Disease Coverage in Web Edition of Three Indian English-Language Dailies

 

 

K.C. Garg, Bharvi Dutt and Suresh Kumar

 

This study aims to analyse Indian English language newspaper coverage of seven diseases- HIV/AIDS, Diabetes, Dengue, Malaria, Tuberculosis, Chikungunya and Avian Influenza for the year 2007.The newspapers selected for the study were web editions of Hindustan Times, Times of India and Indian express.

The Internet is spreading across the country, and newspaper websites too seem to be proliferating. Web editions of Indian newspapers are now read even in smaller towns, and not just in the metros of the country. A recent study has found that their readership has also spread out to as many as 62 countries, in addition to India.

The growth of online newspaper readership within India has been possible due to penetration of computers and easier availability of Internet connectivity even in small towns and cities, according to the study, which was carried out by the Department of Communication and Journalism, University of Pune.

The majority readership is in the age group of 21-40 years, and it is more in states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Most readers (60 per cent) are highly educated (Masters or PhD degree holders). Professionals from the fields of IT, education and media constitute almost half (48 per cent) the readership of English newspapers on the Internet.

Users also seem to be interested in reading more about business & economy (69 per cent), politics (60 per cent), and science & technology (60 per cent). Sports news is favoured only by 37 per cent of the users.

A significant change was noticeable in the interest in news about social development and environment between now and 1998. About 4 per cent readers had shown interest in this category of news in 1998. By 2007 the figures had risen to 46 per cent for news about social development and 33 per cent for environment. Close to 30 per cent take interest in rural development, and 28 per cent in arts & culture.

Most readers reported high level of satisfaction from the Internet newspapers that they read. Substantial numbers of online users turn to the Internet in search of specific information, not just general news. Electronic news organizations have responded to the public’s desire for specialized and personalized news.

Newspapers websites attracted more than 66.4 million unique visitors per year on an average (40.7% of all Internet users) according to a custom analysis provided by Nielsen online for the Newspaper Association of America.

Almost half (49%) of web users in America says that Internet news is more accurate than news found in traditional print and broadcast outlets; only 28% of non-online users agree.

 

Method

Archives of 3 leading Indian English language newspapers websites were searched for the articles on the selected diseases for the year 2007. Searching was done using the name of the disease as the keyword.

Only the Hindustan Times website contains a separate section, in which searching was carried out using the keyword as the name of the disease and by selecting the year or range of years in which the articles were published. This makes searching the disease articles for a particular year very easy.

For Indian express and Times of India, since there was no such section, therefore searching was carried out using the keyword as a combination of the name of the disease plus the year of the article published.

The searched articles were categorized by disease name and newspaper organization. Table 1 presents the distribution of newspaper items on different diseases and Table 2 depicts their space allocation in terms of word count.

 

Table 1: Distribution of newspaper items on different diseases in year 2007

Disease

Newspaper

Hindustan Times

Times of India

Indian Express

HIV

124

160

98

Malaria

45

78

55

Dengue

21

66

26

Diabetes

89

49

102

TB

37

42

42

Chikungunya

16

26

26

Avian Influenza

26

44

19

Total

358

465

368

 

Fig 1: Distribution of newspaper items on different diseases in year 2007

 

 

Table 2: Total word count of different disease in year 2007

Disease

Disease

Hindustan Times

Times of India

Indian Express

HIV

49098

67239

40275

Malaria

18444

28428

24938

Dengue

7759

18824

10625

Diabetes

35345

17505

53348

TB

15678

15995

18874

Chikungunya

5371

7921

8434

Avian Influenza

8883

13536

8395

 

Fig 2: Total word count of different diseases in year 2007

 

 

 

 

References:

 

 

 

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