Media and religion: Media framing of significant religious issues in English Newspapers of India

The relationship between media and religion is a long-debated academic subject. Framing and mediatization are often observed while representing religious news issues in media. The present study has taken three long-standing and politically driven religious issues of India -the Ayodhya dispute, the Sabarimala temple issue and Triple Talaq. The objectives of the study were to analyze newspaper coverage of religious news issues and media framing of them. Findings showed that all three newspapers give prominence to religious news coverage. However, the analysis showed that newspapers frame religious news extensively. Ayodhya dispute was provocative and highly framed, the Sabarimala temple issue lacked a journalistic code of ethics, and Triple Talaq was politically motivated and underreported. Quantitative content analysis was performed on religious news stories. The study suggests reinforcement of news values, media secularism and well-defined media policy in reporting religious news issues in mainstream media.