Where More Is Not Better: Challenges Facing Quality News Journalism in ‘Shining’ India

Abstract

Two inter-linked narratives stand out in recent western discourse about India and its media, which, when seen ‘from below’, as this chapter will show, present at best a superfi cial and otiose view of reality. The fi rst narrative refers to India’s status as one of the rapidly growing economies, often described as the next ‘superpower’ and an ‘economic powerhouse’ with an average GDP of nearly 7% in the last decade. India is one of the so-called BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) that are supposed to be at an advanced stage of economic development. Infl uential columnists such as Tom Friedman of The New York Times often celebrate the recent rise in India’s economic indicators: “If India were a stock, I would buy it” ( Economic Times 2010). The context is massive and complex: a deeply diverse country of hundreds of languages and ethnic groups, following all major world religions, and of sub-continental size with a population of nearly 1.25 billion (65% below 35, according to the 2011 Census), India is estimated to have more than 350 million people belonging to a globalised middle class with increasing purchasing power. English, the language of colonial rulers, has a privileged, elitist and aspirational status in independent India and is used by nearly 10% of the population that controls domains that have social, cultural and professional prestige.