| 1

Representation of
marginalised caste
groups in Indian
Newsrooms

Released on: 2nd August 2019

Cover Art: Shivanee Harshey
2 | WHO TELLS OUR STORIES MATTERS

Acknowledgments

This report is a collaborative effort of Oxfam India

and Newslaundry.

The report is researched and written by the

Newslaundry team of Sarthak Bhatia, Shyam
Sundar Sridhar, Tanika Chandna, Mehraj D Lone and
supervised by Oxfam India’s media lead Himanshi
Matta. We thank Anandita Bishnoi for designing the
report, Shivanee Harshey for designing the cover
and The Media Rumble team for releasing it.

Oxfam India is grateful to Prof Kaustav Banerjee,

Prof Shaifullah Anis and Sudipto Mondal for their
expert advice.

We acknowledge the efforts of our colleagues

Himanshi Matta and Tejas Patel for leading the
project, and Savvy Soumya Misra and Tomojit Basu
for reviewing and providing feedback.

This report would not have been possible without the

hard-work of Newslaundry’s research associates;
Alisha Sachdeva, Deepita Shukla, Hanishek Honey,
Shefali Mehta, Subia Ahmad, Suyashi Smridhi,
Veydaant Khanna

We also thank the young enthusiastic team of

interns for helping us with the project; Amandeep,
Avantika Mohan, Ayushi Mishra, Fiza Mishra, Harsh
Shukla, Pooja Verma, Pratik Waghmera, Pratiksha
Thayil, Sanaa Sharma, Subhiksha Manoj, Sucharita
Ganguly, Supriti David, Tiyashi Datta, Udita Shome,
Vaidehi Sahasrabhojanee.

The report is aimed at opening, and informing, a

public debate on discrimination and social exclusion
in the media.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 1

METHODOLOGY 3
Selected Sources
Data Collection
Caste Identification

KEY HIGHLIGHTS 6

ENGLISH TV NEWS 7

HINDI TV NEWS 13

ENGLISH NEWSPAPERS 19

HINDI NEWSPAPERS 24

DIGITAL MEDIA 29

MAGAZINES 33

REMARKS 37

APPENDIX 1: SOURCES 38

APPENDIX 2: QUALITATIVE HEADS 39

APPENDIX 3: FIELDS OF PANELLISTS 40

APPENDIX 4: QUESTIONNAIRE 41
 1 | WHO TELLS OUR STORIES MATTERS
Introduction
“After searching the country for more than 10 years, I have been able
to find eight Dalit journalists in the English media. Only two of them have
risked ‘coming out’.”
Sudipto Mondal, Al Jazeera, June 2, 2017
This report studies the representation of people
from different caste groups in the Indian media. It
documents who has a seat at the table and whose
voice has a chance of being heard. The aim is to open
a critical dialogue about the limited representation of
marginalised caste communities in the media’s work
and workplaces, and its impact on viewpoints that
inform and shape the news discourse.
In the past few decades, the media has transitioned
from being an authority that informed the public to one
that is increasingly used to mould, even manufacture
public opinion. Those who get to decide the news
discourse thus possess great power. If they are drawn
largely from dominant social groups, they are likely
to push the dominant perspectives. This defeats the
essential purpose of the media which is to reflect the
diverse society we live in.
In India, while a handful of news organisations
recognise the need to be diverse and inclusive, the
majority remain blind to their privileged structures.
The skewed caste equation in the newsroom reflects
in the way news is collected or presented. Absent
a voice from marginalised caste groups, the news
becomes merely the perspective of a privileged
reporter, writer, or TV panellist.
Caste is an ancient system of hierarchical segregation
of people determined by birth. It is based on notions
of purity and pollution, and rooted in Hindu doctrine.
The caste system divides Hindus into four Varnas of
Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Sudra. Those who
fall outside these endogamous groups, each with
a preordained social function, are known as Dalits
or Scheduled Castes, and Adivasis or Scheduled
Tribes. The Indian constitution uniquely identifies
the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other
Backward Classes – mostly comprising the Sudra and
some sections of the country’s religious minorities –
for affirmative action.
The national census of 2011 shows that Scheduled
Castes are 16.6% of India’s population and Scheduled
Tribes 8.6%, while the 1950 census records the OBC
population at around 56%. The rest are listed under
‘General Category’ and are commonly described as the
upper castes.
Though the constitution guarantees protection
against negative discrimination, caste continues to
influence hiring patterns and public opinion in the
country. In the absence of data or a caste-based
census, however, it is difficult to make authoritative
claims about caste representation in the Indian media.
This study aims to rectify that to some extent.
We examined English and Hindi newspapers, flagship
debate shows on television, digital news outlets,
and magazines to collect caste details of reporters,
writers, and debate panellists in order to provide
a comprehensive report on the representation of
marginalised caste groups in the media. We also
aimed to draw a qualitative picture of which groups
get to speak on various subjects and to what extent.
Getting someone to disclose their caste can be
discomforting for them, not least because of its
association with status, purity, and pollution. Though
a person’s caste can be deduced from their surname,
it is an unreliable method and can even be misleading.
So, we used large datasets such as examination

results of the Union Public Service Commission and
the Delhi University to map surnames to castes. Where
possible we used consensual surveys to collect caste
details of journalists, writers, and debate panellists.
We employed a range of methods and channels to
make our research robust, and to reduce margins of
error. We sought to assemble a diverse team, reserving
positions for members of marginalised communities.
But constraints of time and resources compelled us
to work with a team that was largely upper caste. We
recognised that this representation gap could make
it hard for us to identify our own blind spots. So, we
reached out to external experts working on caste in
the media and the academia to seek feedback on the
methodology and other aspects of the study.
Introduction | 2
We take complete responsibility for any gap or
oversight that might still exist in the report.
Our study indicates that the Indian media is
predominated by the upper castes, that is, Brahmins,
Kshatriya, and Vaishyas. The Scheduled Tribes are
almost entirely absent, whereas the Scheduled
Castes are represented mostly by social activists
and politicians rather than journalists. The OBCs are
similarly underrepresented even though they are
estimated to constitute over half of India’s population.
This 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.
We hope it will serve as a preliminary step towards
addressing the problem. 
3 | WHO TELLS OUR STORIES MATTERS
Methodology
This study, conducted from October 2018 to March
2019, used the method of ‘byline count’ to analyse the
representation of people belonging to different caste
groups in the print media. We sifted through bylined
articles from the newspapers and magazines, and
entered the demographic details of each writer into a
database. In case of news channels, we noted down
the names of anchors and debate panellists, and
determined their castes through publicly available
sources, surveys, or triangulation.
Selected Sources
We selected six English and seven Hindi newspapers
based on their ranking in the Indian Readership Survey
of 2018 and the availability of online archives.
In case of the English newspapers, we used editions
from cities where they had the highest circulation or
where they were headquartered. Since most of the
Hindi newspapers did not have national editions,
we looked at their city editions from various Hindi-
speaking states.
For TV news, we chose seven English and as many Hindi
channels, and analysed their flagship debate shows.
While the English channels aired such shows in the
prime time slot between 8 pm and 11 pm, during the
six months of this study, some of the Hindi channels
did so in the evening slot, from 5 pm to 7 pm. The data
was collected by watching the debates and entered
manually.
We also examined 11 digital media outlets and 12
magazines covering a range of interests, from Politics
and Business to Culture and Sports. They included
the four most widely read magazines according to the
Indian Readership Survey of 2018.
The sources are listed in Appendix 1.
Data Collection
Primary
We collected data from the front page of each
newspaper as well as its opinion, economy and sports
pages published between October 2018 and March
2019, and manually entered it into our database.
In case of the TV channels, we watched the flagship
debates on their websites or official YouTube channels,
and manually entered the demographic details of their
anchors and panellists.
Given the sheer volume of their content, the digital
outlets presented a unique problem. So, we used
MediaCloud, an open-source software tool for media
analysis, to collect relevant data, and restricted
our analysis to writers who contributed at least five
articles during the period under consideration.
In case of the magazines, we limited our analysis to the
lead story of each issue and the stories highlighted on
the cover page.
The raw data collected from all these archives
included:
1) Name of the media outlet
2) Date of publication or broadcast
3) Page title or prime time slot
4) Name of the TV programme
5) Name of the writer(s)
6) Name of the anchor(s)
7) Name of the panellist
Where an article was written by multiple people, each
writer was considered to have penned it separately.
Articles by news agencies, news desks, editors, or
unnamed correspondents were not considered.

