Times of India –Representation of

India

For this activity, you will need to look at

a copy of the home page for the Times

of India for December 29, 2011.

1. What impression do the choice of font and colour promote about the image of India

we will get from this homepage?

2. Look at the masthead – what does the name of the paper suggest about what part of

India the paper is representing?

3. Identify some stories or elements that create the traditional image of India you

might expect?

4. Are there any stories or features here that surprised you and offered a picture of

India that is different to what you expected? In what ways is it different?

5. How would you sum up the image of India created through the homepage of The

Times of India?

6. Why do you think it has chosen to offer us this view?

Answers:

1. The font for the masthead is a traditional Times New Roman serif font and the name

is shown in white on black. This creates a sense that it is a traditional news outfit and

can be trusted to deal with the news in a professional and dignified way. It also

echoes the older British Times newspaper which has a reputation as a respected

broadsheet known for its detailed, balanced and in depth reporting. All of these

incline us to accept that the image of India we will be given is an accurate one.

2. The masthead suggest it represents all of India and the stories do, indeed, come

from a wide range of locations – the government in Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Chennai

in the south, Mumbai (the middle) and Rajasthan (disabled man rescues girl from

well) in the north. While many stories are linked to India’s big cities, there are some,

like the latter taken from its rural population. Thus, it seems to reflect the diversity

of India well. However, the dominance of stories from cities and wealthy celebrities

like Sachin Tendulkar and SonamKapoor may give the impression that these sectors

of modern India are more important and prolific than they actually are. However,

this is the nature of news – it tends only to reflect big events and elite people, as this

is what most people want to read about, not everyday life! It often reflects bad news

more than good and this also gives a skewed representation.

3. Some stories are expected:

the story about Cyclone Thane threatening coastal villages suggest that India

is in the tropics and quite exotic compared to the UK – it has more extreme

weather and natural disasters. It also suggests that many rural Indians rely on

more traditional occupations like fishing than in the UK. A later reference to

the ’trail of the tiger’ and a story about elephants strengthen the image of an

exotic tropical country.

The main video emphasises political corruption, a dominant feature of

reporting on Indian politics

The fact that a story on Tendulkar getting insurance for his new home in the

main news section shows how important cricket is to Indians. This is

reinforced by the fact that all the Sports section stories are about cricket!

The story about Dharavi (the slums that feature in Slumdog) talks of ‘where

millionaires and paupers meet’, creating an image of India as a land of

extremes – extreme wealth (millionaires) and extreme poverty (paupers) –

familiar from the film

The story about the’disabled man’ who ‘rescues girl from well’ suggests a

slightly backward country – still not fully developed

The prominence of Bollywood stars is seen in the volume of stories featuring

them – often only referring to them by one name – Akshay’s..Gift to Rajesh

Khana, Sonam shows middle finger, Katrina mocks Salman….the stories

suggest the public’s familiarity with these figures and their appetite for

details of their lives. It also suggests the importance Bollywood movies have

in India.

References to the caste system - Mayawati hides from dalits: Rahul Ghandi –

also creates a familiar picture of a country divided along rigid class lines

The section on Business and the Market, referring to the stock market –

‘India, Japan agree to $15 billion dollar currency swap’ – also show India to be

a growing economic power on a global scale and matches recent stereotypes

of India as a booming economy and increasingly developed industrial giant.

The economic power of modern India is also reflected in the fact that the

main advert, sited in the masthead banner itself, is for a bank, the Triodos

Bank.

Also expected is the rivalry between India and its neighbours, especially the

slight animosity towards Pakistan – ‘First Pak president’s Bengal home in a

shambles’. ‘Delhi University may allow Pak student with poor attendance to

take exam.’

4. However, some of the images created are quite unexpected:

The number of stories featuring modern technology – ‘ girl kills herself after

video blackmail’, ‘flash mob for Anna Hazare’, ‘girl’s post on Facebook lands

man in jail’, ‘ 5 tools to keep kids safe online’ – this suggests that many

Indians have good broadband access and use it in a way we normally

associate with the West and which goes against ideas of India as a third world

country

The prominence given to women – either as sex objects (‘the oomphiest

women of 2011’, ‘Katarina poses topless’ with image ‘tips for smooth and

sexy skin’) or as intelligent readers who need to be catered for – there is a

whole section devoted to women including an article on a ‘single’s guide to a

happy new year’. This seems counter to images of India as a country where

women are often expected to be very modest or have little recognition.

The emphasis on modern behaviour that we don’t often associate with

traditional images of a conservative, religious country – ‘cops warn of drunk

driving’, ‘mother of 3 ends life in lover’s room’, ‘tips for first time sex’

There are ads for Indian music CDs at the bottom of the page – for example,

for the soundtrack to Don 2 and an album by the DesiBoyz – we think of India

as having a film industry but not as having a thriving music industry.

We expect all Indian films to be Bollywood but here we have a review for the

new Sherlock Holmes film.

The emphasis on India’s prosperity is also quite unusual for Westerners – the

fact that ‘food inflation plunges to a six-year low’ shows their economy is

doing well, better than ours, and the fact that the travel section focuses on

exotic holidays outside of India (Sri Lanka, Thailand, China) implies a portion

of Indians at least have money to spare.

The NRI section stands for Non-Resident Indian and draws attention to the

fact that India has a large diaspora and that India is not the only place we can

find Indians – this section focuses on the Christmas killing of an Indian

student in Salford. It creates an image of India as a global presence.

5. The overall image of India here uses traditional elements of the stereotype – a land

of wealth and poverty, town and country, a growing economic power, a land where

cricket and movie stars are royalty, an exotic land and a land where the caste system

still has a rigid grip. This is only to be expected as all stereotypes contain a ‘grain of

truth’ (Tessa Perkins) – that’s why we accept them; they ring true. The stereotypes

here reflect both traditional and modern aspects of India.

However, it also represents India in ways that we, the Western audience, are less

familiar with – as a more modern, hi-tech and permissive society than we expect, the

success of modern India, performing better than we are and also enjoying some of

the same cultural products that we do.

The image presented is in many ways no different to that we would expect our own

papers to present of the UK. What is striking is how similar rather than how different

India is from the UK, albeit we may need to substitute different names into the

showbiz and political stories.

6. Newspapers often inspire trust and many people believe them to be truthful,

perhaps because they ‘report’ on true stories. However, newspapers exist to sell

copy/ advertising and to do so must attract attention by selecting the most dramatic

events to feature – this means that they often offer a slightly skewed picture of the

country, making it out to be more dangerous, more scandal ridden and more

dramatic than it actually is. Normal or tame stories simply won’t excite readers.

Thus, the image they create is often highly selective and more intense and extreme

than reality.

The paper is called The Times of India and the word ’times’ signals that it is trying to

bring us the most up-to-date picture of India. Most stereotypes are quite dated, so it

is little surprise that some of the more modern elements surprise the western

reader, who is more used to the stereotypes. However, stereotypes are built on

some truth, so it is also not surprising to meet some of these elements here too.

Papers the world over select what stories get in and what stories are passed over –

the driving criteria that help them decide what is newsworthy are news values (e.g.

Galtung and Ruge) and these tend to be the same the world over – for example, we

get lots of stories about negative events, elite persons, elite nations, stories that

have proximity (i.e. happen within your country) and that have a threshold (affect

quite a few people). These apply in the UK and in India, so it is little surprise that the

picture that emerges is a similar one.