Indian Newspapers Research Articles

A Diachronic Study of Modals and Semi-modals in Indian English Newspapers

Although Indian English is the best-documented South Asian English, its diachronic development has not been described to a great extent. The present study begins to address this gap by offering a real-time perspective on the evolution of modals and semi-modals in Indian English. It sketches the changes in the frequency of modals and semi-modals in three corpora of Indian newspaper texts from 1939, 1968, and the early 2000s. Changes in the frequency of eleven modals and eleven semi-modals are found to be similar to the trends previously observed for written American and British English: semi-modals, as well as the modals can, could, and would, rise greatly in frequency. An analysis of the types of modality expressed by individual modal verbs provides in-depth insights into shifts in Indian English during the period. The study’s findings raise methodological and theoretical considerations for the diachronic study of modality in corpora in English generally: the increasing amount of direct quotation in news reportage partly accounts for a rise in modal frequency in this subgenre, which constitutes a confounding aspect seldom articulated in the study of newspaper language. Individual modal verbs exhibit different directions and speeds of change that are not reflected in the trajectory of modals as a category, demonstrating that an aggregate measure is not a suitable point of comparison between varieties to determine their degree of similarity or difference in terms of modal verb usage.

Homoeopathic Oath

The oath of medical students is in news as the National Medical Commission (NMC) proposed to replace the Hippocratic oath with the Charak oath for the students of medical colleges in India as on February 7th 2022. The NMC replaced the Medical Council of India (MCI) in September 2020 [14]. The issue got highlighted further with the students of Madurai medical college took the Charak oath instead of the Hippocratic oath in 2022 [1]. Further, in Lucknow, breaking a 110 year old tradition, the students of King George Medical University (KGMU) took Charak Shapath on the first day of 2021-22 sessions [3]. The current article sees through the oath lens & makes an effort to remind Homoeopathic fraternity to remember the Homoeopathic oath or the aphorism of the Organon of Medicine as written by Dr. Hahnemann, the founder of Homoeopathy [5]. The article assumes significance with the Times of India newspaper printing the above-mentioned aphorism as the thought for the day on 12.2.2022 in its editorial page. Further, the there is an editorial column regarding the oath below the thought for the day. The relevant page is given in the figure 1 of this article.

Press as Negotiator or Instigator between India and Pakistan: A Case Study of Ceasefire Violation Incident Occurred in January 2013

This cross-border ten newspapers interdisciplinary study examined the extent to which the editorial and opinion column coverage in India and Pakistan played the role as negotiator or instigator between two countries during the ceasefire violation incident occurred in January 2013. Many studies have been undertaken to understand bilateral rivalry between both the countries, but how Indian and Pakistan press view these contemporary South Asian bilateral dynamics remains underexplored. Using qualitative content analysis as methodological tool, central objective of the article stands analyzed with the help of five politico-historical core foreign policy issues through the lens of a cross section of the Indian and Pakistan media—the newspaper press to be more precise. The findings are based on the analysis of editorial and opinion articles published in ten English language newspapers in both countries. The study revealed that newspapers’ role as negotiator on both sides varied from newspaper to newspaper, however, on the whole, Indian newspapers remained much committed to their negotiator role vis-à-vis Pakistani counterpart.

MOOC Integrated Teacher Education: A Pragmatic Solution For Post-Covid Virtual Training

The onslaught of heavy monsoon, the subsequent flood and the closing down of educational institutions in the state of Kerala had hit the headlines of almost every newspaper in India in 2018 and 2019.

Topical analysis of migration coverage during lockdown in India by mainstream print media.

Implementing countrywide lockdown measures in India, from March 2020 to May 2020 was a major step to deal with the COVID -19 pandemic crisis. The decision of country lockdown adversely affected the urban migrant population, and a large section of them was compelled to move out of the urban areas to their native places. The reverse migration garnered widespread media attention and coverage in electronic as well as print media. The present study focuses on the coverage of the issue by print media using descriptive natural language text mining. The study uses topic modelling, clustering, and sentiment analysis to examine the articles on migration issues during the lockdown period published in two leading English newspapers in India- The Times of India and The Hindu. The sentiment analysis results indicate that the majority of articles have neutral sentiment while very few articles show high negative or positive polarity. Descriptive topic modelling results show that transport, food security, special services, and employment with migration and migrants are the majorly covered topics after employing Bag of Words and TF-IDF models. Clustering is performed to group the article titles based on similar traits using agglomerative hierarchical clustering.