We aimed to find out the number of journalists, writers,
and TV panellists from marginalised caste groups in
the media, and the volume of their work compared to
their upper caste counterparts. So, we calculated the
number of their bylined articles or the number of their
TV appearances. These twin data points helped us
compare caste representation in absolute numbers as
well as in relative terms, that is, how much space they
were getting on different media platforms.
We also measured the share of marginalised groups
in newsroom leadership positions. A journalist
was defined to hold a leadership position if they
were designated editor-in-chief, managing editor,
executive editor, bureau chief, or input/output editor.
Someone holding more than one of these positions
in the same organisation was counted only once.
Leadership data was not available for News 18 India,
Rajya Sabha TV, Navbharat Times,and Dainik Bhaskar.
Secondary
We set out to understand what kind of issues were
being discussed in the media, and by journalists,
writers and debaters of which caste groups. To this
end, we categorised the entire corpus of bylined
articles and flagship debates under 11 broad
qualitative heads or ‘topics’. We kept the topics as
mutually exclusive as possible, while conceding that
there might be overlaps in case of some articles or
debates. We considered the context of each such
article or debate before filing it under a qualitative
head. The full list of topics is given in Appendix 2.
The articles and debates were further categorised as
being about caste if they specifically raised a caste
issue. This category was kept separate from the list
of the 11 qualitative heads since caste issues can
cut across topics. For example, a story about the
commemoration of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon
was listed under the head of ‘Public Life’ and also
categorised as an ‘article on caste’.
Methodology | 4
Participants in TV debates were categorised into 14
‘fields’ on the basis of their professional background –
they either represented their political groups or official
positions or were subject experts. This categorisation
helped us underline the caste identities of people
invited on TV as authoritative voices and what kind
of viewpoints they legitimised. The full list of fields is
given in Appendix 3.
Caste Identification
The way caste works in the Indian subcontinent has
long been a subject of curiosity for sociologists. As
more information is made available about a person
– say, the region they come from, their traditional
occupation, or dialect – the probability of predicting
their caste increases. In the past, several journalists
and organisations have examined the media’s caste
dynamics. We relied in particular on a 2006 study by
the Media Study Group and the Centre for the Study of
Developing Societies as well as investigative reports
by journalists such as Shivam Vij, BN Unniyal, and Ajaz
Ashraf to frame our initial hypothesis.
We used the following identifying categories for
journalists, writers, and debate panellists:
• The four constitutional groups of General Category,
Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and OBC
• Can’t Say
• Not Available
Their caste details were collected in three stages.
We sent a questionnaire to hundreds of journalists,
writers, and TV panellists seeking details such as
their age, place of birth, gender, religion, caste, and
socio-economic background. We used various means,
including phone and social media, to reach out to
them. We made sure to inform them about the nature
and purpose of this study. The questionnaire is given
in Appendix 4.
5 | WHO TELLS OUR STORIES MATTERS
For a small number of prominent writers and
panellists, we collected their caste details from
credible sources in the media fraternity and cross-
checked the information with their own statements
and declarations. This method was used exclusively
for public figures whose caste identities were almost
common knowledge.
Through these two methods, we were able to
determine the castes of about 15% of the journalists,
writers, and panellists in our database.
Since the scope of this study was quite wide and
the responses to our survey far from desired, we
used triangulation to work out the castes of a good
number of people. We obtained the examination
results of the Union Public Service Commission and
the Delhi University for the past seven years. These are
considered authentic sources of information on caste
since government-issued certificates are required
to validate the caste of each candidate taking these
exams. The two datasets contained nearly 1,00,000
names along with their castes. Our assumption
was that by mapping surnames to castes in these
datasets, we would be able to determine the castes of
the majority of journalists, writers, and panellists who
shared those surnames in our database. So we did,
identifying the castes of three-fourths of the people
in our database.
However, the castes of about 10% of the people in our
database could not be deduced from any of the three
methods mentioned above. Among these were persons
whose last names did not appear in the examination
results. They were categorised as ‘Can’t Say’.
Christian, Muslim and Parsi journalists, writers, and
panellists were categorised under ‘Not Available’, even
though caste is prevalent to some extent among Indian
Christians and Muslims. This was done because their
last names could not be easily matched with castes.
All non-Indian journalists, writers, and panellists were
identified and excluded from the analysis.
We feel a large and comprehensive questionnaire-
based survey may be the most precise way to map caste
representation in the Indian media. We approached the
editorial offices of several media houses to carry out a
voluntary demographic survey of their staff to measure
caste representation, but could not convince most of
them. A few expressed their support but insisted that
we do not name their organisations while publishing
the results of the survey. Several individual journalists
filled in all the details in our questionnaire except their
names. Agreeing to the condition of anonymity would
have defeated the very purpose of our research, so we
declined. We hope that this study will help convince
all stakeholders, including media houses, to make
such an investigation possible.
 Key Highlights | 6

Key Highlights
Of the 121 newsroom leadership positions – editor-in-chief,
managing editor, executive editor, bureau chief, input/output
editor – across the newspapers, TV news channels, news
websites, and magazines under study, 106 are occupied by
journalists from the upper castes, and none by those belonging
to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.

Three out of every four anchors of flagship debates are

upper caste. Not one is Dalit, Adivasi, or OBC.

For over 70% of their flagship debate shows, news channels

draw the majority of the panellists from the upper castes.

No more than 5% of all articles in English newspapers are

written by Dalits and Adivasis. Hindi newspapers fare slightly
better at around 10% .

Over half of those writing on issues related to caste in Hindi

and English newspapers are upper caste.

Around 72% of bylined articles on news websites are written by

people from the upper castes.

Only 10 of the 972 articles featuring on the cover pages of

the 12 magazines under study are about issues related to caste.
7 | WHO TELLS OUR STORIES MATTERS

English Television News

This study looked at seven English TV news channels
– CNN-News 18, India Today, Mirror Now, NDTV 24x7,
Rajya Sabha TV, Republic TV, and Times Now.
Nearly 89% of the leadership positions across these
channels were held by upper caste journalists and
none by members of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled
Tribes, or OBCs1. (Figure 1)
From October 2018 to March 2019, the seven channels
together telecast 1,965 shows of their flagship debates
in which 1,883 panellists took part. Of the 47 anchors of
these shows, 33 were upper caste. (Figure 2)
Over half of the debates featured upper caste-majority
panels, reflecting the dominant caste character of
Indian English TV news. Rajya Sabha TV had upper
caste-majority panels for over 80% of its shows.
(Figure 3)
of minority communities were being confined to their
religious identities. (Figure 6)
Some 70% of the panellists invited to debate political
issues belonged to the upper castes or religious
minorities. By the number of appearances, the
proportion of such panellists rose to 80%, showing
that they were invited much more frequently than
people from other groups. (Figure 7)
Regardless of the topic being discussed, the
Scheduled Tribes were barely represented. Members
of marginalised caste groups, in fact, were shut out of
debates on caste issues. (Figure 8)
FIGURE 1: Leadership Positions (%)

Across the channels, 60%-76% of the top decile of 10.7%

panellists by the number of appearances were upper
caste. India Today and Times Now each drew only GEN
about 10% of their panellists from the Scheduled SC
Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs. (Figure 4) 89.3% ST
OBC
NA
Around 30% of the panellists who participated in the
CAN’T SAY
flagship debates were either religious minorities or
their castes could not be identified. Of the rest, 79%
were upper caste and 12% OBC. (Figure 5)
FIGURE 2: Caste composition of anchors (%)
On an average, two out of five panellists according to
2.2%
the number of appearances in debates belonged to
a political group, underlining deep professional links
between the media and the political establishment in
22.2%
India. Of such panellists, over 65% were either upper GEN
caste Hindu or from religious minorities. The majority SC
of the panellists from the fields of Business and Think ST
75.6%
Tank were upper caste, while members of minority OBC
communities most often represented religious NA
institutions or groups. This indicates that members CAN’T SAY

1
Data not available for CNN-News 18 India and Rajya Sabha TV
 English Television News | 8

FIGURE 3: Debates where majority of panellists were upper caste (%)

100

80.8
80 71.4
68.6 65.9 63.9
60 52.7 54.2
(Percentage)

40

20

0
CNN India Mirror NDTV Rajya Republic Times
News18 Today Now 24x7 Sabha TV TV Now

FIGURE 4: Top decile of panellists by appearance (%)

100
10.2 5.7 13.4 6 8.7 8.3 8.9
14.3 11
6.4 16.7 18.9
15.7
14.4 0.2
9.1 8.5
80
8.6
0.2 76.1 6.9
7.5 0.2 7.4 7.1
5.1 0.1
0.1 4.9 0.1 3.8 0.1
68.6
5.7 4.4 64.2 3.3
60
60.8 66.4 60.2 61.7
(Percentage)

40

20

0
CNN India Mirror NDTV Rajya Republic Times
News18 Today Now 24x7 Sabha TV TV Now

GEN SC ST OBC NA CAN’T SAY

9 | WHO TELLS OUR STORIES MATTERS

FIGURE 5: Overall caste composition (%)

