Coverage of Crime News by Indian Regional Language Television Channels

Indian Television has been bombarded with many 24 hour news channels which have a mix of factual news and exaggeration. This paper analyzes the presentation style of crime news which is a major genre and its impact among the viewers. Prime time news bulletins of two Tamil language channels were taken for the analysis. Hundred and fifty viewers of TV news were surveyed and few experts were interviewed. The study revealed that the coverage of crime news is relatively high when compared to other current affairs. Crime news appears longer and is placed in the second segment of the bulletin. The news is explicit and details the act of crime, the suspects and shows off the dead bodies. Consequences of the incident were rarely shown. Viewers instruct their children to avoid seeing such visuals. Visual/sound effects such as mask, mosaic and mute could reduce the negative impact among the audience.