Content Analysis of Chhattisgarh Based Newspapers in Special Reference to Science & Technology Beat

The emergence of science and technology communication is generally attributed to the invention and dissemination of the information about fire churning technology. The objective of the study was to find out the coverage and space given to scientific and technological information in newspapers of Chhattisgarh. The result indicates that science gets very little space in newspapers and English newspapers cover science more prominently than Hindi newspapers. It also reveals that the health is the most preferred topic in Indian newspapers followed by environment. However, news is the most favored format for disseminating scientific information in Indian print media.

Journal of Scientific Temper

Every citizen in society should have the opportunity to think, understand and work scientifically. Under the Fundamental Duties as per Article 51A (H) in the Constitution of India, it has been said that it will be the duty of every citizen of India to develop a scientific temper, humanism and a spirit of inquiry and reform. Research always tends to find the new things, revolving around the facts and data. This research is towards the effectiveness and role of science newspaper Vaigyanik Drishtikon in science communication in Jaipur. The role of this research is to understand, analyse and check the effectiveness of the newspaper. Vaigyanik Drishtikon a fortnightly science newspaper is running from last 22 years and regarded as the first science newspaper in India. So it is playing a wide and vivid role in developing scientific temperament and awareness in the society. In life, we always need a way to reach aim, simultaneously in research there is a need of methodology. For conveying the best research and finding the outcomes researcher choose the online survey method. 21st century is the age of technology. Google form is quite handy tool for collecting data. Researcher have used Google form to collect 425 responses of a questionnaire comprising 22 questions. Most of the people participating in the survey have fully accepted that 'Vaigyanik Drishtikon' has developed their scientific understanding to a great extent and made them aware of the logical, informative and interesting knowledge of science in simple language. This kind of work need to be accomplish and many more to do.

Portrayal of Kashmir Issue in the Editorial Cartoons of English Dailies: A comparative study of Indian and Pakistani newspapers

Kashmir issue has been the bone of contention between India and Pakistan since their independence. However, abrogation of article 370 on Aug 05, 2019, in Indian Occupied Kashmir by the Indian government to revoke its’ special status has escalated the conflict to an extreme level. This paper is an attempt to examine the portrayal of the Kashmir issue in the editorial cartoons of English dailies of India and Pakistan published in August 2019 (just after the abrogation of article 370) in the light of Framing theory and Barthes’s model of connotation and denotation. The main objective of this research is to examine the signs, symbols, and metaphors used by Pakistani and Indian cartoonists to highlight the Kashmir issue. The study concludes both Pakistani and Indian newspapers frame the Kashmir issue in their way representing their perception, newspaper's policy, and ideology. Cartoons published in Indian newspapers depict Pakistan as a confused and baffled state whereas Pakistani newspapers highlight the barbarianism of the Indian army in Indian Occupied Kashmir.

Discursive representation of the Article 370 abrogation: A comparative CDA of the headlines of two major Indian online news publications

The Indian government on 5 August, 2019, unilaterally removed Article 370 of its constitution that provided autonomous status to the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir. In order to pre-empt any backlash, the authorities put the entire region under strict lockdown and imposed a complete communication blackout including suspension of internet, mobile, and landline phone services. The Indian media vociferously covered the issue of higher “national interest” with no counter-narrative from local news media in the region. Using Van Djik’s socio-cognitive model, the study conducted comparative critical discourse analysis of the headlines from two major Indian online news publications; the English daily The Times of India and the Hindi daily Dainik Jagran to identify the discursive strategies adopted by these newspapers after the revocation of the Article 370. The study aimed to understand how Indian newspapers were shaping the discourse when the Indian government imposed communication restrictions and lockdown in the region. Through CDA, the study located the discursive strategies in the headlines and the ideological standpoints they reflected while covering the Article 370 controversy. The CDA found that the headline discourse in both the news publications was characterized by aggressive nationalistic assertion reinforcing domestic legitimacy for the government’s decision. The analysis further showed substantial evidence for the cultural distances between the English and Hindi language news discourse. Unlike English headlines, the Hindi headlines contained explicit linguistic subjectivities and were overtly hyperbolic in recognizing and blending itself with the nationalist assertion and socio-political expression around the abrogation of Article 370.