60.7 6.7 0.3 6.0 13.9 12.3

CNN-News18 Appearances
55.9 6.0 0.6 7.6 14.9 14.9
CNN-News18 Panellists

66.5 3.7 0.1 6.4 15.2 8.1

India Today Appearances
55.5 5.7 0.2 7.9 20.1 10.6
India Today Panellists

56.5 4.9 0.3 8.4 11.5 18.5

Mirror Now Appearances
53.8 6.0 0.4 8.1 12.4 19.5
Mirror Now Panellists

67.1 4.5 0.3 7.3 10.7 10.0

NDTV 24x7 Appearances
56.7 5.4 0.4 9.4 12.4 15.7
NDTV 24x7 Panellists

70.2 6.5 1.8 6.0 1.5 14.1

Rajya Sabha TV Appearances
70.0 4.8 1.7 7.0 3.3 13.2
Rajya Sabha TV Panellists

52.7 4.9 0.2 7.6 26.0 8.6

Republic TV Appearances
57.4 4.9 0.6 7.3 19.4 10.4
Republic TV Panellists

55.0 3.0 0.2 6.0 28.1 7.7

Times Now Appearances
52.6 4.3 0.7 8.4 20.0 14.0
Times Now Panellists

58.2 4.6 0.3 6.9 19.1 10.8

TOTAL Appearances
54.9 5.6 0.7 8.3 13.6 16.8
TOTAL Panellists

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

GEN SC ST OBC NA CAN’T SAY

 English Television News | 10

FIGURE 6: Panellists from different fields (%)

Panellist Field GEN SC ST OBC NA Can’t Say

Academia Appearances 52.2 4.1 0.2 21.3 9.0 13.2

Academia Panellists 55.5 5.7 0.4 10.1 11.4 17.0

Bar And Bench Appearances 49.1 2.5 0.4 5.0 26.0 16.9

Bar And Bench Panellists 52.5 4.2 1.4 7.9 15.6 18.4

Bureaucrat Appearances 63.4 7.9 0.4 7.8 4.2 16.4

Bureaucrat Panellists 64.4 5.3 0.3 8.6 7.4 14.1

Business Appearances 79.1 1.9 0.1 5.1 2.8 11.1

Business Panellists 68.7 2.6 0.1 4.8 4.8 19.0

Defence Expert Appearances 64.2 11.9 0.1 9.9 7.4 6.5

Defence Expert Panellists 66.2 5.3 0.2 9.9 7.1 11.2

Financial Expert Appearances 49.8 2.9 0.0 2.0 1.9 43.4

Financial Expert Panellists 59.5 5.3 0.0 3.4 4.5 27.3

Independent Expert Appearances 50.3 5.4 0.3 7.0 22.7 14.4

Independent Expert Panellists 51.1 5.5 0.3 7.7 15.8 19.5

Media Appearances 58.4 6.0 0.8 6.0 14.6 14.1

Media Panellists 57.1 5.0 1.3 6.4 13.7 16.5

NGO and CSO Appearances 50.5 3.7 0.2 8.0 25.4 12.2

NGO and CSO Panellists 49.4 7.6 0.5 8.3 14.3 19.8

Party Spokespersons Appearances 63.6 3.1 0.1 5.2 20.9 7.2

Party Spokespersons Panellists 52.4 6.3 0.3 10.2 15.3 15.5

Political Analyst Appearances 49.4 7.0 0.3 11.4 25.6 6.3

Political Analyst Panellists 56.0 5.2 0.3 6.5 14.0 18.0

Religious Appearances 42.7 3.8 0.0 1.3 47.8 4.3

Religious Panellists 18.3 9.9 0.1 3.0 50.0 18.8

Social Activist Appearances 52.1 2.8 0.8 4.7 23.2 16.3

Social Activist Panellists 50.5 5.5 1.2 7.9 16.9 18.0

Think Tank Appearances 81.5 4.8 0.9 6.0 2.2 4.7

Think Tank Panellists 65.1 5.4 2.1 10.1 3.8 13.5

11 | WHO TELLS OUR STORIES MATTERS

FIGURE 7: Topics discussed by panellists (%)

70.6 3.7 0.3 6.1 6.2 13.2

Business Appearances
and 67.6 5.3 0.4 8.1 5.7 12.9
Economy Panellists

54.9 4.7 0.5 7.2 21.1 11.6

Crime Appearances
And 55.5 4.8 0.7 7.3 17.0 14.6
Accident Panellists

56.4 4.7 0.1 6.0 18.5 12.0

Culture Appearances
And 58.2 4.2 0.1 5.5 22.2 9.7
Entertainment Panellists

55.5 5.8 0.2 7.2 22.3 9.0

Defence Appearances
And National 54.7 4.1 0.3 7.3 21.8 11.7
Security Panellists

57.3 4.2 0.2 6.7 8.0 23.5

Environment Appearances
And 55.2 5.4 0.2 8.0 7.6 23.7
Energy Panellists

56.6 6.5 1.6 6.3 11.8 17.2

International Appearances
Affairs 56.7 4.4 0.8 6.6 19.7 11.8
Panellists

58.6 4.5 0.2 6.9 21.0 8.7

Politics Appearances
54.1 6.0 0.6 8.7 16.4 14.2
Panellists

55.4 4.2 0.5 7.0 18.1 14.9

Public Appearances
Life 56.9 4.8 0.6 7.5 15.1 15.1
Panellists

87.3 5.0 7.7

Science Appearances
And 87.3 5.0 7.7
Technology Panellists

37.8 3.8 0.5 12.7 33.9 11.3

Sports Appearances
43.2 2.1 0.6 9.7 31.1 13.3
Panellists

60.4 4.4 0.2 6.9 17.2 10.9

State Appearances
And 54.9 5.8 0.4 8.0 14.4 16.5
Policy Panellists

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

GEN SC ST OBC NA CAN’T SAY

 English Television News | 12

FIGURE 8: Panellists debating caste issues (%)

100
13.3 14.3 11.6 10.4 9.1 27.3 10.9

0.4 2.2
9.8
4.7 11.6
9.5 10.8 8.5
0.1
80
4.0 12.3 78.3 9.8
10.2 80.2 16.7
77.8
0.4
0.1 0.4
6.4
4.4
60 12.6
59.7 2.3 62.0
(Percentage)

53.3 53.8

40

20

0
CNN India Mirror NDTV Rajya Republic Total
News18 Today Now 24x7 Sabha TV TV

GEN SC ST OBC NA CAN’T SAY

13 | WHO TELLS OUR STORIES MATTERS

Hindi Television News

All leaderships positions across the Hindi news While 17.9% of the panellists from the Academics field
channels chosen for this study – Aaj Tak, News 18 belonged to minority communities, none of them were
India, India TV, NDTV India, Rajya Sabha TV, Republic invited to discuss matters of Science and Technology
Bharat2, Zee News – were occupied by upper caste or Environment and Energy. (Figure 7)
journalists.3 (Figure 1)
Around 70% of the panellists invited to debate caste
Eight out of every 10 anchors of flagship shows across issues were upper caste. (Figure 8)
the seven channels were upper caste, and not one
belonged to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes,
or OBCs. (Figure 2)
FIGURE 1: Leadership Positions (%)
On each channel, over two-thirds of the debate
featured upper caste-majority panels. In case of Rajya
Sabha TV, nine out of 10 panels were dominated by
upper caste individuals. (Figure 3)
GEN
Across the channels, two-thirds of the panellists in 100.0% SC
the top decile by appearance were upper caste, while ST
a fifth were from religious minorities. (Figure 4) OBC
NA
Of the 1,248 panellists who participated in 1,184 CAN’T SAY
debates across the seven Hindi news channels,
castes of around a fourth could not be determined or
they belonged to religious minorities. Of the rest, 80% FIGURE 2: Caste composition of anchors (%)
were upper caste. Nearly 70% of the total panellists
who appeared on the state-run Rajya Sabha TV were 7.3%
upper caste, while News 18 India and Republic Bharat
each drew over a quarter of their panellists from
minority communities. (Figure 5) 12.2%
GEN
SC
Almost all panellists categorised under Bar and Bench ST
who appeared on News 18 India, India TV, and Republic 80.5%
OBC
Bharat belonged to minority communities, while Rajya NA
Sabha TV never invited a lawyer or jurist from a minority CAN’T SAY
group during the six months under consideration.
(Figure 6)

2
Data only for February and March as the channel was launched in February 2019.
3
Leadership positions data was not available for News 18 India and Rajya Sabha TV.
 Hindi Television News | 14

FIGURE 3: Debates where majority of panellists were upper caste (%)

100
89.1

80 73.0 76.0 73.9 69.9

64.1 65.9
60
(Percentage)

