Abstract PERCEPTION OF PAID NEWS AMONG MEDIA STUDENTS IN BANGALORE Rajarshi Bhattacharjee Registered Number: 1324021 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Communication Christ University Bengaluru 2015 Department of Media Studies Authorship Declaration ii Christ University Department of Media Studies This is to certify that I have examined this copy of a master’s thesis by Rajarshi Bhattacharjee Registered Number: 1324021 and have found that it is complete and satisfactory in all respects, and that any and all revisions required by the final examining committee have been made. Committee Members: _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ Date: __________________________________ iii iv Master's Signature I, Rajarshi Bhattacharjee, confirm that this dissertation and the work presented in it are original. 1. Where I have consulted the published work of others this is always clearly attributed. 2. Where I have quoted from the work of others the source is always given. With the exception of such quotations this dissertation is entirely my own work. 3. I have acknowledged all main sources of help. 4. If my research follows on from previous work or is part of a larger collaborative research project I have made clear exactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself. 5. I am aware and accept the penalties associated with plagiarism. Date: Signature of Student v vi Title Page Abstract Perception of Paid News among Media Students in Bangalore Rajarshi Bhattacharjee Master of Science in Communication, Christ University, Bengaluru Gone are the days when advertising were among the major source of revenue for media organizations. The recent past has witnessed the rise of paid news in media organizations where they get paid to publish favourable news about a person or organization. This practice is s serious blow to the journalistic ethics of the country. This dissertation will try to find out what the media students in this part of the country think about this phenomenon. Apart from that, the researcher will also try and compare the same with selected non-media students and bring out a comparative analysis. vii viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to my guide Amutha Manavalan for her constant guidance encouragement and support. I also thank course coordinator Prof. Father Biju K.C., Naresh Rao, Suparna Naresh, Aasita Bali, Rajesh A, Kannan S. and Shantaraju S. for their valuable feedback and restless assistance in bringing out this research. I also would like to thank my family and friends for the encouragement and devotion, without whom this thesis would never have been completed ix x DEDICATION To my loving family and friends xi xii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................ 1 CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ............................................... 9 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ............................................................ 14 CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS ........................................................................ 24 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION .................................................................. 43 xiii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Specify your gender. ...................................................................................... 26 Figure 2: Are you an under-graduate student or post-graduate student? ......................... 27 Figure 3: Are you a media or non-media student? .......................................................... 28 Figure 4: Specify your knowledge of current affairs. ..................................................... 29 Figure 5: How often do you read newspapers? .............................................................. 31 Figure 6: Since when have you been reading newspapers? ............................................ 32 Figure 7: Your preferred medium of news reading? ....................................................... 33 Figure 8: Which English newspaper do you read? ......................................................... 34 Figure 9: Do you read regional newspapers? ................................................................. 35 Figure 10 Are you aware of the phenomenon of 'paid news'? ......................................... 36 Figure 11: How often do you come across 'paid news'? ................................................. 37 Figure 12: Knowledge of ‘private treaties’. ................................................................... 38 Figure 13: Difference between a news article and an advertorial? .................................. 39 Figure 14: Which sector is projected the most through advertorials?.............................. 40 Figure 15: Do you find advertorials misleading? ........................................................... 41 xiv xv Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION India is the world's biggest democracy. It is a broad communication society, a framework that has advanced over hundreds of years, is involved a complex schema. Modernization has changed this into an interchanges arrange that maintains the beat of a vote based system of around 1.1 billion individuals. India's daily paper advancement is about unmatched in world press history. India's daily paper industry and its Westernization go hand in hand. India's press is an analogy for its progression in the globalized world. The printing press went before the appearance of printed news in India by around 100 years. It was in 1674 that the first printing contraption was built in Bombay. India's first daily paper, Calcutta General Advertise, otherwise called the Hicky's Bengal Gazette was created in January 1780, and the first Hindi day by day, Samachar Sudha Varshan , started in 1854. The advancement of the Indian media since has been loaded with formative challenges; absence of education, pioneer obligations and restraint, destitution, and lack of concern ruin enthusiasm toward news and media. Inside this system, it is informative to analyze India's press in two wide explanatory segments: pre- colonial times and the frontier, autonomous press (which might, again be ordered into two: former and after the Emergency guideline forced by Indira Gandhi's administration in 1975). The post-Emergency stage, which proceeds at the present, may be the third autonomous period of India's daily paper revolution. Indian press have faced a lot of restriction since the colonial times. Regressive press acts like the Vernacular Press Act, the Press and Registration of Books Act, The Official Secrets Act have tried to suppress the press time and again. But it has come out strong every time. However, the phenomenon of ‘paid news’ that is prevalent in Indian media is being black mark on Indian Journalism. 1.1 Journalism as a Profession Journalism as a craft, a profession and even as a trade or business is over two centuries old. It was made possible by coming together of a number of technologies as well as several social and political and economic developments .The main technologies that facilitated the development of large-scale printing and distribution of print material were the printing press and the railways. As a craft Journalism involves specialisation in one area (editorial, design, and printing); for the reporters and the sub-editors for instance, it entails writing to a deadline, following routines in a conveyor-belt like workplace, while respecting the division of labour in the newsroom and the printing press. In earlier times, knowledge of type writing and shorthand were the main skills demanded; today computing and DTP skills are in demand for all areas of Journalism. Also the divisions among the different areas have become blurred. 1.2 Journalistic Ethics In 1997, an association then controlled by PEJ, the Committee of Concerned Journalists, started a national discussion among nationals and news individuals to distinguish and illuminate the standards that underlie reporting. Following four years of exploration, including 20 open discussions around the nation, a perusing of news coverage history, a national review of columnists, and that's only the tip of the iceberg, the gathering discharged a Statement of Shared Purpose that recognized nine standards. These turned into the premise for The Elements of Journalism, the book by PEJ Director Tom Rosenstiel and CCJ Chairman and PEJ Senior Counselor Bill Kovach. Here are those standards, as sketched out in the first Statement of Shared Purpose. 2 1.2.1 A Statement of Purpose After extended examination by journalists themselves of the character of journalism at the end of the 20thcentury, we offer this common understanding of what defines our work. The central purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with accurate and reliable information they need to function in a free society. This encompasses myriad roles--helping define community, creating common language and common knowledge, identifying a community's goals, Heros and villains, and pushing people beyond complacency. This purpose also involves other requirements, such as being entertaining, serving as watchdog and offering voice to the voiceless. Over time journalists have developed nine core principles to meet the task. They comprise what might be described as the theory of journalism: Journalism's first obligation is to the truth Vote based system relies on upon natives having solid, exact truths put in a significant setting. Reporting does not