How a small group of people monopolizes public opinion through discussions concerning armed forces on TV channels exposed by a study conducted by Delhi based media research and training collective, Media Studies Group. The study reveals that only 54 experts and panelists participated in live shows discussing various issues centered on Indian Army including serious allegations of corruption. The study is based on the survey of 24 programs aired on 6 news channels of which 3 each of Hindi and English during 26thMarch to 2nd April, 2012
Findings of the survey(TPS)* reveals that in all discussions held on these 6 news channels 82% panelists were from two major political parties of India, namely either from Congress or Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). In all, it was only 54 persons who were invited and participated in 24 programs aired on the subject. The figures in percentage of these groups are follows: Ex-Army Officers 31 % Political Parties- 31 %, Former-Bureaucrats- 13 %, Journalists- 19 %, and others- 6%. About women participation, it reveals that women participation was only 9 % in form of former bureaucrat and journalists in 15 discussions in English. Only three women politicians participated as discussant as spokespersons of their parties, two from Congress and one from the BJP.
One single Ex Army expert was found taking part in 6 discussions in different news channels which amounts to 25% share of the total programming. Total 4 representatives of the Army participated in 75% of the programs. Similarly, one of the spokespersons of congress occupied 21% of the total number of politician participated in the progams. He was only seen on English channels. Bureaucrats were seen only on English Channels, there were none was seen on Hindi News Channels.
This study has been designed and done by Journalist and Researcher Vijay Pratap on behalf of The Media Studies Group, India. The group founded and led by Senior Journalist, Columnist and former professor of journalism Anil Chamadia who is working in the field of media research and training since last 6 years. It has recently started two monthly media research journal, namely Jan Media (Hindi) and Mass Media (English).
Media Studies Group’s survey TPS (Television Programme Survey)
Highlights of Survey
This Survey is conducted from 26 March and 2nd April during the live discussions on TV News Channels on the issue of allegations of corruption on Indian Army. The study is targeted on participation of panelists and experts on those discussions with the objective to analyse the discussions held in news channels.
Study involves 24 programmes in 6 news channels with 3 each in English and Hindi.
9 shows of Hindi news channel were included while 15 programmes of English Channels in the study subject to availability.
Total 54 experts\panelists participated in various programmes across channels out of which 5 were women participants.
17 Former Defense Officials were seen in studios with 31% representation of overall participation in discussions.
Analysis of Ex Defense Personnel
One former defense officer alone participated in as many as 6 programmes thus marked his presence in 25% of programmes with 35% share among all participants.
Three Ex Defense Officials were present if 4 programmes in different channels on rotation. This participation alone dominates 75% of discussion time across channels.
Three Ex Defense Officials participated in 3 programmes each in various channels. With this participation there were 7 Ex Defense Officials were present rotation wise in all 24 programmes taken in study .
6 Ex Defense Officials participated in debates only in English Channels while there were 9 such Ex Defense panelists were seen in Hindi. Two such panelists were there in both Hindi and English.
No women panelist was there among ex defense personnel.
Share of Political Parties in TV Discussions.
Total 17 panelists were there from political with 31% participation in various programmes.
- All panelists were from 5 political parties.
- BJP and Congress dominates the representation with 82% among all political parties. Congress had 8 and BJP with 6 leaders participated.
- Abhishek Manu Singhvi of Congress was seen in 5 while Tarun Vijay was in 3 studio discussions. All these shows were on English News Channels . Bhupendra Yadav of BJP also participated in 2 Hindi news channels debate.
- Out of 17 Political representatives Janata Dal (United) through Sabir Ali was visible in only one TV debate. He was the only representative of any regional party.
- D Raja of CPI was also a lone representative from CPI out of 17 participants.
- Tariq Anwar of NCP participated in 2 TV debates in Hindi.
- Congress was represented by two women spokespersons while BJP was with one. Women spokes persons of Congress were seen in Hindi while BJP’s only women spokesperson went to English News Channels.
Share of former Bureaucrat.
Total of 7 former Bureaucrat participated in programmes with 13% share.
- All former bureaucrats were limited to 2 English News Channels.
- 3 Former Bureaucrats were seen in 2 programmes each.
- Bureaucrats were represented by only one by women and that too in a English News Channel.
Share of Journalists
- Besides journalists on regular defense beat total 7 journalists participated in these programmes as panelists.
- Out of 24 CNN-IBN produced 7 discussion based programmes.
- CNN-IBN put 2 its own journalists in two of the programmes it aired.
- One journalist participated in a single programme of NDTV.
- These 7 journalists went on air in 4 programmes out of which one each partitipated in 3 and 2 programmes respectively .