40

20

0
Aaj Tak News 18 India TV NDTV Rajya Republic Zee
India India Sabha TV Bharat News

FIGURE 4: Top decile of panellists by appearance (%)

100
4.6 4.0 3.7 2.1 3.2 2.7 2.7
6.5
14.6
24.0 4.4 27.0 23.0
21.5
25.9 0.6
7.0 5.5
80
2.2 79.9
5.1 3.3 2.8 3.3
4.4 2.5
1.6 2.0 1.9 4.0
69.6 4.7
5.0 5.7 1.6 67.0
63.0
60
62.2 60.9 64.1
(Percentage)

40

20

0
Aaj Tak News 18 India TV NDTV Rajya Republic Zee
India India Sabha TV Bharat News

GEN SC ST OBC NA CAN’T SAY

15 | WHO TELLS OUR STORIES MATTERS

FIGURE 5: Overall caste composition (%)

67.4 4.4 1.6 4.2 16.8 5.7

Aaj Tak Appearances
57.9 6.3 0.5 8.2 19.6 7.4
Aaj Tak Panellists

67.4 2.9 1.1 4.8 17.6 6.1

India TV Appearances
63.6 3.91.0 5.1 20.0 6.5
India TV Panellists

65.2 5.6 0.9 9.9 10.9 7.5

NDTV India Appearances
63.6 6.0 1.3 10.3 10.5 8.4
NDTV India Panellists

57.7 5.4 2.1 4.3 26.2 4.4

News18 India Appearances
55.1 6.0 1.1 5.4 26.2 6.2
News18 India Panellists

73.3 6.7 1.1 7.8 4.1 7.1

Rajya Sabha TV Appearances
69.9 6.2 1.3 7.8 5.2 9.6
Rajya Sabha TV Panellists

57.9 6.0 0.1 4.8 27.6 3.5

Republic Bharat Appearances
59.2 4.4 0.1 4.3 29.1 2.9
Republic Bharat Panellists

61.7 4.5 0.4 5.2 22.7 5.6

Zee News Appearances
57.0 5.0 0.5 7.3 17.6 12.4
Zee News Panellists

64.6 4.7 1.1 5.4 18.4 5.8

TOTAL Appearances
60.6 5.9 0.6 8.6 14.3 10.1
TOTAL Panellists

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

GEN SC ST OBC NA CAN’T SAY

 Hindi Television News | 16

FIGURE 6: Panellists from different fields (%)

Panellist Field GEN SC ST OBC NA Can’t Say

Academia Appearances 52.4 2.9 0.8 9.4 29 5.2

Academia Panellists 55.7 4.6 1.6 13 18 7.7

Bar And Bench Appearances 40.5 2.2 0.1 4.9 51 1.3

Bar And Bench Panellists 60.6 4.4 0.2 8.6 21 4.8

Bureaucrat Appearances 64.3 6.1 0.8 7.3 8.4 13.1

Bureaucrat Panellists 64 4 0.8 8 9.8 13.4

Business Appearances 84.5 6.2 0.1 9.2

Business Panellists 83.8 6.6 0.2 9.5

Defence Expert Appearances 82.3 7.7 0.1 5.9 2.1 1.8

Defence Expert Panellists 74.3 7.2 0.2 7.8 3.9 6.5

Financial Expert Appearances 69.6 13 2.4 9.1 6.3

Financial Expert Panellists 67.6 12 3.3 7.6 9.1

Independent Expert Appearances 48.7 8.5 0.5 5.3 30 6.8

Independent Expert Panellists 55.7 8.6 0.7 6.3 19 9.9

Media Appearances 75.6 5.7 0.5 7.5 7.4 3.3

Media Panellists 72.2 6.6 0.3 8.6 6.1 6.1

NGO and CSO Appearances 44.9 1.3 0.1 1.6 32 20

NGO and CSO Panellists 53.7 5.8 0.4 6.7 17 16

Party Spokespersons Appearances 70.8 2.2 1.7 4.7 17 3.8

Party Spokespersons Panellists 60.5 4 0.5 8.9 15 10.7

Political Analyst Appearances 52.5 17 0.1 7.3 18 5.3

Political Analyst Panellists 58.1 6.1 0.1 6.3 21 8.8

Religious Appearances 43.4 25 0.3 10 11 10.1

Religious Panellists 48.4 13 0.3 8.8 13 16.9

Social Activist Appearances 37.1 4.1 2.7 5 44 6.7

Social Activist Panellists 42.6 7 1.8 10 30 8.6

Think Tank Appearances 89.7 2.5 0.1 3.8 3.8

Think Tank Panellists 79.7 3.3 0.1 6.9 10

17 | WHO TELLS OUR STORIES MATTERS

FIGURE 7: Topics discussed by panellists (%)

74.4 6.1 0.2 4.1 5.1 10.2

Business Appearances
and 69.7 6.0 0.2 5.0 6.4 12.8
Economy Panellists

63.7 3.7 1.2 6.8 21.8 2.7

Crime Appearances
And 61.3 4.2 1.7 6.9 24.1 1.9
Accident Panellists

56.0 4.5 2.0 37.5

Culture Appearances
And 56.0 4.5 2.0 37.5
Entertainment Panellists

67.5 5.3 1.0 4.8 15.2 6.1

Defence Appearances
And National 57.3 5.6 1.2 6.6 22.9 6.5
Security Panellists

84.1 6.6 0.4 8.8

Environment Appearances
And 86.5 5.6 0.4 7.4
Energy Panellists

67.7 4.2 2.6 2.9 14.6 7.9

International Appearances
Affairs 66.0 3.6 2.2 3.5 16.5 8.2
Panellists

64.6 4.4 1.1 5.1 19.3 5.5

Politics Appearances
59.1 5.3 0.6 8.0 16.3 10.6
Panellists

52.1 6.0 0.2 7.0 24.4 10.3

Public Appearances
Life 53.5 7.0 0.2 8.6 19.0 11.6
Panellists

63.1 23.0 12.0 2.4

Science Appearances
And 63.1 23.0 12.0 2.4
Technology Panellists

60.2 9.6 1.2 13.2 15.8

Sports Appearances
60.2 9.6 1.2 13.2 15.8
Panellists

65.4 5.1 1.2 6.9 16.4 5.1

State Appearances
And 64.3 5.8 0.7 7.8 15.1 6.3
Policy Panellists

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

GEN SC ST OBC NA CAN’T SAY

 Hindi Television News | 18

FIGURE 8: Panellists debating caste issues (%)

100
9.5 12.5 12.5 15.4 9.3 13.6 9.3
0.1
14.3 1.4 6.7
12.5 6.3 9.1
7.7 89.2 9.3
80 9.9
5.5
8.2 75.0 12.2 1.8
0.2 1.2
0.2 1.7 2.0 4.1
0.3
4.4 68.5 68.8
69.4 5.7
60
63.4 58.8
(Percentage)

40

20

0
Aaj Tak News 18 India TV NDTV Rajya Zee Total
India India Sabha TV News

GEN SC ST OBC NA CAN’T SAY

19 | WHO TELLS OUR STORIES MATTERS

English newspapers
Nearly 92% of the newsroom leadership positions
across the English newspapers selected for this
study – The Economic Times, Hindustan Times, The
Hindu, The Indian Express, The Telegraph, The Times
of India – were held by upper caste individuals,
with no representation for the Scheduled Castes,
Scheduled Tribes, OBCs, or religious minorities.
(Figure 1)
We studied over 16,000 articles carried by the six
newspapers between October 2018 and March 2019,
sifting out around 3,000 bylined articles from each
except The Economic Times and The Telegraph. The
former, being a financial publication, did not have a
dedicated economy page. The latter carried a lot of
articles, especially on sports pages, by foreigners
who were excluded from our caste analysis.
We categorised the nearly 16,000 pieces analysed
for this study under 11 topics, and found that upper
caste writers accounted for 55%-65% of the articles
under each topic. Their share might actually be
higher given that we were unable to identify about a
fifth of all writers by caste. (Figure 5)
The Indian Express paid the most attention to
caste issues, accounting for 60% of all articles on
the topic. The daily mentioned caste in both news
stories and opinion pieces, although analysing the
actual content of the articles was beyond the scope
of this study. (Figure 6)
FIGURE 1: Leadership Positions (%)

8.3%
In each of these newspapers except The Hindu, over
60% of the articles were by upper caste writers.
The Hindu seems to be bucking the trend because
we were unable to determine the castes of nearly GEN
26% of its writers. Across the seven newspapers, we SC
were unable to assign a caste to nearly a fifth of the 91.7% ST
writers. (Figure 2) OBC
NA
CAN’T SAY
Not counting members of religious minorities
and those whose caste identities could not be
determined, we found that 80% of the top decile
of writers by the number of articles published were
upper caste, with the figure rising to 96% in The
Economic Times. (Figure 3)

