Indian Media Framing of the Image of Muslims

An Analysis of News Coverage of Muslims in English Newspapers of India

The images of race, caste, community and religion as perceived by the media have long been of
interest to researchers as they signify the attitude of majority communities towards smaller groups.
No religious community has generated so much heat and debate than the Muslims in the world. The
basic purpose of this study is to understand how media has treated Muslims, the largest minority
group in India. India, the largest democracy in the world, has a free press. Media play a significant
role in constructing the image of Muslims in India. There is a significant difference in the framing and
slanting of Muslims in different English newspapers. Unlike its communal language press counterpart,
the English language press framed and slanted the Gujarat communal riots heavily loaded in favour of
Muslims, exposing the communal elements in the riots during the study period. Nevertheless, regular
stories followed a conventional pattern that has not helped much in perceiving the Muslim community
in India differently.

Usharani Narayana
Priti Kapur

edia play an important role in the portrayal of

image of any community, political leaders or
people. Navasky said that: It is based largely
on journalism that we make up our national mind
(Navasky cited in Zelizer & Allen, 2002). The images
of race, caste, community and religion as perceived
by the media have long been of interest to researchers
as they signify the attitude of majority communities
towards smaller groups. No religious community has
generated so much heat and debate than the Muslims in
the world. Muslims all over the world have been viewed
with suspicion owing to the rise in fundamentalism and
terrorism. The negative image portrayed by the media
in the past has reinforced the publics stereotypical and
prejudiced perception of the Muslims.
The treatment of Muslimsthe largest minority
groupin a pluralistic society like India has been the
subject of debates and discussions. India is a secular
republic where the citizens enjoy equal right to practise
a religion of their choice. The Hindus are the majority
community in the multi-religious Indian society and the
minority community consists of Muslims, Christians,
Sikhs, Buddhists and others. India has 150 million
Muslims (2001 census) constituting 15 percent of the
total population, which intriguingly is the combined
population of Muslims in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
India, the largest democracy in the world, has a free
press and the constitution has guaranteed freedom of

speech and expression (Article 19(1) a) to its citizens.

Media play a significant role in a pluralistic society like
India in constructing the image of Muslimsthe largest
minority community in a Hindu majority nation. Religion
is a highly sensitive issue and many communal riots
have marked the history of post-colonial Indian society,
creating more void between the religious communities.
In a democracy like India, the liberal media that are in
the hands of private business groups are expected to
profess secularism. Unfortunately, the secular credentials
of the Indian press were questioned after the Babri
Masjid incident on 6 December 1992 where attempts
were made to demolish the 12th century mosque by
right wing communal forces with the tacit consent of the
government. The communal forces gained an upper hand
alienating the Muslim community from the mainstream
population, consequently damaging the secular fabric of
the Indian society. During the Babri Masjid incident, the
language press in the Hindi-language speaking belt of
India was divided on the basis of religion. Mob opinion
was touted as public opinion in the press paving way
for mobocracy instead of democracy. The press lost
an opportunity to assuage the hurt and humiliation
suffered by Muslims in India in the post Babri Masjid
era. The press instead coined labels like Muslim
terrorist and Muslim fundamentalist. After a decade,
Indias secularism received another jolt in 2002 with the
onslaught of Gujarat riots internationalising the plight
of Indian Muslim community.

Usharani Narayana is Professor in the Department of

Communication and Journalism at the University of Mysore,
India. Priti Kapur is Head of Department of Photography
and Photojournalism at the Chamarajendra Academy of
Visual Arts, Mysore, India.

Gujarat Riots
The genesis of Gujarat communal riots between Hindus
and Muslims started with the torching of the Sabarmati
Express, the train running from Faizabad to Ahmedabad,
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MEDIA ASIA, VOL 38 NO 3, 2011

