Understanding the media

CFAR’s growing involvement in the field of media research and advocacy related to social and developmental issues made us realize the importance of documentation and of the need to build a database that can store the vast amount of data that the media has to offer. It would also enable us to understand media content and assess the ways in which public opinion is being shaped and influenced by the media.

Today we have a documentation team comprising of media analysts, sociologists, social workers and trained documentation specialists who have been doing both quantitative and qualitative research. We have also developed appropriate research methodology for content analysis, audience reception and understanding the media discourse on developmental issues.

Initially the emphasis was on advocating with the media directly and advocating for a more balanced representation and coverage. But since 1998 we have been using it more as a knowledge and strategic tool to make the media do more. It has helped us to strategize not just with them but also to understand how issues are being framed within the public discourse, were a particular issue is getting support is and what catches the imagination of journalists. Tracking of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), for instance, showed that it was not an issue that was popular with journalists and the bulk of articles on this issue were in the editorial spaces and done by experts and interest groups. In contrast the Janadesh rally caught the interest of the journalists and yielded 2000 reports.

Moreover, consistent tracking is not a passive activity but an interactive one that reveals the extent to which the media is impacting issues, the supportive spaces that are available and how much evidence based details are necessary. When the PIL came up in the Supreme Court on sex selection we not only supported it but also ensured media support by providing them with evidence resulting in a shift in the discourse.

Impacting policies

Similarly, our tracking on HIV/AIDS reveals how it is being seen from a development paradigm and the extent of sensitivity to the community. We have been monitoring the issue since 2000 and until 2005 it was largely of national newspapers. Now we are also tracking newspapers in six high prevalence states and this had enabled us to understand the fight against stigma and discrimination.

With the advent of satellite television we started looking at programme trends and have been taping television news and current affairs as well as TV fiction since 1995. This was subsequently linked to audience research and feedback in order to strengthen policy plus consumer advocacy and enable us to address the media not as an NGO but from the viewer and consumers point of view leading to the formation of Viewer's Forum.

Different trends in media monitoring- for policy advocacy, for policy plus consumer advocacy, became advocacy partners for Janadesh/ NREGS in which tracking was a major component.For NCW it is not to do with issues but media's role as a public instrument. We are looking at reality shows and children's programmes.

For CRY it looked at children in the widest possible prism in ten states.

Regular updating is also done of both the database and analysis of media content as part of our effort to develop a documentation center for media researchers given the archival material available with us. This has resulted in an electronically stored resource database comprising of a large collection of print clippings on a variety of subjects related to social and development issues ranging from HIV/AIDS, RCH and violence against women to child rights and media. Read More