Coverage of Panchayat Raj Institutions in Kannada Newspapers

Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs) are the local self-government system to implement and monitor the rural development schemes by the government and to guarantee holistic development in villages. The conventional contribution by PRIs has changed the structure of villages to a greater height and influenced the public socially, politically and economically. Media being a mediator between public and the government sector plays a crucial and momentous role in creating space for panchayat by creating awareness regarding the government schemes for maximum reach. Newspapers traditionally cover the issues to ensure development at grassroot but the recent developments put forth a need to look into the vested interests of today’s newspapers. The paper tries to explore the total space given to PRI issues and also analyze the space given to women related issues in PRIs.