at a place called Godhra killing over 58 people (Hindu

Kar-sevaks) on 27 February 2002 in the Indian State of
Gujarat. As retaliation to Godhra carnage, the Hindus
largely targeted the Muslim community in the worst
communal riots India has ever seen, killing over 800
people. Media coverage of the Gujarat communal
disturbances became controversial as the English press,
by and large, took a pro-Muslim stance and the language
press in Gujarat stuck to its traditional anti-Muslim and
pro-Hindu policy. This prompted the national media to
depute the Editors Guild of India headed by eminent
journalists, Aakar Patel, Dileep Padgaonkar and B. G.
Vergheseto submit a fact finding report on the role of
the media in the Gujarat riots.
Gujarat was the first large scale television and cable
riot covered in real time. This poses delicate issues and
difficult choices that merit discussion Censorship is
not the answer; sobriety, training, professionalism and
codes of conduct are necessary, said the Editors Guild of
India in its report while answering the critics who blamed
media for aggravating the riots in Gujarat in February
2002 (Editors Guild, 2002).The English press and TV
news channels were blamed for biased coverage by the
right wing political party saying they (media) only listen
to Muslims and ignore Hindus (Editors Guild, 2002),
illustrating the challenges of media coverage of riots
involving Hindus and Muslims in India where media
professing secularism is touted as pro-Muslim. The
official press releases given by the Gujarat government
headed by a right wing political party after the riots had a
pro-Hindu and anti-Muslim stance that speaks volumes
of the governments biased approach in dealing with the
riots. The phraseology most often used for the Godhra
incident was inhuman genocide, inhuman carnage
or massacre (attack on Hindus) while the subsequent
riots were invariably described as disturbances, and
occasionally as violent disturbances/incidents (attack
on Muslims). The Chief Minister visited Godhra on the
evening of 27 February 2002 itself and the Press Note
issued thereafter described the torching of the Sabarmati
Express as a pre-planned inhuman collective violent
act of terrorism (attack on Hindus)(Editors Guild,
2002), underscoring the need to distinguish between the
government frame and the media frame of the incidents.
The vulnerability of media secularism and the lack
of a clear-cut media policy on this significant issue
prompted this study. The research interest is to analyse
the portrayal of the Muslim community in the English
press in the aftermath of Babri Masjid, post 9/11 and
the Gujarat riots.
Media Framing
The study uses the concept of the analytical technique of
framing in mass communication research. Many theses
have been written about framing since 1970s when the
sociologist Erving Goffman (1974) deliberated on the
theory of frame analysis. Since then, framing has been
reconsidered and reinvented to study the process, factors
and the structure of news framing in the media. The
earliest works on media framing is attributed to Shanto

Iyengars study, Is Anyone Responsible? How Television

Frames Political Issues that evaluates the framing effects
of television news on politics. Iyengar introduced the
concepts of episodic and thematic framing of news in his
study. He said: Episodic news framing depicts concrete
events that illustrate issues, while thematic framing
presents collective or general evidence (Iyengar, 1991).
There are different connotations of framing. According
to Gitlin, media frame is persistent patterns of cognition,
interpretation, and presentation of selection, emphasis,
and exclusion, by which symbol-handlers routinely
organise discourse, whether verbal or visual (Gitlin, 1980).
Framing has been defined as a process of selecting some
aspects of perceived reality and making them more salient
in a communication text, in such a way as to promote a
particular problem definition, casual interpretation, moral
evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation for the
item described (Entman, 1993). It is even interpreted as
a sort of media control over content giving scope for elite
opinion. Framing is a process whereby communicators,
consciously or unconsciously, act to construct a point of
view that encourages the facts of a given situation to be
interpreted by others in a particular manner (Kuypers,
2009). Frames are the indicators of power or the imprint
of power (Entman, 1993). Reese says an exercise of power
is framing (Reese, 2001). Media frame plays a vital role in
presenting, shaping or destroying a picture of an event
or story says Herman and Chomsky (2000). Delving on
the features of framing, Berenger (2004) says that frames
make messages memorable and understandable (cited
in King & Lester, 2005). Framing implies subjective
involvement in an event (Tuchman 1978). Entman says
that news frames are embodied in key words, metaphors,
concepts, symbols and visual images emphasised in a
news narrative (Entman, 1993).
The question is why do journalists frame news stories
even when they enjoy freedom of speech and expression?
Bourdieu (1998) explained that even in countries where
there is freedom of expression, there is a form of invisible
self-censorship. Journalists, writers, and producers
realise what is permissible in media, and they pre-edit
their own work to be consistent with those perceived
normsall in the interest of remaining employed in the
media companies (cited in Straubhaar & Larose, 2002).

Literature Review
Muslims and media have generated lot of interest among
researchers across different countries. Post 9/11 has seen a
spate of studies on media treatment of Muslim community
contributing to the literature. Peter Manning says that the
words Arab or Muslim were associated with terrorism in
89 percent of articles that appeared in Sydneys two major
newspapers in the post 9/11. He further states that, by
and large, the Australian medias coverage of Muslims and
Arabs is tainted with a racism that portrays the community
negatively (Cited by Ian Munro, 2006).
The common thesis of all those who have reflected on
this issue is that the Western media writers fail to see the
perspective of ordinary Muslims as their vision is blurred by

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Indian Media Framing of the Image of Muslims: An Analysis of News Coverage of Muslims in English Newspapers of India

the rhetoric of the fundamentalists. Akeel Bilgrami laments:

If we see this very important dialectical point with clarity,
our own efforts need not fall into the confusions that the
rhetoric encourages, some writersChristopher Hitchens,
Salman Rushdie, Michael Ignatieff, Niall Fergusson, Thomas
Friedman to name just a fewclearly have when they
write articles in leading magazines and newspapers with
titles such as Of Course Its About Islam or Who Said It
is Not About Religion!. These sleek writers with their fine
phrases are buying into the very confusion of those whom
they are opposing, and in doing so, they are letting down
the millions of ordinary Muslims all over the world who,
in the end, are the only weapons the US and Europe have
against its terrorist enemies (Bilgrami, 2006).
Minorities in every culture are a disadvantaged lot
and media treats them differently and not favourably
compared to the language, culture and social system of the
majority that gets reflected in the media. In non-Islamic
countries, Muslims, as a minority community, have
attracted national attention owing to global concerns with
the subjects of Muslims and Islam in the post 9/11 era. It
would not be too much of an exaggeration to say that the
whole debate on terrorism, Islam and Muslims are now
being defined by American perceptions, articulations, and
expectations, says Arun Mahizhnan expressing concern
over the immortalising of the Islam and Muslim issues
in the global media (Mahizhnan, 2002).
The American media is blamed for biased and
prejudiced coverage of Muslims and Islam in many books,
studies and articles in both the pre- and post 9/11 periods.
The research studies blame American media like CNN
for lacking accuracy, objectivity, balance and facts in their
coverage of Muslims. One such work is Islamic peril:
media and global violence by Karim M. Karim in which
the author builds his thesis on media mistreatments of
Islamic issues. He said, There is no centrally-organised
journalistic conspiracy against Islamthe mechanics of
the mass media in liberal political systems do not favour
such overt orchestrations of information. [However],
dominant media discourses simultaneously highlight
and downplay specific types of violence (Karim, 2000).
Majority of theses on this subject criticise media
inadequacies and unpreparedness in dealing with
Muslims leading to bias and prejudice in their reporting.
The very lack of cultural depth among both conveyers and
consumers of information through the mainstream media
has meant the spread of the sense of having understood
Islam without any inkling that their information may not
have any objective basis (Mahizhnan, 2002).
A study on framing war and peace journalism on the
perspective of Talibanisation in Pakistan reveals that the
English press coverage was dominantly more war oriented
than the Urdu language press. The study points out that
the stories on the editorial pages frame war journalism
rather than peace journalism. Furthermore, the Taliban
that is linked to Al-Qaeda behind 9/11 terror attack gets
an unfavourable slant in the press of Pakistan, endorsing
the theory that media coverage is integral to shaping the
course of events in war and peace (Siraj & Syed, 2010).
In a study on the image of Pakistan in prestigious

American newspaper editorials, the media conformity

theory does not find any support. Instead, the study
endorses the cultural difference theory of Galtung, Said
and Graber. This study on imaging of Pakistan reveals
that there is a general bias against the Muslim world in
American press (Muhammad Ashraf Khan, 2008).
Mass media play a crucial role in building the image
of any society. Noshima Saleem cites Galtung and
Mari Holmboe Ruge who call the media as first rate
competitors for the number one position as international
image former (Galtung & Ruge, 1965). Traditionally,
the people of India and Pakistan have grown in an
environment where an enemy image lurks in the minds
of citizenry in both the countries. The partition of India
in 1947 as well as wars and constant border clashes
between the two countries have led to distrust of Hindus
and Muslims of each other. Some studies have blamed
the textbooks and the education system in India and
Pakistan for projecting highly slanted and prejudiced
view of minorities, particularly Muslims in India and
Hindus in Pakistani. These textbooks feed the minds
and imagination of millions of children in both countries.
They play a major role in generating hatred and animosity
between the two countries (Zahid & Michelle, 2007).
In a study on national identity in Indian cinema, the
researchers found that religious minorities never made
it to the central focus of the Indian cinema. Instead,
the diversity, multiplicity and secular constructions of
Indian identity are being systematically narrowed into
monolithic portrayals of rich Hindus, and patriarchal
cultural identity. This cultural conflation further
marginalises and often erases the experiences of religious
minorities and the poor who do not fit this constructed
norm (Malhotra & Alagh, 2004). The Hindu image
continues to be more predominantly visible in Indian
cinema than that of its minorities.