All four types of pages analysed for this study were

dominated by upper caste writers. They bylined 72%
of business page articles and 62% of front page
stories. (Figure 4)
 English Newspapers | 20

FIGURE 2: Overall caste composition (%)

66.6 4.2 0.8 4.9 10.6 12.9

Hindustan Appearances
Times
57.5 6.5 0.8 8.2 7.9 17.3
Panellists

70.1 4.5 1.1 5.6 4.5 14.3

The Appearances
Economic
Times 57.8 5.1 1.2 7.7 5.6 22.6
Panellists

52.1 5.3 0.5 7.4 8.6 26.1

The Hindu Appearances
46.3 7.0 0.4 10.0 10.0 26.2
Panellists

58.1 5.5 0.5 5.4 13.4 17.1

The Indian Appearances
Express
53.4 6.7 0.7 8.4 11.5 19.4
Panellists

71.6 3.8 0.1 7.4 11.7 5.5

The Appearances
Telegraph
68.5 6.3 0.2 7.3 4.9 12.9
Panellists

65.6 2.9 0.3 3.8 9.9 17.6

The Times Appearances
of India
53.8 5.1 0.9 7.4 9.4 23.6
Panellists

62.1 4.4 0.5 5.5 10.2 17.2

TotaL Appearances

53.9 6.2 0.7 8.3 9.2 21.7

Panellists

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

GEN SC ST OBC NA CAN’T SAY

 21 | WHO TELLS OUR STORIES MATTERS

FIGURE 3: Top decile of writers by the number of articles published (%)

100
16.0 7.7 21.0 12.9 4.8 16.4
9.6 19.0
4.0 17.1 9.0
1.3 3.3
80 0.1
0.4 9.7 2.4
1.7 3.1
2.9 8.8 0.2
76.6 76.2 7.3 3.0
0.5 3.5
0.5 5.4 63.9 69.1
60
6.0 61.1
(Percentage)

69.1

40

20

0
The Economic Hindustan The Hindu The Indian The Telegraph The Times
Times Times Express of India

GEN SC ST OBC NA CAN’T SAY

FIGURE 4: Caste composition by page (%)

Page Title GEN SC ST OBC NA Can’t Say

Business Appearances 71.8 4.7 0.2 3.7 7.7 11.9

Business Panellists 58.9 5.8 0.8 8.7 7.2 18.6

Front Page Appearances 62.3 4.3 0.3 6.3 14.4 12.4

Front PagE Panellists 56.6 5.9 0.6 8.2 11.4 17.2

Opinion Appearances 59.8 5.3 0.9 6.9 9.3 17.8

Opinion Panellists 53.7 6.5 0.7 8 9 22.1

Sports Appearances 57.6 3.6 0.6 4.7 8 25.5

Sports Panellists 53.7 5.2 1.2 6.3 8.1 25.5

 English Newspapers | 22

FIGURE 5: Composition by topic (%)

70.3 4.7 0.3 4.1 8.1 12.4

Business Appearances
and 60.5 5.8 0.8 8.2 6.9 17.7
Economy Panellists

63.1 5.6 0.4 8.8 13.5 8.5

Crime Appearances
And 58.8 6.0 0.6 8.0 13.1 13.4
Accident Panellists

59.8 5.4 0.7 5.8 11.6 16.7

Culture Appearances
And 57.0 6.4 0.9 6.2 11.1 18.4
Entertainment Panellists

59.3 3.6 0.2 4.7 24.0 8.3

Defence Appearances
And National 60.6 4.6 0.2 6.2 14.7 13.6
Security Panellists

62.9 7.9 0.3 8.5 6.3 14.1

Environment Appearances
And 57.0 8.4 0.3 8.3 7.1 18.9
Energy Panellists

66.4 2.9 0.7 4.8 13.1 12.1

International Appearances
Affairs 56.8 5.3 0.6 6.9 12.3 18.0
Panellists

58.6 5.1 0.3 7.2 15.1 13.8

Politics Appearances
57.2 6.5 0.5 8.1 10.9 16.8
Panellists

56.6 5.7 1.4 7.7 10.0 18.6

Public Appearances
Life 55.0 6.2 0.5 8.6 9.7 20.1
Panellists

54.1 6.4 0.3 6.3 10.1 22.8

Science Appearances
And 58.5 5.9 0.3 8.1 8.1 19.1
Technology Panellists

57.6 3.6 0.7 4.7 7.9 25.4

Sports Appearances
54.7 5.3 1.1 6.5 7.1 25.2
Panellists

63.8 4.0 0.3 5.9 10.1 15.8

State Appearances
And 57.9 5.4 0.5 7.3 10.0 18.9
Policy Panellists

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

GEN SC ST OBC NA CAN’T SAY

 23 | WHO TELLS OUR STORIES MATTERS

FIGURE 6: Composition of writers on caste issues (%)

100
100 44.4 46.2 20.0 13.9 100 23.3

86.1
80
14.5
11.1

6.3 6.2
60 0.1 0.2
8.7 7.5
(Percentage)

11.1 7.7
50.4 51.6
3.4 6.3
40 0.1 1.1
4.4
15.5
34.3
24.4
20

0
The Economic Hindustan The Hindu The Indian The Telegraph The Times Total
Times Times Express of India

GEN SC ST OBC NA CAN’T SAY

 Hindi Newspapers | 24

Hindi Newspapers
Not one Dalit, Adivasi or OBC journalist held
a leadership position across the seven Hindi
newspapers chosen for this study – Dainik Bhaskar,
Amar Ujala, Navbharat Times, Rajasthan Patrika,
Prabhat Khabar, Punjab Kesari, and Hindustan4.
(Figure 1)
A substantial number of the articles were not
bylined, so they could not be considered for our
caste analysis.
The Hindi newspapers fared slightly better than the
English dailies in representing marginalised groups.
Nearly 12% of the articles in Punjab Kesari and
Rajasthan Patrika were by writers belonging to the
Scheduled Castes. (Figure 2)
Nearly 20% of the writers in the top decile, by the
number of articles published, belonged to the
Scheduled Castes, Schedule Tribes, and OBCs.
(Figure 3)
Around 58% of the writers whose bylines appeared
on the sports pages were upper caste, and they
wrote 80% of the articles. Not a single writer from a
religious minority found space on the sports pages
of any of the newspapers. The business pages too
were dominated by upper caste writers. (Figure 4)
Around 76% of the articles in Navbharat Times and
90% in Rajasthan Patrika that discussed caste issues
were by upper caste writers. We found only a few
bylined articles on caste issues in Hindi newspapers,
and most of them were categorised under ‘Crime
and Accident’ and ‘State and Policy’ heads. That the
period of this study coincided with the government’s
decision to give reservation to Economically Weaker
Sections in the General Category could explain the
greater coverage of matters related to State and
Policy. (Figure 6)
FIGURE 1: Leadership Positions
12.5%
GEN
SC
87.5% ST
OBC
NA
CAN’T SAY

Nearly half of the bylined articles across the seven

newspapers were categorised under the topics of
Politics and Public Life, and around 60% of these
were by upper caste writers. Of the rest, the castes
of a substantial number of writers could not be
ascertained. (Figure 5)

4
Data Not available for Navbharat Times and Dainik Bhaskar
25 | WHO TELLS OUR STORIES MATTERS

FIGURE 2: Overall caste composition (%)

62.6 5.7 0.5 10.5 6.1 14.6

Amar Appearances
Ujala
53.4 6.7 0.8 8.7 5.9 24.5
Panellists

68.2 7.4 0.3 10.6 3.1 10.4

Dainik Appearances
Bhaskar
56.2 9.6 0.4 11.6 4.5 17.8
Panellists

61.1 6.7 1.4 7.4 3.9 19.6

Hindustan Appearances
57.6 6.5 1.1 8.5 8.1 18.2
Panellists

68.0 5.4 0.2 9.8 6.3 10.2

Navbharat Appearances
Times
64.4 6.8 0.2 10.1 6.7 11.7
Panellists

59.5 7.8 2.8 9.3 7.9 12.8

Prabhat Appearances
Khabar
57.2 9.2 3.8 11.2 6.8 11.8
Panellists

49.8 11.8 0.3 12.1 9.6 16.4

Punjab Appearances
Kesari 50.8 11.9 0.4 12.1 5.6 19.2
Panellists

66.5 11.9 1.9 9.2 2.4 8.2

Rajasthan Appearances
Patrika 4.7 1.9 9.3 4.7
65.9 13.5
Panellists

60.3 8.3 0.9 10.1 6.3 14.1

TOTAL Appearances
56.2 8.1 1.1 9.7 6.5 18.4
Panellists

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

GEN SC ST OBC NA CAN’T SAY

 Hindi Newspapers | 26

FIGURE 3: Top decile of writers by the number of articles published (%)

