Reporting Of Different Types Of Crimes And Violence Committed Against Women Published In Indian Newspapers

Abstract

The evil of violence against women is mirrored by the media and the public comprehends it too, but unfortunately the reporting is erratic and unsystematic. The Indian media usually fails in hitting this nail on its head. The painstaking and deep analysis of over 1500 articles has flowered into this research paper from four mainstream Indian newspapers, both English and Hindi. The articles are tested and measured against paradigms and guidelines set for reporting on violence against the fair sex. We discovered that reporting rarely follows a pattern of systematic evaluation of the situation and rather presents them as isolated events instead of a social problem. It is exotic to discover the type of reporting which debunks the myth about crimes against females.

Focusing on the challenges faced by the surviving victims in pursuing the course of justice and being informative about the support/help and resources for rehabilitation for survivors. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. it is problematic that language of reports is attention seeking (especially in vernacular languages), the focus is extensively on details which leads to “missing the woods of trees”. In the “melee” of sensational news stairs the issues like domestic violence are red lined. This report comes to the conclusion that PIIS “norms of journalistic conduct” must include guidelines for reporting on gendered violence and that media organizations must be made to endorse them and follow them mandatorily.