Methodology
The researcher used an analytical technique of framing
approach in empirically analysing the content to study the
treatment of Muslim community by English newspapers
in India. Five mainstream national newspapers namely,
The Statesman, the Indian Express, The Hindu, the
Hindustan Times and The Times of India were selected.
The news reports and other editorial content pertaining
to Muslims that were published between 2001 and 2006
were selected through Lexis-Nexus database. The period
is significant for this study as India witnessed one of its
worst communal riots during February 2002 in the State of
Gujarat headed by a rightwing political party. Historically,
three incidents in the world changed the perception of
Muslims in India. Firstly, the Babri Masjid incident of
6 December 1996 where communalists attempted to
demolish the 12th century mosque in the city of Ayodhya
in Uttar Pradesh. Secondly, the terrorists representing
Al-Qaedas attack on 11 September 2001 killing over
3,000 people in the US changed the medias portrayal of
Muslims. Thirdly, the Gujarat carnage struck India in
February 2002. All these three events posed a challenge
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MEDIA ASIA, VOL 38 NO 3, 2011

to the Indian media as it involved covering Muslims, the

largest minority in India. Therefore, 2001, pre-Gujarat
riots period became significant for this study as the
evidence of media handling of the Babri Masjid and the
9/11 incidents suggested an obvious anti-Muslim stance.
The riots took place in 2002 and the study period included
news content published up to 2006 as post-Gujarat riots
assumed significance because of the major role played by
the media in bringing the culprits of the riots to justice
during this period. Both the terror and the communal
riot events in the history changed the perception of the
world about Muslims. In the 9/11 incident, Muslims
were perceived as perpetrators of crime and in the
Gujarat riots, the community was perceived as victims
of Hindutva forces in India.
All the five chosen newspapers are national newspapers
and leading dailies of India. They represent the cream of
Indian press and are powerful enough to influence the
policies of the government. The newspapers represent
the northern, southern and eastern Indian regions that
command large circulation and are multi-edition papers.
A list of stories was generated from Lexis-Nexis full
database. The Lexis-Nexis strings that were used for
search purposes were Muslims and minorities. The
unit of analysis was the news report and other editorial
content including editorials, articles and opinion stories.
The sample consisted of 25 percent of the stories from
each newspaper for the study period based on systematic
random sampling and every 4th story was selected
from the Lexis-Nexis database. A total of 473 stories
were selected on this basis for the study from all five
newspapers: The Statesman (69), the Indian Express
(69), The Hindu (137), the Hindustan Times (100) and
The Times of India (98).
The sample was analysed on the basis of a) title of
newspaper, b) wordage and, c) type of the story. The
stories were analysed on the basis of slant categorised
conventionally in studies of this nature into favourable,
neutral and unfavourable variables. The news reports
were coded favourable if they are positive for the Muslims.

Stories where Muslims were regarded as victims rather

than perpetrators of crime were also coded favourable.
Every story that has favourable portrayal of Muslims was
coded favourable. A news content is coded unfavourable
if it brands Muslims as fundamentalists, terrorists, threat
to peace and intolerant. The news report is neutral if it
portrays the image of Muslims neither favourably nor
unfavourably. The framing of the news content was divided
into stereotypical framing, meaning fundamentalists and
progressive framing meaning Muslims as new thinking,
tolerant, secular and liberal thinking.
Two doctoral research scholars were trained in coding
and were responsible for coding. Using Holstis formula
(Holsti, 1969), an average inter-coder reliability score of
97 percent was obtained for the variables. The research
scholars independently coded the five newspapers after
the inter-coder reliability was established.

Research Questions
RQ1 Did the Indian press give top priority to
political news in the reporting of Muslims?
RQ2 Is the wordage of the political reports on par
with other types of news?
RQ3 Are there any variations in slants and frames
of Muslims in Indian English language
newspapers?
RQ4 Does the frame used for Muslims differ among
different newspapers and did more stories
frame Muslims stereotypically?
RQ5 Did the English press give low priority to
development issues of Muslims?
RQ6 Is the word minority synonymous with
Muslims in press coverage?

Analysis and Discussion

RQ1 Did the Indian press give top priority to
political news in the reporting of Muslims?
The analysis of 473 news stories reveals that five Indian
English language newspapers namely The Hindu,

Table 1

Coverage of different types of news pertaining to Muslims by English language press in India
Newspaper
News type

The Hindu
f

The Times of
India

The
Statesman

46

66.7

33

33.7

40

Total

50

50

258

54.5

89

Religious

3.7

5.8

16

16.3

4.3

10

10

38

12

8.8

10

14.5

25

25.5

21

30.4

77

0.7

1.4

Education

16

11.7

8.7

17

17.3

5.8

21

21

63

13.5

Development

14

10.2

4.3

5.1

1.4

32

6.8

Women

Total
N = 473
156

n = 137

n = 69

n = 98

2.04

n = 69

58

Hindustan
Times

Political
Crime

65

Indian
Express

n = 100

473

8.03
16.3
1.05

Indian Media Framing of the Image of Muslims: An Analysis of News Coverage of Muslims in English Newspapers of India

