Research Papers/Articles - Institute of Management Studies Dehradun

Comparative Analysis of Coverage of the Launch of Chandrayan in the two National English Dailies
ranks the Times of India as the top English newspaper in
India by readership. According to ComScore, TOI Online
is the world's most-visited newspaper website with 159
million page views in May 2009, ahead of the New York
Times, The Sun, Washington Post, Daily Mail and USA
Today websites.
Data Collection
A total number of 107 news reports covering science and
technology, were found upon the Quantitative Analysis of
the newspaper in one month.The total space occupied by
the reports of Chandrayan-1 was 1007.5 column cm. Out
of 107 science stories, 25 stories are Chandrayan based
stories.
Thematic Analysis
The thematic analysis comprises the analysis of science
and technology reports and to roughly take into account
the different genres of science and technology covered by
them.Times of India gives more thrust to stories concerning
physical sciences than the biological sciences.For the
analysis of news stories related to Chandrayan, the
Total no. of News covering Space covered No. of
science news Chandrayan (column cm) photographs
accompanying
Chandrayaan
stories
107 25 1007.5 column cm20
following table will prove enormously helpful
Column-Wise Analysis
The largest number of Chandrayan stories were found to
be three-column and two-column stories.There was only
one eight-column story and one five-column story.There
are only 3 one-column stories.
Source Wise Analysis
The analysis of the source of Chandrayan related news
gave an interesting revelation.Most of the news stories has
been contributed by Times News Network and the
concerned newspaper correspondents.Though four of the
stories are contributed by PTI, AP and other agency.Among
the news reported by the correspondents,Srinivas Laxman
of Times of India has the maximum share.Further in the
analysis of source it was found that the news covered by
TNN largely outnumbered the sum total of news covered
by special correspondents and other news agencies.
36
The Visual Presentation
Times of India, which is a very popular newspaper in India
having the largest readership fared very well when it came
to the packaging and presentation of news stories.In the
entire study period of one month, 20 photographs were
published in connection to Chandrayan.That means, 80%
of all the Chandrayan based reports were accompanied
with photographs.All the photographs are almost colored
with exception of one or two.Some of the pictures are
animated and impressively illustrated. Most of the
photograph were either two column and one column
photographs.This obviously shows that Times of India
places a high premium on the visual depiction of reality to
attract the readers towards the stories and to enhance their
reading experience
The placing of stories
Few stories(only five) found place on the first page while
the remaining stories find their place on the inside
pages.The headlines used were very catchy and they have
the power to compel readers to read the story after first
reading the headline.Mostly short, snappy headlines are
used. A perfect example is the following headline
published on 16 November 2008 on Page 16 of Times of
India:
Kalam dreams kisses the moon.
Some news stories carries straight headlines which are self
explanatory.Jargon laden language is largely avoided in
the news stories.The language used is quite simple and
cliches and technical words are avoided largely.It can be
said that the languge is used keeping in mind the general
awareness of laymen regarding English.Instead of
providing extra scientific datas and facts, stress is given on
important points and of course, the Chandrayaan.
The Hindu
Introduction, Data Collection And Interpretation
The Hindu is a leading English-language Indian daily
newspaper. With a circulation of 1.45 million, The Hindu is
the second-largest circulated daily English newspaper in
India after Times of India, and slightly ahead of The
Economic Times. According to the Indian Readership
Survey (IRS) 2008 The Hindu is the third most-widely read
English newspaper in India (after Times of India and
Hindustan Times) with a readership of 5.2 million.It has its
largest base of circulation in South India, especially Tamil
Nadu. Head-quartered at Chennai (formerly called
Madras), The Hindu was published weekly when it was
launched in 1878, and started publishing daily in 1889.
"Pragyaan: Journal of Mass Communication" Volume 10, Issue 1, June 2012