100
7.1 4.9 19.6 7.5 8.9 15.0 4.3
2.4 5.0 9.1
7.1 4.4
17.1 9.7 0.2
8.6 2.2 11.0 5.0 8.8
80 0.2
0.1 0.4 6.7 12.4
6.0 2.5 77.5
5.6 8.2 0.7
71.7 8.8 0.1
71.4 6.4
66.9
64.5 64.3 9.7
60
(Percentage)

57.8

40

20

0
Amar Dainik Hindustan Navbharat Prabhat Punjab Rajasthan
Ujala Bhaskar Times Khabar Kesari Patrika

GEN SC ST OBC NA CAN’T SAY

FIGURE 4: Caste composition by page (%)

Page Title GEN SC ST OBC NA Can’t Say

Business Appearances 61.1 3.5 0.2 10 4.7 20.5

Business Panellists 63.7 5.9 0.4 6.9 7.9 15.3

Front Page Appearances 50.2 12.7 0.3 11.6 13.3 12

Front PagE Panellists 56.2 11.9 0.4 13.7 3.6 14.3

Opinion Appearances 61.5 8 1.2 10.1 5.2 14.1

Opinion Panellists 55.8 7.4 1.4 9 7.4 19

Sports Appearances 79.7 5.6 0.3 5.1 9.3

Sports Panellists 57.7 9.3 0.6 8.2 24.2

27 | WHO TELLS OUR STORIES MATTERS

FIGURE 5: Composition by topic (%)

61.0 4.4 0.3 11.7 3.7 19.0

Business Appearances
and 62.8 7.0 0.4 9.1 6.3 14.3
Economy Panellists

51.3 16.3 1.2 14.0 3.4 13.7

Crime Appearances
And 51.6 14.2 0.9 13.6 2.7 17.0
Accident Panellists

58.1 7.0 1.6 9.9 5.3 18.1

Culture Appearances
And 55.5 7.4 1.9 10.1 6.9 18.1
Entertainment Panellists

37.8 9.7 0.4 8.3 27.8 16.0

Defence Appearances
And National 51.9 13.0 0.5 13.4 4.8 16.4
Security Panellists

53.9 7.8 0.4 8.6 16.3 12.9

Environment Appearances
And 54.8 10.4 0.4 10.5 7.6 16.3
Energy Panellists

60.8 8.1 1.7 7.3 8.3 13.8

International Appearances
Affairs 58.8 5.5 2.2 6.6 6.7 20.1
Panellists

61.7 8.4 0.4 11.9 6.4 11.2

Politics Appearances
62.2 7.6 0.7 9.9 6.5 13.2
Panellists

61.4 8.3 1.2 9.2 3.4 16.5

Public Appearances
Life 55.7 7.1 1.6 9.9 5.7 20.1
Panellists

62.7 7.9 0.2 7.2 10.1 11.9

Science Appearances
And 54.2 10.1 0.2 8.4 9.5 17.6
Technology Panellists

78.1 6.6 0.8 6.0 0.6 7.9

Sports Appearances
54.5 11.8 1.7 9.9 2.3 19.8
Panellists

60.7 10.2 1.1 11.2 7.8 8.9

State Appearances
And 61.6 8.4 1.4 10.6 6.6 11.5
Policy Panellists

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

GEN SC ST OBC NA CAN’T SAY

 Hindi Newspapers | 28

FIGURE 6: Composition of writers on caste issues (%)

100
100 28.8 50.0 14.8 5.6 10.4 17.6
16.7
89.6
0.4
80 8.6 7.8
76.2 10.0
11.9
16.6
11.8
60 4.4
0.3 3.7 6.4
(Percentage)

10.2 8.3 52.3 51.8

44.3
40 13.0

0.8
4.4
20
23.4

0
Amar Dainik Hindustan Navbharat Prabhat Rajasthan Total
Ujala Bhaskar Times Khabar Patrika

GEN SC ST OBC NA CAN’T SAY

29 | WHO TELLS OUR STORIES MATTERS

Digital Media
Eleven news websites were chosen for this study,
Firstpost, Newslaundry, Scroll.in, Swarajya, The
Ken, The News Minute, The Print, The Quint, and The
Wire publish in English, and Newslaundry (Hindi) and
Satyagrah in Hindi.
As in the other media, the majority of the leadership
roles across these digital outlets were occupied by
upper caste journalists. (Figure 1)
In absolute terms, digital media carried the highest
number of articles by non-upper caste contributors.
That, however, was because of the sheer volume of
the content. In relative terms, the news websites
fared no better than newspapers or TV news
channels. No more than 2% of the contributors to
The Ken belonged to the Scheduled Castes and the
Scheduled Tribes. The figure did not cross 9% for any
of the websites. (Figure 2)

Although in case of news websites, we limited our Upper caste contributors did most of the writing on
analysis to contributors who wrote at least five caste issues. In Satyagrah, three out of every four
articles during the six months under consideration, contributors writing on caste issues were upper
we were able to collect a wealth of data. Given the caste. (Figure 5)
nature of the digital medium, we found that names of
many writers were not standardised across outlets.
For example, Meghnad Sahasrabhojanee, who
wrote frequently for Newslaundry, was identified as FIGURE 1: Leadership Positions
Meghnad S by some other outlets. We standardised
such names to the extent possible, but might have 10.5%
missed a few owing to the sheer volume of the 5.3%
content. A substantial proportion of the writers
could not be identified by caste. GEN
SC
All writers in the top decile by the number of articles ST
84.2%
published in The Ken, Newslaundry, Newslaundry OBC
(Hindi), and Satyagrah were upper caste. (Figure 4) NA
CAN’T SAY
As in print and broadcast media, writers from the
Scheduled Tribes were almost completely absent.
We had assumed that since the barriers for entry
were lower in digital media – most outlets employ
small teams of staffers and get the bulk of their
content from freelance writers, students, activists
– we would find more contributors belonging to the
Scheduled Tribes than in newspapers and on TV. That
did not turn out to be the case.
 Digital Media | 30

FIGURE 2: Overall caste composition (%)

56.9 3.0 0.6 9.0 6.3 24.3

First Post Appearances
56.3 4.5 0.7 8.4 7.1 23.1
Panellists

69.5 2.0 1.0 4.4 10.0 13.2

Newslaundry Appearances
48.9 4.0 2.4 10.2 15.5 19.1
Panellists

76.7 6.2 0.1 10.7 3.9 2.4

Newslaundry Appearances
(Hindi) 60.0 8.8 0.3 14.0 10.4 6.5
Panellists

79.3 5.8 0.2 9.0 2.0 3.7

Satyagrah Appearances
68.0 6.5 0.3 12.6 6.3 6.3
Panellists

62.4 3.4 0.7 6.2 10.7 16.6

scroll.in Appearances
62.7 4.7 1.0 8.6 9.2 13.8
Panellists

56.8 3.1 0.2 7.1 2.2 30.5

Swarajya Appearances
52.3 5.7 0.4 8.8 1.4 31.3
Panellists

59.2 1.2 0.1 13.0 10.8 15.8

The Ken Appearances
44.8 1.5 0.2 10.7 14.3 28.6
Panellists

41.4 3.0 14.5 8.6 32.5

The News Appearances
Minute 40.7 2.4 3.5 6.7 46.7
Panellists

72.5 3.1 0.4 5.3 6.7 11.9

The Print Appearances
62.1 5.0 0.5 8.0 9.4 15.0
Panellists

54.7 3.0 0.1 4.7 11.7 25.9

The Quint Appearances
57.1 4.2 0.1 5.5 12.7 20.4
Panellists

55.7 4.7 0.1 5.1 16.4 17.9

The Wire Appearances
56.2 4.0 0.2 5.8 16.8 16.8
Panellists

60.1 3.3 0.4 7.7 8.2 20.3

TOTAL Appearances
54.9 5.0 0.7 8.6 8.9 21.9
Panellists
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

GEN SC ST OBC NA CAN’T SAY

31 | WHO TELLS OUR STORIES MATTERS

FIGURE 3: Composition by topic (%)