Table 2

Mean size of different types of news in English newspapers

News type
Political

Newspaper

Mean

SD

Std. error

98

133.72

203.879

20.595

137

302.12

306.968

26.226

Indian Express

69

312.99

292.694

35.236

The Statesman

69

343.03

423.152

50.942

Hindustan Times

100

216.77

302.204

30.22

Total

473

256.74

314.033

14.439

98

59.01

143.572

14.503

137

23.99

224.724

19.199

Indian Express

69

33.22

151.695

18.262

The Statesman

69

15.78

99.307

11.955

Hindustan Times

100

32.09

104.085

10.409

Total

473

33.11

161.255

7.415

98

111.43

202.93

20.499

The Times of India

The Hindu

Religious

The Times of India

The Hindu

Crime

The Times of India

The Hindu

137

40.85

149.785

12.797

Indian Express

69

83.71

222.51

26.787

The Statesman

65

185.22

330.732

41.022

Hindustan Times

95

33.29

110.815

11.369

473

80.81

206.804

9.601

98

6.56

47.131

4.761

137

14.73

172.409

14.73

Indian Express

69

17.32

143.861

17.319

The Statesman

68

0.00

0.000

0.000

Hindustan Times

100

7.32

73.2

7.32

Total

473

9.72

114.836

5.286

98

72.03

166.631

16.832

137

44.99

166.4

14.216

Indian Express

69

22.96

81.916

9.862

The Statesman

69

46.88

213.682

25.724

Hindustan Times

100

85.26

203.093

20.309

Total

473

56.17

174.132

8.007

98

21.02

92.607

9.355

137

44.35

159.376

13.616

Indian Express

69

52.45

311.552

37.506

The Statesman

69

16.14

134.11

16.145

Hindustan Times

100

43.88

164.401

16.44

Total

473

36.48

177.489

Total
Women

The Times of India

The Hindu

Education

The Times of India

The Hindu

Development

The Times of India

The Hindu

Indian Express, The Times of India, The Statesman and

the Hindustan Times gave priority to political news in
their coverage on Muslims (Table 1). On an average,
over 50% of news of Muslims is on politics followed by
crime (16.3 %) and education (13.5%). Religion (8.03%)
and development (6.8%) received less priority whereas

8.161

womens (1.05%) issue was relegated to the background.

A reasonably high percentage of news stories about
Muslims were on politics. The Hindu and the Indian
Express papers gave over 60% coverage to political news
followed by The Statesman and the Hindustan Times.
However, the largest circulated English newspaper, The
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MEDIA ASIA, VOL 38 NO 3, 2011

Times of India carried the lowest percentage (33.7%) of

political news about Muslims but carried the second
highest crime news (25.5%).
Crime stories consisting of communal riots and court
issues come second in the priority of news. However,
comparatively, there were fewer stories on crime than
on politics in all the papers concerning Muslims.
The Statesman tops the list with 30% of crime stories
followed by The Times of India daily (25.5%). Education
issue dealing with Muslims receives third priority with
the Hindustan Times carrying 21 percent followed by
The Times of India (17.3%). As per the popular belief,
religion should have got more priority in the news
columns but it gets fourth priority in The Times of India
(16.3%) and the Hindustan Times (10%). The rest of the
dailies have not attached much importance to religion.
Development issues receive preference after religion
with The Hindu newspaper giving (10.2%) the highest
coverage. Sadly, Muslim women get a very low priority
in all the newspapers. A negligible percentage of news
pertains to Muslim women.

