How a recent study shows inherent biases of Western media when it comes to reporting about India

The Western media’s bias against India has once again been highlighted in a report published by the country’s top institute for Media and Communication, Indian Institute for Mass Communication {IIMC} in its latest issue of the quarterly media journal Communicator.

Here’s a look at what the report states and how the Western media continues its prejudiced reportage when it comes to events in India vis-à-vis the world.

Findings of the IIMC report

Titled ‘Analysis of Global Media Coverage of Events in India’, the report written by journalist and media analyst Amol Parth outlines the alleged irrational global media coverage of socio-political developments in India through facts and figures.

Analysing over 3,000 reports from various international publications such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, TIME magazine, The Guardian, BBC, the analysis shows that there is a prejudice in reportage and also a tendency of having exaggerated headlines with minimal substance in the story to support the doomsday prophecies in their headlines.

The report states that these publications have used most negative and divisive words for its ridicule of India.

In 500 headlines, it was found that the most used words were these 10:

• Fear

• Hate

• Violence

• Riot

• Hindu

• Muslim

• Kashmir

• Cow

• Mob

• Protest

The report says that from this it can be inferred ’that these foreign media outlets have been trying to exploit the alleged fault lines within India, looking for controversies and potential contentious issues, which may catch more eyeballs'.

Another fact that the report highlights is that despite India’s several leaps in space exploration, these publications still continue to portray India as cattle class.

One such example is the September 2014 cartoon published by The New York Times ‘India’s Budget Mission to Mars’. This wasn’t to appreciate the fact that India became the first in Asia to reach Mars.

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In fact, the cartoon showed an Indian farmer with a cow knocking at the door of so-called ‘Elite Space Club’.

Another example of the bias or prejudice in reportage was evident in BBC’s photo story of April 2021, which came with the disclaimer that the images in the article may be disturbing to some. The article screamed ‘harrowing scenes from India show the extent of the crisis gripping the nation as the second wave of coronavirus brings the death toll to over 200,000.

However, such reporting was missing when lakhs of people died in the first wave of COVID-19 in 2020 in the US, UK and Europe. There was no screaming headlines, no harrowing images or opinion pieces about how the respective governments had failed.

In fact, a previous survey by the IIMC in July of last year had said that 82 per cent media persons believe that the coverage of COVID-19 pandemic in India by a section of the Western media is ‘biased’. A total of 69 per cent had said India’s image took a beating by such negative coverage, while 56 per cent said such coverage must have negatively influenced the opinion of the Indians living abroad.

Another bias of Western media that the report points out is the incident of the 2019 Pulwama attack.

While reporting the massacre of 40 paramilitary soldier {CRPF} The New York Times chose to call it an explosion despite the fact that Jaish-e-Mohammed had claimed responsibility for the attack. However, a truck driver running over people in Manhattan in 2017 was called the ‘deadliest terror attack’ by the same media outlet.

There are other instances also reported in the report that goes on to highlight the Western media’s bias.

Western media readership grows in India

The report also highlights how such coverage has helped these outlets to grow their digital readership in the country. The study says that by using these aforementioned tactics of spreading hate, fear, they have boosted their own readership in the country.

Analysis of the data indicates that the correlation between their digital readership growth in India and their sensational reportage is strong. Their readership in India has grown more rapidly in comparison to their growth globally.

Between March 2019 and March 2021, The New York Times witnessed a 22 per cent rise in the India market. Similarly, the Wall Street Journal also grew in India twice faster than it did globally. In March 2021, India’s share to WSJ’s growth grew to 2.6 per cent up from the 1.99 per cent in March 2019.

The same is the case with TIME magazine. The report also found that between March 2019 and March 2021, BBC grew by 173 per cent in India, which was almost five times its global growth of 35 per cent.

The readership data, sourced from American media measurement agency Comscore, also shows that these outlets saw a massive jump in their readership in December 2019 when the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests began and kept growing till March 2020.

Other findings

The report also elaborates upon the fact that most of these global media houses have minimal staffing for covering India’s affairs. The question that this begs is that how one or two correspondents cover the nuanced and wide-range of issues of a country with sub-continental dimensions like India.

Moreover, the foreign correspondents don’t have the ability to understand the complexities of Indian society, vibrancy of Indian democracy and nuances of governance structure.

The report finds that most of the correspondents for these media outlets are based in Delhi or Mumbai and their sources often are limited to this region, which makes their understanding of many events limited.

The analysis also states that their limited understanding of India’s issues stems from their ignorance and their arm-chair journalism. The foreign media outlets don’t follow the same values or principles that they do for the issues in their own country.

The report in conclusion states these foreign media outlets are driven more by revenue and market share and hence, their news reports and opinion columns on India are at best ‘half-truths’.​

With inputs from agencies

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