Dept. of Mass Communication, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, U.P., India.
In recent years, the emerging dominant trends in the media industry, especially the move towards bigness and profit prioritization has made the print media market driven. The move towards more sensationalist and celebrity-driven journalism are clearly visible in the coverage of the media. This strengthening market orientation at the cost of public service orientedness of the Indian print media is increasingly engaging the public in a debate about standards and ethics of journalism. In the new scheme of things, crime stories, as it seems, are getting prioritized in the agenda of the print media despite the occasional displeasure against such coverage expressed by sections of the society. Despite contradictions, majority of research studies have established that growing coverage of crime in the media have unpleasant consequences on the society, especially the younger generations. Against this strengthening perception, this study is an attempt to find answers to questions like, is the news media increasing its focus on crime stories? If yes, does it simply reflect the rising crime (as is perceived) in the society? Do crime stories really have any impact on the society? What drives news media's increasing coverage of crime? How do news readers sustain an appetite for journalistic reports of crime? What are the distinctive aspects of form or content that makes daily news reports of crime continuously interesting to the public? And what are the main crime types reported in the print media? The present study is intended to find out answers to many of the above questions and more by tracing down the trends in coverage and representation of news related to crime and criminals in two well established national English dailies, i.e. The Times of India and The Hindu.