women (4,588) in all the five papers under study. The

Hindu (41,391) again tops the list with the highest
wordage of political news on Muslims followed by The
Statesman (23,669), the Hindustan Times (21,677), the
Indian Express (21,596) and The Times of India (13,105).
Surprisingly, The Times of India, which has less wordage of
political news, has the highest wordage of religious news
(5,783). The highest wordage for crime news on Muslims
is given by The Statesman (12,039) and the highest in
education news is published by the Hindustan Times
(8,526). The Hindu paper that has earned a reputation
for its development news coverage in India has again the
highest wordage for development news items (6,076).
The mean size of the political stories (mean = 256.74)
is several levels higher than crime (mean = 80.81),
education (mean = 56.17), development (mean = 36.48)
and women (mean = 9.72) pertaining to Muslims in the
English press (Table 2 and Figures 1, 2 and 3).
Interestingly, The Statesman carried the highest mean
length (mean = 343.03) story than the other papers and
the lowest mean length (mean = 133.72) was found in
The Times of India as far as political news is concerned.
The Hindu (89) carried the highest number of stories
on political news of Muslims followed by the Hindustan
Times (50), Indian Express (46), The Statesman (40) and
The Times of India (33).
A one-way ANOVA was applied to test whether the
contents (number of words) carried by the five different
newspapers differ significantly with respect to the types of
news, viz., Political, Religious, Crime, Women, Education
and Development. ANOVA results revealed that there is
sufficient evidence to indicate that the newspapers differ
significantly with respect to the size of political news
contents on Muslims with a score of F = 7.063,df = 4, p
= 0.000 < 0.001 as well as crime news with a score of F
= 7.628, df = 4, p = 0.000 < 0.001 showing statistically
significant results. This illustrates that newspapers varied
among themselves in the allocation of space for political
and crime news in respect of Muslim issues.
Similarly, a one-way ANOVA test showed no

RQ2 Is the wordage of the political reports on par

with other types of news? (Table 3)
The quantitative analysis of wordage shows that out of
the five newspapers, The Hindu tops the list with highest
number of words (64,531) and (137) stories followed by
the Hindustan Times (41,695 words)(100 stories) and the
Statesman (41,146 words) (69 stories) in respect of news
content on Muslims. The lowest in terms of wordage was
in the Indian Express (35,823) (69 stories).
The Hindustan Times (100 news items) has almost the
same total wordage as The Statesman (69 news items)
denoting that The Statesman carried longer stories than
the Hindustan Times on Muslims. The largest circulated
multi-edition daily, The Times of India has less wordage
than others but has a reasonably good number of stories
on Muslims. The wordage of political (121,438) reports
out-classed other stories viz., crime (37,494), education
(26,329), development (17,257), religion (15,659) and

Table 3

Wordage of reports on the basis of different type of news in 5 English language papers
Newspaper
Type of news

The Hindu
n = 137
No. of
words

Indian Express
n = 69
f

No. of
words

The Times of India The Statesman

n = 98
n = 69
f

No. of
words

No. of
words

Hindustan Times
n = 100
f

No. of
words

Political

89

41,391

46

21,596

33

13,105

40

23,669

50

21,677

Religion

3,286

2,292

16

5,783

1,089

10

3,209

12

5,596

10

5,776

25

10,920

21

12,039

3,163

2,018

1,195

643

732

Education

16

6,164

1,345

17

7,059

3,235

21

8,526

Development

14

6,076

3,619

2,060

1,114

4,388

137

64,531

69

35,823

98

39,570

69

41,146

100

41,695

Crime
Women

Total
158

Indian Media Framing of the Image of Muslims: An Analysis of News Coverage of Muslims in English Newspapers of India