INSIGHT ON COVID-19 PHENOMENA IN THE INITIAL PHASE MAINSTREAM INDIAN VS. PAKISTANI NEWSPAPERS

The mysterious COVID-19 phenomenon has become an infodemic. This study aims to understand the communication phenomenon of the devious virus critically. Employing thematic analysis and framing theory, the study analyzed the editorials of Dawn and the Hindustan Times published from March 1, 2020, to March 31, 2020. After rigorous mining of the data, using open and axial coding, four major themes came out, which are (1) Shutting down the country, (2) COVID-19 and economic trauma, (3) Health management challenges, and (4) countering the infodemic. The findings indicated that most editorials added to people's knowledge about COVID-19. The editorials informed the policy-makers and citizens on pandemic issues like the need for lockdown, severeness of infectious disease, drastic consequences on the global economy. This study is an addition to the COVID-19 communication literature that helped decode the COVID-19 communication phenomenon from Pakistani and Indian newspapers' perspectives.

“A Yam between Two Rocks”: A Comparative Analysis of Disaster Coverage and Geopolitical Dynamics in Nepali and Indian News Reporting of the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake

The devastating Gorkha earthquake, measuring 7.8M on the Richter scale, struck Nepal on April 25, 2015, followed by a major aftershock on May 12, 2015. The earthquakes killed approximately 9,000 people and injured thousands more, garnering significant media coverage. We employ qualitative content analysis and media framing theories to demonstrate evidence of social construction in the Gorkha earthquake media coverage from two Nepali national and two Indian newspapers. Using a sample of 2,862 articles published within a year of the earthquake, five major frames: the disaster frame, disaster myths, the therapeutic community frame, recreancy, and international support emerged during the analysis. Our study demonstrates how media coverage reflects current geopolitical dynamics in the region, distinguishing impoverished Nepal from two emerging economic giants, India and China. We contribute to developing literature arguing that media coverage during disasters produces global human life hierarchies. Our study adds a class hierarchy dimension, where tourists are more valuable than locals, and even among tourists, those involved in high-end tourism attract additional media attention.

China through the lens of neighboring media: a comparative analysis of Pakistani and Indian newspaper coverage of unrest in Hong Kong

This research offers a comparative content analysis of Pakistani and Indian newspaper coverage of the recent social unrest in Hong Kong over the attempt to introduce an extradition bill covering fugitive suspects. Additionally, the study explores the portrayal of China in the newspapers of its neighboring countries in reporting on the Hong Kong turmoil. The study applies framing theory and empirically tests the model of peace journalism developed by Johan Galtung. The results from analyzing 564 news stories indicate that the Indian press practices more war journalism, while the Pakistani press practices more peace journalism. In all four newspapers, the protestors received a more favorable slant than the government. However, Indian newspapers put China in a negative frame, while Pakistani newspapers presented a largely neutral image of China but offered slightly more negative than positive portrayals. The salient appearance of “discordance-oriented” indicators used for war journalism indicates that the Indian media have discouraged the restoration of peace and promoted contestation between protestors and the Hong Kong government. This study also addressed the impact of foreign policy and news sources on the practices of peace and war journalism and representation of China in Indian and Pakistani newspapers.

EFFECT OF PRECONDITIONS AND UNSAFE ACTS ON EVACUATION DURATION IN FIRE DISASTER CONDITIONS (STUDY AT THE INPATIENT BUILDING OF GENERAL HOSPITAL R. KOESMA TUBAN