54.8 5.1 0.7 15.7 9.5 14.2

Business Appearances
and 58.9 5.0 0.6 7.9 6.9 20.8
Economy Panellists

63.9 2.8 0.4 4.4 7.4 21.1

Crime Appearances
And 59.2 3.8 0.5 7.2 9.7 19.5
Accident Panellists

58.0 3.7 0.1 9.5 5.7 22.9

Culture Appearances
And 59.2 4.0 0.3 8.1 10.0 20.7
Entertainment Panellists

57.2 1.9 0.2 4.9 26.6 9.0

Defence Appearances
And National 63.3 4.0 0.3 7.2 12.6 12.6
Security Panellists

66.1 1.9 0.4 6.1 9.1 16.4

Environment Appearances
And 60.0 3.6 0.5 8.3 7.9 19.7
Energy Panellists

66.7 2.1 0.1 6.0 13.5 11.6

International Appearances
Affairs 56.6 3.7 0.2 7.3 12.4 19.7
Panellists

66.7 4.2 0.3 6.7 5.4 16.7

Politics Appearances
58.5 4.7 0.4 8.9 6.9 20.6
Panellists

56.2 3.2 0.3 4.9 8.8 26.0

Public Appearances
Life 55.9 5.0 0.6 8.7 9.3 20.4
Panellists

24.7 0.6 1.1 19.3 15.5 38.8

Science Appearances
And 52.8 3.3 0.5 7.2 8.9 27.4
Technology Panellists

55.5 2.4 0.5 3.6 4.6 33.4

Sports Appearances
59.1 3.4 0.4 6.7 5.2 25.2
Panellists

71.3 3.3 0.3 6.3 7.3 11.4

State Appearances
And 61.0 5.2 0.7 7.6 7.4 18.1
Policy Panellists

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

GEN SC ST OBC NA CAN’T SAY

 Digital Media | 32

FIGURE 4: Top decile of writers by the number of articles published (%)

100
9.5 8.3 100 100 28.6 100 50.0 7.1 21.1 25.0 25.0

4.8 7.1
91.7
4.4
11.9
80 0.8
0.3 15.8 8.3
2.7 12.5
2.4 4.8 77.9 1.7
71.1 7.3 0.1 2.7 1.6
60 0.1 1.6 10.1 60.9
3.8 59.8
(Percentage)

53.9
55.4
25.0

40

25.0
20

0
First News- News- Satya- Swarajya The The News The The The scroll.in
Post laundry laundry grah Ken Minute Print Quint Wire
(Hindi)

GEN SC ST OBC NA CAN’T SAY

FIGURE 5: Composition of writers on caste issues (%)

Page Title GEN SC ST OBC NA Can’t Say

First Post 48.6 5.0 0.2 19.5 13.3 13.3

Newslaundry 49.2 4.8 1.6 44.4

Newslaundry (Hindi) 53.4 20.3 0.6 25.7

Satyagrah 74.4 11.8 0.5 13.3

Swarajya 51.4 1.9 0.1 13.3 33.3

The News Minute 46.0 6.7 0.7 13.3 33.3

The Print 68.9 5.8 0.6 7.4 8.7 8.7

The Quint 57.1 0.0 14.3 28.6

The Wire 63.0 0.7 0.0 9.6 6.7 20.0

scroll.in 49.5 1.9 0.1 1.3 29.4 17.6

Total 55.8 5.6 0.2 9.7 9.8 18.9

33 | WHO TELLS OUR STORIES MATTERS

Magazines
For this study, we chose 12 magazines covering a
range of interests, from Politics and Business to
Culture and Sports – Business Today, Caravan ,
Femina, Frontline, India Today, India Today (Hindi),
Organsier, Outlook, Outlook (Hindi) , Sarita, Sportstar,
and Tehelka.
Around 44% of the articles on International affairs
were by writers belonging to religious minorities,
with Frontline and Outlook alone accounting for a
third of them. Over six months until March 2019, there
were only three cover stories on subjects related to
Science and Technology. (Figure 3)

Compared to newspapers, TV news channels, and
news websites, the OBCs were better represented in
the leadership positions of magazines. But, again,
there was no place for the Scheduled Castes and the
Scheduled Tribes. (Figure 1)
Only four of the magazines – India Today, India Today
(Hindi), Caravan and Sarita – gave any space to caste
issues on their cover pages. (Figure 5)
 

Just a 10th of the writers in the top decile by the FIGURE 1: Leadership Positions
number of articles published belonged to the
Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and OBCs. In
case of Tehelka, though, the top decile was entirely
upper caste. (Figure 4) 13.6%

13.6% GEN
Though Caravan appeared to be an exception to SC
this pattern of upper caste dominance, the fact ST
72.7%
that we could not assign a caste to over a quarter OBC
of its writers meant it was difficult to say this with NA
certainty. Of the 972 articles that we analysed across CAN’T SAY
the 12 magazines, fewer than 0.5 % were written by
members of the Scheduled Tribes. (Figure 2)

5
For the most part, Outlook and Outlook (Hindi) published the same articles in, respectively, English and Hindi languages. But since we only
considered the lead story and the articles highlighted on the cover page of each edition, and they were different in many instances, data
for the two magazines vary.
 Magazines | 34

FIGURE 2: Overall caste composition (%)

62.0 4.5 0.2 5.6 11.8 15.8

Business Appearances
Today 60.6 6.2 0.2 8.7 6.1 18.2
Panellists

38.8 7.5 0.2 12.8 14.8 25.9

Caravan Appearances
36.9 7.8 0.2 12.8 15.4 26.9
Panellists

57.1 2.8 4.5 1.7 33.9

Femina Appearances
47.4 5.6 0.1 5.9 4.5 36.4
Panellists

56.2 4.2 0.2 8.5 16.7 14.3

Frontline Appearances
58.1 2.3 0.1 6.2 14.3 19.0
Panellists

73.3 3.2 4.4 6.1 12.9

India Today Appearances
64.0 2.4 2.8 17.9 12.8
Panellists

72.0 3.4 0.1 4.5 7.1 12.9

India Today Appearances
(Hindi) 59.9 3.8 0.1 4.9 18.8 12.5
Panellists

54.2 10.3 0.3 8.8 1.1 12.9

Organiser Appearances
53.8 8.3 0.2 7.6 1.6 12.5
Panellists

52.3 8.4 1.2 7.8 15.5 14.9

Outlook Appearances
45.6 8.4 1.8 7.9 12.1 24.2
Panellists

52.2 10.9 1.3 16.0 8.7 10.9

Outlook Appearances
(Hindi) 51.7 13.0 1.8 13.8 7.6 12.1
Panellists

57.9 9.3 0.3 12.8 13.1 6.6

Sarita Appearances
57.1 8.4 0.8 14.2 10.0 10.0
Panellists

52.0 3.7 0.1 5.5 5.3 33.3

Sportstar Appearances
47.5 4.0 0.1 5.9 7.5 35
Panellists

57.2 6.0 0.1 8.7 20.0 8.0

Tehelka Appearances
44.7 7.0 0.1 12.4 28.6 7.1
Panellists

55.9 6.1 0.4 7.7 9.2 16.8

TOTAL Appearances
52.2 7.2 0.5 8.8 10.2 21.1
Panellists
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

GEN SC ST OBC NA CAN’T SAY

35 | WHO TELLS OUR STORIES MATTERS

FIGURE 3: Composition by topic (%)

61.3 7.2 0.2 8.4 8.3 14.6

Business Appearances
and 61.6 7.0 0.2 8.5 2.3 20.5
Economy Panellists

57.0 17.9 0.3 10.6 7.1 7.1

Crime Appearances
And 58.7 16.7 0.2 9.0 7.7 7.7
Accident Panellists

67.3 7.3 0.1 7.1 7.8 10.4

Culture Appearances
And 60.3 8.0 0.1 7.8 10.2 13.6
Entertainment Panellists

58.0 6.0 0.2 5.5 11.8 18.4

Defence Appearances
And National 57.2 9.2 0.3 6.2 12.5 14.6
Security Panellists

51.9 17.2 0.2 8.4 11.1 11.1

Environment Appearances
And 51.9 17.2 0.2 8.4 11.1 11.1
Energy Panellists

31.5 3.7 0.1 8.2 43.5 13.0

International Appearances
Affairs 30.6 5.3 0.1 7.8 37.5 18.8
Panellists

64.1 5.6 1.1 8.3 5.6 15.4

Politics Appearances
55.3 8.3 1.3 9.4 8.0 17.7
Panellists

52.9 6.1 0.2 7.3 10.6 22.9

Public Appearances
Life 51.9 6.6 7.7 11.4 22.2
Panellists

33.3 66.7
Science Appearances
And 50.0 50.0
Technology Panellists

54.4 3.3 0.1 5.3 6.2 30.8

Sports Appearances
49.6 3.5 0.1 5.5 8.7 32.6
Panellists

67.8 5.8 0.2 9.1 8.9 8.2

State Appearances
And 59.1 7.9 0.3 12.4 10.1 10.1
Policy Panellists

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

GEN SC ST OBC NA CAN’T SAY

 Digital Media | 36

FIGURE 4: Top decile of writers by the number of articles published (%)

