distri buti on by pub -
70 li cati on
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Dinamalar Daily Thanthi Dinamani

Table 3: Distribution of stories by type

 Distri buti on by type
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Hard News Opinion/Editorial Feature

Chart 3: Distribution by area of coverage

Distribution by area of
coverage
80
60
40
20
0
en
t
en
t at on
har ati
em em B ec
ag ag ch de
f
an an ac
m m Sw en
ag
e
at
er Op
w W
Se

Chart 4: Distribution by Framing

Distribution by Framing

10
14
44

32

Sensational Governmental
Political Environmental

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