ABSTRACTHospital fires have the potential to cause fatalities and huge material losses, there were 22 hospital fires covered by newspapers in India in 2011-2012 with 102 dead. Buildings are considered safe if all occupants building threatened by fire must be able to exit and assembly point before available safe egress time. This study aimed to analyze the effect of preconditions and unsafe acts (violations of evacuation procedures) on evacuation duration in fire disaster conditions in the inpatient building of general hospital R. Koesma Tuban. This study was an observational study, a quantitative method and cross sectional design, which were carried out in April-July 2019. Analysis of Covariance test results stated preconditions (age, sex, exercise habits, location of inpatient ward, distance traveled) affect the duration of evacuation (p <0.05) while preconditions (interaction between workers and readiness of workers) don’t affect the duration evacuation (p> 0.05). Violation of evacuation procedures has the potential to influence the duration of evacuation (p = 0.054). The conclusions this study are age, gender, exercise habits, location of the inpatient ward, and distance traveled affect the duration of the evacuation. Keywords: Duration of evacuation, preconditions, violations of evacuation procedures, hospital

Framing of Kashmir Conflict in Elite Pakistani and Indian Newspapers after Revocation of Special Status of the Disputed Territory

Purpose: India, using its legislative powers, divided Jammu and Kashmir J&K into two separate territories under federal control by revoking Article 370 that had given a special status to the disputed territory. This move stirred isolation and suppression in the people of the valley. The purpose of the study is to comprehend the peace and war framing of the Kashmir conflict after the revocation of the special status of the disputed territory in the Indian and Pakistani media. The study also attempts to explore the strategic relevance of Kashmir for neighboring China.
 Design/Methodology/Approach: Framing, Peace and War Journalism theories were used in this study. Quantitative content analysis method was used to analyze the peace and war framing of the J&K conflict in Dawn and Times of India.
 Findings: Content analysis findings supported assumption that war coverage was the most highly recorded coverage pattern in both Indian and Pakistani newspapers. Dawn took a lead in peace journalism framing with 25.56% of its editorials and columns dominated with peace journalism frames whereas 11.88% editorials and columns in Times of India were dominated with peace journalism frames.
 Implications/Originality/Value: The study finds that Kashmir dispute was framed in War Journalism viewpoint in media of both the neighboring countries. This research also shows that Beijing sticks to its strategic guns by giving peaceful verbal gestures for the region’s stability. 

Indo-Pak Media Approach towards Peace and War Journalism during the Policy Crisis: Analyzing the Coverage of Pulwama Attack and Balakot Air-Strike in daily Dawn and The Hindu

This study contently examines the media coverage of Pulwama attack and Balakot air strike in daily Dawn and The Hindu, wherein the total 162 news stories on both the selected issues were thoroughly analyzed in the broader perspective of peace journalism. Supporting the core theoretical assumptions of indexing theory [media follow the guidelines of elites] and policy-media interaction model [media tow the government’s policy line], the Indo-Pak media employ, to some extent, peace journalism, especially at the time of policy crisis. However, the study shows mixed results as the Indian newspaper, owing to prevailing political environment in India, was more inclined towards war journalism 38.8% as compare to the war-oriented 12.2% coverage in daily Dawn. On other hand, the findings indicate high level of tendency in daily Dawn i.e. 53.7% towards peace journalism, comparing with 23.8% peace-oriented coverage in daily The Hindu.

Comparative Analysis of Pak-Indo Press Role toward Annexation of Special Status of Kashmir: From War to Peace Perspective

Indo-Pak Conflict on the territory of Kashmir started with Pakistan’s released in August 1947. At that time all the states were given the choice of choosing India or Pakistan. The then princely states rulers had to make their option. There have been some preliminaries, they said when selecting both states; one is the geographical proximity and the one was for the public ambition. In October 1947, given the fact that Kashmir was predominantly Muslim state that opted for the state of Pakistan, while the Kashmir’s Maharaja chose India in support. This choice was perceived by the Pakistani government as fraudulent, unfair and entirely unrecognized judgement. Furthermore, the religious orientation of more Kashmiri inhabitants can be seen as another factor in this conflict (Qumber, Ishaque and Shah 2017). This study aims to explore framing from war to peace-journalism after the Indian attempt of August 5, 2019, to annex the special status of Kashmir, in two English elite newspapers i.e. Daily Dawn, a Pakistani newspaper and the other is Hindustan Times an Indian Newspaper. The study explores news stories on front page along with editorials of these newspapers to understand how these newspapers covered and framed the issue?