Figure 1

Meansplots: Mean of political news

in English newspapers

Mean of political news

350
300
250
200
150
100
Times of India

The Hindu

Indian Express The Statesman Hindustan Times

Newspaper

Figure 2

Meansplots: Mean of religious news

in English newspapers

Mean of religious news

60
50
40
30
20
10
Times of India

The Hindu

Indian Express The Statesman Hindustan Times

Newspaper

Figure 3

Meansplots: Mean of crime news

in English newspapers

Mean of crime news

200

150

100

50

0
Times of India

The Hindu

Indian Express The Statesman Hindustan Times

Newspaper

significant difference between newspapers in the size

of news content on religion (F = .941, df = 4, p = 0.440),
women (F = .290, df = 4, p = 0.884), education (F = 1.729,
df = 4, 0.142) and development (F = .661, df = 4, p =
0.619), illustrating that low coverage and non-priority
status did not vary from one newspaper to another.
RQ3. Are there any variations in slants and frames of
Muslims in Indian English language newspapers?
Out of a total of 473 stories, over 90% were news reports
whereas article (4.9%), letters to the editor (2.3%) and
editorial (2.1%) categories received negligible coverage
in the Indian press. All five newspapers are significantly
different with respect to the different types of generic
categories namely news reports, articles, editorials and
the letter to the editor on Muslims (x2 = 20.503, df =
4, p < 0.001), denoting that there are variations in the
publication of news and views in different categories
(Table 4).
All five newspapers are significantly different with
respect to the framing of the news on Muslims (x2 =
39.202, df = 4, p < 0.001). The analysis of the framing of
Muslims in the Indian English language press revealed
that the slant and the frames vary from paper to paper.
This illustrates that not all newspapers under study have
treated Muslims favourably and some papers have framed
the stories unfavourably too. There are variations in the
slants and frames in Muslim stories in the English press.
The slant of news reports varied from a very high 81.2%
in the Indian Express newspaper to very low 44.9% in The
Statesman in terms of favourable slant of Muslims. The
second highest favourable slant is given in the widely
respected The Hindu (77.4%) followed by an equally
impressive portrayal in The Times of India (65.3%) and
not so impressive framing in Hindustan Times (52%).
On the whole, the English press reveals greater levels of
favourable slant and progressive framing (65.32%) and
a lower level of unfavourable slant and stereotypical
frame (26.21%) and 8.45% of neutral stance meaning
neither favourable nor unfavourable in news in respect
of Muslims.
As far as negative portrayal is concerned, The
Statesman paper that has the lowest favourable slant
than others has the highest unfavourable (37.7%) slant of
Muslims, illustrating that this paper of the eastern part
of India continues to tread the old policy of stereotypical
framing and unfavourable slant of Muslim community
and has not changed in a big way unlike other major
English dailies. The second highest unfavourable slant
is seen in the Hindustan Times (35%), closely followed
by The Times of India (34.7%). Of these two papers,
the Hindustan Times has exhibited a greater degree of
unfavourable slant of Muslims than The Times of India.
The lowest unfavourable slant is given by the Indian
Express that has also portrayed Muslims with the highest
favourable slant.
Thus the national papers, the Indian Express and
The Hindu have illustrated favourable slant of Muslims
in India. Nevertheless, the degree of slant varies from
159

MEDIA ASIA, VOL 38 NO 3, 2011

Table 4

Slant and frame of the news coverage of Muslims/Minorities in English language press in India
Newspaper
Slant and frame

The Hindu

Indian
Express

The Times of
India

The
Statesman

Hindustan
Times

Total

106

77.4

56

81.2

64

65.3

31

44.9

52

52

309

65.32

Neutral

10

7.3

7.2

12

17.4

13

13

40

8.45

Unfavourable
and stereotypical

21

15.3

11.6

34

34.7

26

37.7

35

35

124

26.21

Favourable and
progressive

Total

137

69

98

69

100

473

N = 473

paper to paper. The Indian press has portrayed a mix

of favourable and unfavourable slants of the Muslims.
However, contrary to popular belief, the degree of
favourable slant is higher than unfavourable ones,
illustrating a change in the attitude of the press to the
sensitive issue of Muslims in post independent India.
RQ4. Does the frame used for Muslims differ among
different newspapers and did more stories frame
Muslims stereotypically?
The framing was categorised into progressive and
stereotypical where the reports treating Muslims as
fundamentalists, terrorists and intolerant were coded
as stereotypical whereas reports defending the rights
of Muslims to live in India, showing Muslims as
victims of communal riots than perpetrators, not using
terminologies like Muslim fundamentalists were coded
as progressive frame. The careful study of the entire stories
in all the newspapers revealed that as far as news reports
are concerned, the Muslims are framed progressively.
All stories follow an identical pattern reporting the
speeches of political leaders who have spoken a politically
correct language claiming themselves as the champions of
the largest minorities in Indiathe Muslims. The majority
of the reports only reinforced the views of politicians
who have conventionally considered minorities as their
vote bank with an eye on the elections. Therefore, the
Muslims in Indian press are framed progressively as over
90% of the stories are the regular news reports.
However, articles and editorials that constituted 2%
to 4% of published stories have a mix of stereotypical
and progressive frames of Muslims unlike news reports
where the majority of them have projected a progressive
frame. The articles and editorials continue to harp on
fundamentalism and terrorism as global issues illustrating
a stereotypical frame of the Muslim community. The
articles and editorials toe the path of western media,
particularly American, in the stereotypical frame of
Muslims. The dearth of articles, editorials and letters to
the editor in the mainstream press has not helped much
in shaping public opinion on Indian Muslims.
Nevertheless, the press is making endeavours to come
to terms with secularism in the Hindu majority society.
160

The wide coverage given to Bus Baby incident (July 2003)

