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 Social profile of key heads in the national media
Report by Anil Chamaria,
Freelance Journalist; Jitendra Kumar, Independent Researcher; Yogendra Yadav, Senior Fellow, CSDS
The
Milli Gazette Online
6
June 2006
KEY FINDINGS:
- India's 'national' media lacks social
diversity, it does not reflect the country's social profile
- Hindu upper caste men dominate the
media. They are about 8 % of India's population but among the key
decision makers of the national media their share is as high as 71 %.
- Gender bias rules: only 17 % of the key
decision makers are women. Their representation is better in the
English Electronic media (32 %).
- Media's caste profile is equally
unrepresentative. 'Twice born' Hindus (dwijas comprising Brahmins,
Kayasthas, Rajputs, Vaishyas and Khatris) are about 16 % of India's
population, but they are about 86 % among the key media decision
makers in this survey. Brahmins (including Bhumihars and Tyagis) alone
constitute 49% of the key media personnel.
- Dalits and adivasis are conspicuous by
their absence among the decision makers. Not even one of the 315 key
decision makers belonged to the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled
Tribes.
- The proportion of OBCs is abysmally low
among the key decision makers in the national media: they are only 4 %
compared to their population of around 40 % in the country.
- Muslims are severely
under-represented in the national media: they are only 3 % among the
key decision makers, compared to 13.4% in the country's population.
- Christians are proportionately
represented in the media (mainly in the English media): their share is
about 4 per cent compared to their population share of 2.3 %
- Social groups that suffer 'double
disadvantage' are also nearly absent among the key decision makers:
there are no women among the few OBC decision makers and negligible
backwards among the Muslims and Christians.
- These findings are based on a survey of
the social background of 315 key decision makers from 37 'national'
media organizations (up to 10 key decision makers from each
organisation) based in Delhi. The survey was carried out by volunteers
of Media Study Group between 30 May and 3 June 2006.
- The survey was designed and executed by
Anil Chamaria, Feerlance Journalist, and Jitendra Kumar, Independent
Researcher, from Media Study Group and Yogendra Yadav, Senior Fellow,
CSDS.
Survey
methodology:
For this survey 40 ‘national’
media organizations located in Delhi were identified. These included all
the major news papers, news magazines, radio channels, television channels
and news agencies that could be said to have a national spread. Of these
information could be obtained about 37 organizations. For this purpose
different publications or channels of the same media house have been
treated as different organaisations.
For each of these organizations we sought
information on the top 10 ‘key decision makers’ who matter in deciding
the news and editorial policy of the organization. For each of these
persons thus identified, information was collected on their social profile
in terms of their gender, age, religion, caste/community, mother tongue
and state of domicile. The information was available for 315 key decision
makers. This was gathered by a group of volunteers of the Media Study
Group. Since the information was gathered not by face-to-face interview
but by speaking to colleagues and other informants, the data here may
contain some errors.
SUMMARY TABLES
Gender Profile
| |
Men |
Women |
| Print Hindi |
86 % |
14 % |
| Print English |
84 % |
16 % |
| Electronic Hindi |
89 % |
11 % |
| Electronic English |
68 % |
32 % |
| All |
83 % |
17 % |
Religious profile
| |
Hindu |
Muslim |
Christian |
Sikh |
| Share in India’s population |
81 % |
13 % |
2 % |
2 % |
| Print Hindi |
97 % |
2 % |
0 % |
0 |
| Print English |
90 % |
3 % |
4 % |
0 |
| Electronic Hindi |
90 % |
6 % |
1 % |
0 |
| Electronic English |
85 % |
0 % |
13 % |
2 % |
| All |
90 % |
3 % |
4 % |
1 % |
Caste-community profile
| |
Brahmin |
Kayastha |
Vaishya/
Jain
|
Rajput |
Khatri |
Non dwija upper caste |
OBC |
| Print Hindi |
59 % |
9 % |
11 % |
8 % |
5 % |
0 % |
8 % |
| Print English |
44 % |
18 % |
5 % |
1 % |
17 % |
5 % |
1 % |
| Electronic Hindi |
49 % |
13 % |
8 % |
14 % |
4 % |
0% |
4 % |
| Electronic English |
52 % |
13 % |
2 % |
4 % |
4 % |
4 % |
4 % |
| All |
49 % |
14 % |
7 % |
7 % |
9 % |
2 % |
4 % |
Caste-Community profile compared to
population share
| Caste/community group |
Share in India’s
population |
Share in key media
personnel |
| |
|
|
| ‘Twice born’ Hindus (Brahmin,
Kshatriya, Vaishya, others) |
16 % |
85 % |
| ‘Intermediary’ Hindu castes (Jat,
Reddy, Maratha, Patel, etc.) |
8 % |
3 % |
| Hindu OBC |
34 % |
4 % |
| Muslim |
13 % |
4 % |
| Christian |
2 % |
3 % |
| Sikhs |
2 % |
1 % |
| SC |
16 % |
0 % |
| ST |
8 % |
0 % |
Note: Figures for population share
are based on Census of India 2001 and estimates generated by National
Election Study 2004 of CSDS.
Share of Hindu upper caste men
| Share in population |
8 % |
| Share in key decision makers in
the media |
71 % |
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