Comparing written Indian Englishes with the newCorpus of Regional Indian Newspaper Englishes(CORINNE)

AbstractThis article introduces the newCorpus of Regional Indian Newspaper Englishes(CORINNE). The current version of CORINNE contains news and other text types from regional Indian newspapers published between 2015 and 2020, covering 13 states and regions so far. The corpus complements previous corpora, such as the Indian component of theInternational Corpus of English(ICE) as well as the Indian section of theSouth Asian Varieties of English(SAVE) corpus, by giving researchers the opportunity to analyse and compare regional (written) Englishes in India.In the first sections of the paper we discuss the rationale for creating CORINNE as well as the development of the corpus. We stress the potential of CORINNE and go into detail about selection criteria for the inclusion of newspapers as well as corpus compilation and the current word count. In order to show the potential of the corpus, the paper presents a case study of ‘intrusiveas’, a syntactic feature that has made its way into formal registers of Indian English. Based on two subcorpora covering newspapers from Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand, we compare frequencies and usage patterns ofcall (as)andterm (as). The case study lends further weight to the hypothesis that the presence or absence of a quotative in the majority language spoken in an Indian state has an impact on the frequency of ‘intrusiveas’. Finally, we foreshadow the next steps in the development of CORINNE as well as potential studies that can be carried out using the corpus.

Social stigma in time of COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from India

PurposeThe stigmatisation of COVID-19 patients or suspected cases is a matter of grave concern across the world, including India. Today, COVID-19 patients or suspected cases are being stigmatised or labelled as “corona carrier” and “corona spreader” because of which they are facing social rejection, mental torture, abusive behaviour and violence in the society. The objectives of the present study are to examine the nature of stigma construction in Indian society during COVID-19 pandemic and to explore its outcome on the well-being of corona-affected people.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses content analysis method to explain the COVID-19 stigma. The data have been collected from various Indian newspapers and magazines. The researchers have analysed the content of the news items related to social stigma which were collected from March to September 2020.FindingsThe study finds that COVID-19 patients or suspected cases are insulted and discriminated rudely by their family members and neighbours, and in many cases, they are not allowed to enter the house or the neighbourhood. The study has also pointed out that many COVID-19 patients or suspected cases have committed suicide as a result of being stigmatisation. Finally, the study explores that this social stigma is spreading due to fake news, lack of awareness and fear of corona infection.Originality/valueThis is an original paper which is based on content analysis. The present study focuses on the social stigma in Indian society during COVID-19. Basically, the present study has applied the theory of Erving Goffman which is based on stigma to examine the nature and problem of social stigma during COVID-19. The study has found that there are three types of social stigma during the corona pandemic: self-made stigma, family-made stigma and society-made stigma.

COVID-19 and the Risk of Displacement of Migrant Workers: An Analysis of Media Framing in the Indian State of Kerala

Migration and migrant movement are a global scenario, in which one of the main drivers, which facilitates migrant movement, is the search for better living conditions. One of the most vulnerable communities in this regard is migrant workers, especially in the developing world, who conduct cross-country migration. Labour migration is a significant national phenomenon in India in which the workers migrate across the states, which were facilitated by the interstate movement. The recent outbreak of pandemic COVID-19 poses the greatest challenge to the migrant workers who face the challenge of displacement due to the restriction of movement and public perception. One of the significant actors facilitating public discourse is the media, which explores the migrant scenario through framing. This article analyzes how the Indian newspaper portrays the plight of the migrant workers in Kerala through media framing using qualitative case analysis. The study reveals that the media frames portray the plight of the migrant workers during the pandemic situation, and the result could be helpful for policy developers on immigrant’s integration.

Media and Human Rights: A Study of the Kashmir Conflict in the Indian Press

This study examines how the Indian press reported the Kashmir conflict according to the Human Right Journalism model. We applied frame analysis on the 392 news stories of two Indian newspapers, The Hindu and Hindustan Times. The Study uses content analysis techniques to draw inference about the selected frames. The results of the study show that Indian press gave human-wrong journalism approach while reporting the happenings in Kashmir. The findings also show that the Indian press followed the nationalistic narrative and reported the events from distance frames. We found that the journalistic approach in Indian Press is determined by the type of news. In terms of reporting on soft topics, the newspapers reported human-right journalism approach, while reporting on hard topics, human-wrong journalism approach were applied. Limitations of the study are given at the end.