Coverage of Northeast India in the Indian Mainstream Media: A Study of the Perception of Northeast Indians Living in Bangalore

Coverage of Northeast India in the Indian Mainstream Media: A Study of the Perception of Northeast Indians Living in Bangalore

The research is on Coverage of Northeast India in the Indian Mainstream Media: A Study of the Perception of Northeast Indians Living in Bangalore. Northeast refers to the eastern most region of India consisting of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim. The motivation to conduct this research has come from a viewable communication gap about the Northeast public in the mainstream or the national media. The hypothesis for this paper is media is not successful in giving the right picture of Northeast India to the rest of the country thereby making people from Northeast unsatisfied with the amount of media coverage or the kind of media coverage they receive. This study uses a quantitative method and data was collected with the help of the research tool, questionnaire. This study was conducted in Bangalore in the year 2009 - 2010. Through this research it has been found that Northeast Indians think that they are not given adequate space and time by the Indian mainstream media and they are covered mainly during insurgencies thereby giving a wrong image of their region. Northeast Indians are also using alternative media options like social networking sites and blogs to reach out to the masses in the absence of mainstream media interest. It has also been found that Northeast Indians feel that fellow Indians do not know much about them and their region and they are treated as foreigners in their own country.

Basnett Pooja

Media Studies