In charts: India’s newsrooms are dominated by the upper castes – and that reflects what media covers

[Drizzt]

​

Affirmative action is necessary to diversify newsrooms to better reflect the country’s demographics and social character, says a new report.​

Of 121 managerial positions in newsrooms surveyed in a study on the caste composition of the Indian media released on Friday, 106 were occupied by members of the upper castes and none by members of the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes.

The study, conducted by the NGO Oxfam India and Newslaundry, a media-watch website, also noted that “three out of every four anchors (among a total of 40 anchors in Hindi channels and 47 in English channels) of debates are upper caste”. In addition, “for over 70% of their primetime debate shows, news channels draw the majority of the panellists from the upper castes”.

The report “provides substantial evidence that vast sections of India’s marginalised caste groups lack access to the media platforms and discourses that shape public opinion, leading to their invisibilisation”, the authors conclude.

Scroll.in was among the organisations that was included in the study, titled “Who Tells Our Stories Matters: Representation of Marginalised Caste Groups in Indian Newsrooms.”

Anchors and bylines​

On television, members of the upper castes dominated both anchor slots as well as places on panels. On news websites, 72% of bylined articles on news websites were written by members of the upper castes.

Writing on caste​

Even on matters relating to caste, the report finds that over half of anchors and writers are upper caste. An exception was the Hindi newspaper Amar Ujala, 100% of whose writers on caste were members of the scheduled castes.

A pitch for diversity​

The report’s authors recommend affirmative action as a way to diversify newsrooms to better reflect the country’s demographics and social character noting that it is incumbent upon newsrooms to set up systems of identifying and training journalists from across the social system. While many acknowledge their lack of diversity, there is little concerted effort to push for greater representation. As a matter of fact, the team of researchers themselves are largely upper caste, and state time and resource constraints for this.
https://scroll.in/bulletins/316/ski...how-turmeric-can-solve-all-your-skin-problems

 

[Meliodas]

Why give reference to turmeric article

 

[Wergeland]

​

Affirmative action is necessary to diversify newsrooms to better reflect the country’s demographics and social character, says a new report.​

Of 121 managerial positions in newsrooms surveyed in a study on the caste composition of the Indian media released on Friday, 106 were occupied by members of the upper castes and none by members of the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes.

The study, conducted by the NGO Oxfam India and Newslaundry, a media-watch website, also noted that “three out of every four anchors (among a total of 40 anchors in Hindi channels and 47 in English channels) of debates are upper caste”. In addition, “for over 70% of their primetime debate shows, news channels draw the majority of the panellists from the upper castes”.

The report “provides substantial evidence that vast sections of India’s marginalised caste groups lack access to the media platforms and discourses that shape public opinion, leading to their invisibilisation”, the authors conclude.

Scroll.in was among the organisations that was included in the study, titled “Who Tells Our Stories Matters: Representation of Marginalised Caste Groups in Indian Newsrooms.”

Anchors and bylines​

On television, members of the upper castes dominated both anchor slots as well as places on panels. On news websites, 72% of bylined articles on news websites were written by members of the upper castes.

Writing on caste​

Even on matters relating to caste, the report finds that over half of anchors and writers are upper caste. An exception was the Hindi newspaper Amar Ujala, 100% of whose writers on caste were members of the scheduled castes.

A pitch for diversity​

The report’s authors recommend affirmative action as a way to diversify newsrooms to better reflect the country’s demographics and social character noting that it is incumbent upon newsrooms to set up systems of identifying and training journalists from across the social system. While many acknowledge their lack of diversity, there is little concerted effort to push for greater representation. As a matter of fact, the team of researchers themselves are largely upper caste, and state time and resource constraints for this.
https://scroll.in/bulletins/316/ski...how-turmeric-can-solve-all-your-skin-problems

There are indians here who always says caste is no problem bla bla bla

But somehow all the elites, businessmen, witers, newspaperowners, media personell and so on, they almost exclusively from high casts. This is a de-facto apartheidism.

Cannot understmd how certain indians manages to sleep well knowing their country is built on such top down slavery.

 

[Baba_Yaga]

There are indians here who always says caste is no problem bla bla bla

But somehow all the elites, businessmen, witers, newspaperowners, media personell and so on, they almost exclusively from high casts. This is a de-facto apartheidism.

Cannot understmd how certain indians manages to sleep well knowing their country is built on such top down slavery.

PM Modi belongs to a lower caste, so much for slavery....

 

[Wergeland]

PM Modi belongs to a lower caste, so much for slavery....

Good you found your house ni**a

Statistics dont lie. Using outlier anecdote to deny the casteproblem is favourite hobby of the priviledged caste members. Shameful behaviour and belongs nowhere in any society.

 

[Drizzt]

There are indians here who always says caste is no problem bla bla bla

But somehow all the elites, businessmen, witers, newspaperowners, media personell and so on, they almost exclusively from high casts. This is a de-facto apartheidism.

Cannot understmd how certain indians manages to sleep well knowing their country is built on such top down slavery.

They are sleeping peacefully since 3000 years, they are the sort without a conscience. Exposing their true identity to the world through internet and social media helps. Muslims and other minorities are not being killed by Hindu, but by 10% upper caste. World needs to understand this.

PM Modi belongs to a lower caste, so much for slavery....

No he is baniya a upper caste.

Why is Narendra Modi not seen as an OBC leader, unlike Nitish and Lalu?​

https://scroll.in/article/755025/ca...-seen-as-an-obc-leader-unlike-nitish-and-lalu

 

[Baba_Yaga]

Good you found your house ni**a

Statistics dont lie. Using outlier anecdote to deny the casteproblem is favourite hobby of the priviledged caste members. Shameful behaviour and belongs nowhere in any society.

A house n'ga is a figurehead reporting to white masters. If Modi was president, then the terminology might have been true, but he is pretty much the most popular indian leader in recent times, most likely to be elected the third time, and he commands tremendous power over making policy and deciding fate of the country. A true house n*ga example are any of Pakistan PMs that are just puppets of the establishment and don't really have any power.