Empowerment in the headlines : How three Indian newspapers report on gender inequality

Abstract: India is the world’s largest democracy, one of the fastest growing economies and an enormous market for newspapers. It is also a country with deeply rooted gender biases where women are highly discriminated and marginalized at all levels of the society. The media is considered an important agent of power. Therefore this study focuses on how and to what extent the three Indian newspapers Hindustan Times, The Hindu and Times of India report on and approach gender inequality and women’s empowerment issues. How do journalists look upon their role and the role of the press in the women’s empowerment process? A quantitative content analysis was performed during five weeks (October 18 –November 21, 2010) and 69 articles that highlight gender inequality and women’s empowerment were found, collected and coded. This content analysis is combined with a qualitative method. Two informant interviews and six respondent interviews with journalists are included in the study. The most common main topics of the articles found were Law and amendments, Women’s movement, Political power, Reproductive health and Development. Five out of six interviewed reporters believe that their newspapers have a major impact on its readership and all six respondents were of the opinion that their newspapers encourage reporting on these matters. Although they believe that media’s overall influence is limited. The Hindu and Times of India report more on gender inequality and women’sempowerment issues than Hindustan Times does and some of the respondents express that The Hindu promotes development journalism more than the other two newspapers do.