- These 3 journalists shared 37 and 42% of representation respectively.
- Maximum of 5 Hindi journalists were given platform By NDTV India.
- Only one among women journalists were on air.
In these programmes besides ex defense officials, bureaucrats, politicians and journalists there were 3 others whose participation was noticed.
- N Hanumanthappa, Karnataka head of All India Federation SC\ST, OBC and Minority Welfare Associations participated in one programme in a English News Channel. He took up the misappropriation in defense procurement in 2009.
- Anil Baxi – a former contractor of Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) went on air on NDTV English in two of its programmes.
- CSDS fellow Abhay Kumar Dubey participated in one programme of NDTV India i.e. in Hindi.
*Television Programme Survey
Participation of Ex. Defense Personnel
| Se. | Defence Officer | NDTV India | NDTV 24@7 | CNN IBN | IBN 7 | Zee News | Times Now | Total | |
| 1 | Raj Kadayan | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 | |||
| 2 | S.Rai Chaudhuri | 2 | 2 | ||||||
| 3 | G.D.Bakshi | 1 | 2 | 3 | |||||
| 4 | Nilendra Kumar | 2 | 2 | 4 | |||||
| 5 | V.Mahalingam | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | ||||
| 6 | Satveer Singh | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| 7 | S. Krishnaswamy | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| 8 | Prafull Bakshi | 2 | 1 | 3 | |||||
| 9 | V.N.Dhar | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| 10 | P.N.Hoon | 1 | 2 | 3 | |||||
| 11 | Vishnu Bhagawat | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| 12 | R.K.Sahani | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| 13 | Shankar Prasad | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| 14 | V.G.Patankar | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| 15 | V.P.Malik | 2 | 2 | 4 | |||||
| 16 | D.B.Shetkar | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| 17 | Tejindar Singh | 1 | 1 | ||||||
Participation of representative of political parties
| Se. | Politician | Party | NDTV India | NDTV 24@7 | CNN IBN | IBN 7 | Zee News | Times Now | Total |
| 1 | Manish Tiwari | Congress | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| 2 | Abhishek Manu Singhvi | Congress | 2 | 3 | 5 | ||||
| 3 | Satyvrat Chaturvedi | Congress | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| 4 | Shakeel Ahamd | Congress | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 5 | Prabha Thakur | Congress | 1 | ||||||
| 6 | Renuka Chaudhuri | Congress | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 7 | Manishankar Ayair | Congress | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 8 | Santosh Bagrod | Congress | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 9 | Chandan Mitra | BJP | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| 10 | Prakash Jawdekar | BJP | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| 11 | Tarun Vijay | BJP | 2 | 1 | 3 | ||||
| 12 | N.Seetharaman | BJP | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 13 | Bhupendra Yadav | BJP | 2 | 2 | |||||
| 14 | Vijay Goail | BJP | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 15 | D Raja | CPI | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 16 | Sabir Ali | JDU | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 17 | Tariq Anwar | NCP | 2 | 2 |
Participation of former Bureaucrat.
| Se. | Bureaucrats | Post | NDTV India | NDTV 24@7 | CNN IBN | IBN 7 | Zee News | Times Now | Total | |||
| 1 | TSR Subramanian | Ex. Cabinet Secretary | 2 | 2 | ||||||||
| 2 | Sudhir Kuma | Ex. CVC | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||||
| 3 | N. Vitthal | Ex. CVC | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| 4 | G.Parthsarthi | Ex. Secretary, Foreign | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| 5 | Brajesh Kumar Mishra | Ex. National Security Advisor | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| 6 | Kanwal Sibbal | Ex. Foreign Secretary | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||||
| 7 | Shailja Chandra | Ex. Chief Secretary, Delhi | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
Participation of journalist
| Se. | Journalist | Post | NDTV India | NDTV 24@7 | CNN IBN | IBN 7 | Zee News | Times Now | Total |
| 1 | Bharat Verma | Editor, India Defence Review | 2 | 1 | 3 | ||||
| 2 | Maruf Raza | Defence Analyst | 2 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | Ajay Shukla | Defence Journalist | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | |||
| 4 | Nitin Gokhle | Defence editor, NDTV | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 5 | Vinod Mehta | Editor, Outlook | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 6 | Surya Gangadharan | Journalist, CNN | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 7 | Mukesh Kaushik | Defence Journalist | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 8 | Rahul Bedi | Journalist Defence Weekly | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 9 | Anubha Bhosale | Senior Editor, CNN | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 10 | Vinod Sharma | Journalist, Hindustan Times | 1 | 1 |
By
Media Studies Group
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