Going by the Election Commission of India data, 642 million Indians voted in the 2024 general elections. Of these, 36.6 per cent, or about 235 million, voted for the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been running the government at the centre for 10 years.
Switch on many of India's roughly 400 news channels. It would seem as if these 235 million people are the only audience for news. Assuming they all watch television, the voters for the ruling party are less than a third of the total TV audience of close to 900 million. (Broadcast Audience Research Council data)
Move to newspapers. If you flipped open some of the large national newspapers, especially in English and Hindi, it would seem that the likes, dislikes, and opinions of these 235 million Indians are paramount. This number is just over half of the 421 million people who read a newspaper, going by the last Indian Readership Survey.
Note that many people might be doing either or both reading and watching TV. Therefore, there is significant duplication of these numbers.
If you take a look at the numbers - of voters, media reach etc - for 2014 and 2019, the absolute figures vary. But the trend of news media catering only to one set of consumers is constant. This writer has commented on it earlier. ("Why is Indian News Media Servile?" Business Standard, February 14, 2018)
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة June 12, 2024 من Business Standard.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة June 12, 2024 من Business Standard.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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