100
25.0 1.1 50.0 33.3 25.0 25.0 20.0 25.0 11.1 33.3 20.0 100.0
12.0
86.9 11.1

80 0.4
0.1 80.0
1.7 1.7 23.2 0.1
25.9 13.0
1.7 1.7 12.5 0.3
11.9 0.4 71.7 71.7 13.9 5.5
60 10.8 0.9
0.3 6.7
61.6
(Percentage)

2.4 10.4 15.9

49.4 50.0 50.7 54.3
45.0
40
40.6

20

0
Business Caravan Femina Frontline India India Organiser Outlook Outlook Sarita Sportstar Tehelka
Today Today Today (Hindi)
(Hindi)

GEN SC ST OBC NA CAN’T SAY

FIGURE 5: Composition of writers on caste issues (%)

Page Title GEN SC ST OBC NA Can’t Say

Caravan 67.1 17.9 25.0 25.0 25.0

India Today 66.1 0.1 0.5 33.3

India Today (Hindi) 99.5 0.5

Sarita 63.0 9.4 27.5

Total 36.2 10.1 16.1 12.5 25.0

37 | WHO TELLS OUR STORIES MATTERS

Remarks
“The untouchables have no press.”
- BR Ambedkar, 1938

This report provides empirical evidence for the oft- Speaking with journalists and representatives of
repeated observation that the Indian news media media houses for this report, we found that while
reflects the world view of a small minority of the almost everyone recognised that people from
population – the upper castes – even as it claims marginalised communities were underrepresented in
to speak for everyone. Our study shows that the India’s newsrooms, some argued that talking about
Dalits, Adivasis, and Other Backward Classes are caste and studying caste inequality would somehow
grossly underrepresented in both the work and the exacerbate casteism!
workplaces of newspapers, television news channels,
news websites, and magazines. If, that is, they are not We hope this report will serve as a preliminary
entirely absent. step towards recognising the problem, and spur
further research to quantify the representation of
This means that for the mainstream media and digital marginalised groups in the Indian media.
portals analysed in this report, the vast majority of the
country’s population is a ‘subject’ of news created
by upper caste individuals and groups, rather than a
news creator or messenger. In this, the Indian media
today is not unlike the American media of the 1960s
which the Kerner Commission criticised for neglecting
African American voices and seeing the world “with
white men’s eyes and white perspective”.

It is an untenable situation, not least because the

privileging of upper caste viewpoints in the shaping
of national discourses undermines the democratic
character of the Indian society.

It is time media organisations took steps, including

affirmative action, to diversify newsrooms in line with
the country’s social and demographic character. To
this end, systems to encourage inclusion must be put
in place, and concerted efforts made to train and hire
journalists from across the social spectrum.
 Appendix | 38

Appendix 1: Sources
Newspapers English TELEVISION Hindi TELEVISION
News Channels & Channels & Debate
English Debate Shows Shows
• Hindustan Times
(Mumbai) • CNN-News 18 • Aaj Tak
• The Economic Times Face Off Tonight; Halla Bol; Dangal
(Mumbai) Viewpoint
• News18 India
• The Hindu • India Today Aar Paar
(Chennai) News Today
• The Indian Express • India TV
(Delhi) • Mirror Now Kurukshetra
• The Telegraph The Urban Debate
• NDTV India
(Kolkata) • NDTV 24x7 Prime Time; Ranneeti
• The Times of India Left, Right and Centre;
• Rajya Sabha TV
(Mumbai) Reality Check
Desh Deshantar
Hindi • Rajya Sabha TV
• Republic Bharat6
• Amar Ujala The Big Picture;
Poochta Hai Bharat
(Lucknow) India’s World
• Dainik Bhaskar • Zee News
• Republic TV
(Patna) Taal Thok Ke
Late Tonight; The Debate
• Hindustan
(Delhi) • Times Now
• Navbharat Times The News Hour Magazines
(Delhi)
• Prabhat Khabar • Business Today
(Ranchi) Digital Media • Caravan
• Punjab Kesari • Femina
(Ludhiana) • Firstpost • Frontline
• Rajasthan Patrika • Newslaundry • India Today
(Jaipur) • Newslaundry (Hindi) • India Today (Hindi)
• Satyagrah • Organiser
• Scroll.in • Outlook
• Swarajya • Outlook (Hindi)
• The Ken • Sarita
• The News Minute • Sportstar
• The Print • Tehelka
• The Quint
• The Wire

6
Data only for February and March as the channel was launched in February 2019.
39 | WHO TELLS OUR STORIES MATTERS

Appendix 2: Qualitative Heads

Below are the qualitative heads used to analyse the data. The topics under each head are descriptive and not
exhaustive.

1. Business and Economy: Macroeconomic indicators, financial markets, individual businesses, domestic and
global trade.

2. Crime and Accident: Rioting, murder, communal violence, lynching, sexual harassment, rape, accident,
building collapse, fire.

3. Culture and Entertainment: Film, music, art, dance, books, authors, literary awards, reviews, art and literary
festivals.

4. Defence and National Security: War, conflict, armed forces, insurgency, Naxalism, terrorism.

5. Environment and Energy: Climate change, weather, wildlife, plants, earth science, renewable energy, fossil
fuels, environmental science research.

6. International Affairs: All foreign news, Indian diplomatic affairs.

7. Politics: Parties, elections, statements by politicians.

8. Public Life: Protests, demonstrations, rights movements, social unrest, daily life, media, journalism.

9. Science and Technology: Inventions, discoveries, science explainers, communications technology,

artificial intelligence, machine learning.

10. Sports: All sports, sports organisations, doping, scandals.

11. State and Policy: Agriculture, rural affairs, urban affairs, education, healthcare, transport, bureaucracy,
transfers and recruitment, ministries, judiciary.
 Appendix | 40

Appendix 3: Fields of panellists

The fields used to categorise TV panellists are:

1. Academia
2. Business
3. Bureaucrat
4. Bar and Bench
5. Defence Expert (including retired armed forces personnel)
6. Financial Expert
7. Independent Expert (environmentalists, medical doctors, sportspersons, film directors, writers)
8. Media
9. NGO and CSO (belonging to a non-governmental organisation or a civil society group)
10. Political Analyst (only political analysts, not party spokespersons)
11. Party Spokespersons
12. Religious Expert (spiritual gurus, heads of religious denominations)
13. Social Activists
14. Think Tank
41 | WHO TELLS OUR STORIES MATTERS

Appendix 4: Questionnaire
Hi, We are conducting a research study for The Media Rumble project in collaboration with Oxfam and UN
Women. The report will be presented at The Media Rumble 2019 to be organised in August by TeamWork Arts
and Newslaundry. We are collecting demographic information from journalists, reporters and media persons
to analyse the representation of gender, geography, caste and age in news and media platforms. It would
be great if you could help us by answering a few questions for our survey. (The data we collect will be kept
confidential.)

Name:

Age: 18-30 years | 30-45 years | 45 years + | Can’t say

Educational qualification: Diploma | Graduate | Postgraduate | PhD

Organisation:

Designation:

Work experience (rough estimate in years):

Gender (born as): Male | Female | Transgender | Other

Gender (you identify with): Male | Female | Transgender | Other

Caste (born into): Upper Caste/General | OBC | SC | ST

Caste (you identify with): Upper Caste/General | OBC | SC | ST

Religion (given at birth): Hindu | Muslim | Sikh | Jain | Christian | Atheist | Other

Religion (you identify with): Hindu | Muslim | Sikh | Jain | Christian | Atheist | Other

Place of birth: City or Urban | Rural

Current residence: City or Urban | Rural

Name of your immediate boss:

Did you have access to 50 books at home when you were growing up? Yes | No

How often do you use public transport? Almost always | Fairly enough | Almost never

Where did you complete your highest level of education from? Metro | Non-Metro Urban | Rural | Abroad

Did you ever have to take a loan for your education? Yes | No
This publication is copyright but the text may be used free of charge for the purposes of advocacy,
campaigning, education, and research, provided that the source is acknowledged in full. The copyright
holder requests that all such use be registered with them for impact assessment purposes. For copying in
any other circumstances, or for re-use in other publications, or for translation or adaptation, permission
must be secured and a fee may be charged.

Email: communication@oxfamindia.org

This information in this publication is correct at the time of going to press.

About Oxfam India

Oxfam India, a fully independent Indian organisation, is a member of an international confederation of 19
organisations. The Oxfams are rights based organisations, which fight poverty and injustice by linking
grassroot interventions to local, national and global policy developments.
 45 | WHO TELLS OUR STORIES MATTERS

Newslaundry Teamwork Arts Oxfam India

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New Delhi 110017 Plot No 366 Min, Sultanpur Kendra, 1, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi -110001
MG Road, New Delhi - 110030 Tel +91 1146538000 | Fax +91 1146538099
Facebook: @newslaundry
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