involving an open heart surgery of two-year-old Noor
Fatima of Pakistan by Indian doctors paved the way for
winning the goodwill of the Muslims in India to a great
extent. Indian press slanted the stories of Noor Fatima
most favourably and the high visibility in the press that
generated peaceful marches, processions and prayers by
Hindu school children for the Muslim baby brought the
communities closer to each other.
Two major reportsone related to the Gujarat riots
and the other the Supreme Court verdict on the Aligarh
Muslim Universitys minority status dominated the
coverage of Muslims illustrating the favourable slant and
progressive frame of Muslims during the study period.
There has been a sea change in the attitude of the press
between the Babri Masjid incident of 6 December 1992
and the Gujarat communal riots of February 2002. The
press which let down the Muslims in the aftermath of
Babri Masjid incident and its invisibility in the coverage
of communal riots in the 1990s hurt the Muslim
sentiments. The failure of the Indian press in assuaging
the feelings of Muslims gave a free hand to foreign media
to internationalise minorities issue. Interestingly, the
Gujarat riots of February 2002 exactly after a decade,
seems to have changed the attitude of mainstream press
against Muslims. Unlike its language press counterpart, the
English press framed and slanted the Gujarat communal
riots heavily loaded in favour of Muslims during the study
period. The press portrayed Muslims as helpless victims
of Gujarat riots, exposed the failure of state machinery
during riots and was highly critical of the failure of police
to protect Muslims in Gujarat.
RQ5. Did the English press give low priority to
development issues of Muslims?
The Indian press has relegated the development issues
of Muslims to the background. The poverty ridden and
illiterate communitys development problems get low
coverage in the English press. The continued obsession of
the press with politics at the cost of development has further
alienated the Muslims from the mainstream population.
At the outset, the analysis shows that there was less
than 1% of news pertaining to Muslim women of which

Indian Media Framing of the Image of Muslims: An Analysis of News Coverage of Muslims in English Newspapers of India

0.6% and 0.2% had favourable and unfavourable slant

respectively. This negligible coverage illustrates the
stereotypical portrayal of Muslim women in Indian press.
Education of Muslims again got poor coverage in
the press where 8.7% had favourable slant and 4.7%
unfavourable slant. There was a stereotypical frame
branding the community as illiterate, backward and
fanatically promoting the Madrasa model of education
among Muslims.
RQ6. Is the word minority synonymous with
Muslims in press coverage?
According to the Indian constitution, minorities consist
of Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and
others like Parsis and Jews. As per the census, Muslims
constitute almost 15% of the population (150 million)
and is the largest minority community in India. The
coverage of Indian minorities except Muslims is very
low at 3.8% by the Indian press, illustrating that the
Muslims comparatively get more coverage than all the
other minorities put together.
The Indian press is believed to perceive minority
as synonymous with Muslims and uses both the
terms interchangeably in the stories. However, all five
newspapers have shown significant difference in the use
of the term minority as synonymous for Muslims in
the headline and lead of the stories (x2 = 24.666, df = 4,
p < 0.001). It means to say that some newspapers have
conventionally used the descriptive phrase minorities
for Muslims but not all. Indian press no longer hesitates
to use the word Muslim in the headline or lead or both.
However, Indian public perceives the term minority
as synonymous with Muslims. More stories have used
the word Muslim (47.8%) in the lead whereas 41.4% of
stories have used minorities in both the headline and
the lead. In 8.7% of stories, the word Muslim has been
used in both the headline and the lead whereas it is only
in headline in 2.1% of stories.

Summary
The framing of Muslims illustrates that media
secularism is still vulnerable and the national English
press that has power to influence the government
policy and mould public opinion has to remove
blinkers in reporting communal issues and speak the
truth. Nevertheless, the study reveals that the press is
making endeavours to come to terms with secularism
in the Hindu majority society.
The study reveals that the degree of slant varies from
paper to paper. The Indian press has portrayed a mix
of favourable and unfavourable slants of the Muslims.
However, contrary to popular belief, favourable slant
is comparatively higher than unfavourable ones. The
national papers, the Indian Express and The Hindu, have
illustrated a favourable slant of Muslims.
There has been a sea change in the attitude of the press
between the Babri Masjid incident (6 December 1992)
and the Gujarat communal riots (February 2002). The
Gujarat riots tested the credibility of the Indian press.

Some of the mainstream Indian English dailies took a

radical stance of opposing communal and fascist forces
for the first time in the history of Indian press. The study
endorses this transformation.
Some of the English newspapers have framed Muslims
progressively in early and mid 2000 when both the state
of Gujarat and the central government were ruled by the
right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) political party
professing Hindutva. Confronting the ruling political
party both at the state and nation level by the English press
to defend the minorities is a milestone in the history of
Indian press that will go a long way in renewing the faith
of the minorities in the fourth estate. This is reflective of
secular tendencies in the media though it may not reflect
the opinion of the majority of Hindus in India who still
harbour a stereotypical image of Muslims (Narayana
Usharani & Kapur, 2009).
The Gujarat riots incident is therefore regarded as
a watershed in the history of Indian press where the
progressive frame and favourable slant of Muslims in
the major English dailies is a beginning of a long journey
to evolve a secular media policy unlike its western
counterpart that continues to profess a stereotypical
image of the Muslims, expressing widespread hostility
in the aftermath of 9/11.

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