MEDIA FRAMING OF THE 2014 INDIAN ELECTION: THE RISE OF PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI MEDIA FRAMING OF THE 2014 INDIAN ELECTION: THE RISE OF PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI Tejasvi Vasudevan An Independent Study Manuscript Presented to The Graduate School of Bangkok University In Partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Master of Communication Arts 2017 2017 Tejasvi Vasudevan All Rights Reserved Vasudevan,T. Communication Arts May 2017, Graduate School, Bangkok University Media Framing of the 2014 Indian Elections: The Rise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi (161pps) Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Boonlert Supadhilok, Ph.D. ABSTRACT This paper looks at the important role that news-frames and media played in the electoral processes by using five news-frames from six newspapers: Times of India, Telegraph, The Hindu, Hindustan Dainik, Ananda Bazaar Patrika and Dainik Jagran, seven months prior to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in India. The paper also studied five television news channels’ prime-time news and studied the time allotted to politicians, political parties, and issues related to the elections. Lastly, the paper studied the role of social media in Indian elections. It argues that news frames with their stories can somehow change people’s perception of the candidates and move the public away from issues that were very relevant to them before the elections and get them to singularly focus on issues the media has framed and create a brand around a leader. Given the complexity of Indian politics, its numerous regional languages, its varied demographics, and where amongst the two main political parties, one was headed by a man (Mr. Narendra Modi) who was rank outsider, far away from the politics of New Delhi and the northern India which had produced all previous Prime Ministers and more known for his inaction during the Godhra riots in which many Muslim were killed in his state where he was the Chief Minister, and the second headed by the scion of India’s most famous political dynasty (Mr. Rahul Gandhi), the author argues that it was the media who with their news frames created a brand of the party leader Mr. Modi. The author used only secondary research due to the time delay between the paper and the elections which prevented primary research. Never before has such branding of a personality in politics prior to elections occurred, especially one who was thought of as radical right-wing in a very secular country. Elections are an important part of any democratic country. The media helps the populace to understand the different parties’ take on issues concerning the public, the candidates and their views. Indians are besotted with politics and the Constitution of India gives the power to elect the leader of the country to its entire people through the process of an electoral system. The 2014 Lok Sabha election was surprising in its results as one party the BJP gained 282 seats out of 543 seats giving it a stunning victory. It was also an election which saw social media being actively used by politicians along with traditional media. The election were dubbed social media election and recalled by many as an election in which the media was partial to Mr. Modi, the winning candidate. Hence the role of the media is very important in understanding what caused this massive victory of a party that was considered very politically polarized and of a man who was known for 2002 riots which killed many Muslims in a state which he headed as chief minister at that time. Could the media by framing the issues represented by his party itself cause such a huge success or was there more to the party, its views and the leader’s message? The answers to these are very important not only from the view point of 2014 but for future elections in India. Can media framing cause so much popularity for a certain leader? Or is it that the new India is moving away from caste and community politics and wanting to move towards more economic progress and the media just helped the process just this once? Can social media, which does not allow gate keepers like editors and news reporters to control ongoing topics, be the new media for success of political parties? Can a biased media create political success? The answers to these questions will not only decide the future of political parties their strategies, their spending during election process and the populations understanding of politics but also how the new leader will be elected. It is with this view I decided to study the 2014 election, one for the mammoth victory it resulted in and the other for its controversial media bias. Keywords: Lok Sabha elections, media bias, newspapers, Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi, Social Media, Indian Politics vii ACKNOWLEGEMENT This independent study has given me a great opportunity to work with many helpful and kind people. Without the help of them, this paper would not be completed. I would like to express my gratitude to Asst. Prof. Dr Boonlert Supadhiloke, my advisor, for his time, suggestions, supervisions, guidance as well as valuable support throughout the completion of this study and moving closer towards the completion of Masters in Communication Arts in a Global Communications. Secondly, I would also like to express my appreciation to Graduate School staffs for their help whenever I needed their help. Thirdly, I would like to express my thanks to Ajarn Thanongsak Chongbut (Jack) for his time to help with the formatting of the Independent Study. Finally I deeply wish to express my deepest thanks to my family my parents Nirmala and Vasudevan as well as my sister Kiran Vasudevan for being my support, and giving me their time ,their encouragement and love during the writing of this independent study. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………… vii ACKNOWLEGEMENT…………………………………………………….. viii LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………………………… xii LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………… xiii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background……………………………………………… .…. 1 1.2 Rationale and problem statement ……………………………. 7 1.3 Objective of the studies…………………………………......... 9 1.4 Scope of the study…………………………………..…………9 1.5 Research Question…………………………………..……......10 1.6 Significance of the Study……………………………..………11 1.7 Definition of terms……………………………………..……. 11 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2 Framing Theory………………………………………………..14 2.1 A summary and synthesis of past studies 2.1.1 The Role of media in election coverage………………..18 2.1.2 Television’s effect on election coverage……………….21 2.1.3 The effects of social media and its relevance in elections ………………………………………… 27 2. 2 Media in India……….………………………………………32 2.2.1media framing in Indian 2014 elections……………….. 33 2.2.2The Relationship between content (issue avoidance vs. Personalities and content) especially in relation to India…… …………………………………………….. 35 2.2.3The role of paid news on election results especially in relation to India……………………………………….. 38 ix TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued) CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW (Continued) 2.3 Main Players and their strategies…………………………….42 2.3.1 Narendra Modi and the BJP strategy…………………..44 2.3.2 Rahul Gandhi and the INC strategy……………………47 2.3.3 Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP strategy… …………...50 2.4 Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi …………………………..52 2.5 Demography of the Indian population who went to vote in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections…....................................................56 2.6 Conceptual framework……………………………………….56 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Content Analysis …………………………………………….59 3.2 Research Design ……………………………………………..61 3.3 Data Collection procedure……………………………………62 3.4 News frames definition and operation………………………..64 3.5Results from Coding ………………………………………….65 3.5.1 NaMo frame……….……………………………………65 3.5.2 Gujarat Model of development frame ………………….65 3.5.3 Corruption frame………….. …………………………..66 3.5.4 Minority Rights……….........................................66 3.5.5 Dynasty Politics of Congress ………………………… 66 3.6 Intercoder reliability………………………………………… 67 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS OF THE STUDY Part 1 Content analysis ………………………………………….. 69 Part 2 Textual analysis…………………………………………. 74 1. Narendra Modi Frame………….................................... 74 2. Gujarat Model Frame ………………………………….88 3. Dynasty Politics Frames …….......……………………. 90 4. Corruption Frame ……………..……………………... 92 x TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued) CHAPTER 4: RESULTS OF THE STUDY (Continued) 5. Minority Rights Frame …………………………………… 94 4.1 Opinion polls ………………………………………………96 4.2 Exit polls………………………………………………… 98 4.3 Finding based on demographics..…………… ………….. 100 4.3.1 Age…………………………………………………. 100 4.3.2 Occupation…………………………………………..100 4.3.3 Education ………………..………………………….100 4.3.4 Geographical Location ……………………………...101 4.3.5 Gender ………………………………………………101 4.3.6 Religion………...........................................................101 4.3.7 Caste……………………............................................102 4.5 Finding based on Television coverage …………………....103 4.6 Finding based on Facebook and Twitter…………………..104 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 5.1 Conclusion…………………………………………………111 5.2 Discussion…………………................................................. 113 5.3 Personal observation (on newspapers)……………………..116 5.3 Recommendation for further research…..............................117 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………… ………………..119 APPENDIX……………………………………………………………….....135 Proliferation of programs on 2014 polls by NEWS channels…..136 Television News coverage of top political parties……………..137 Coverage of issues during the elections……………………….138 Coverage of leaders by news channels………………………...139