This dominance was intact among panellists invited to participate in debates. General category panellists were preferred for other discussions on business, economy and international affairs. Panellists from OBC categories were invited predominantly to discuss issues related to religious identity, communal politics, and caste and tribal issues.
Even then, only five percent of panellists discussing caste and tribal issues were from marginalised communities.
What about the number of discussions on caste issues?
NDTV had the highest number of Hindi debates on caste and tribal issues, but it was still a woefully low 3.6 percent of its total debates. English debates on caste issues fared equally poorly, with India Today having the most at 2.6 percent. In contrast, 13 percent of India Today’s debates in English were on religious and communal issues.
Digital
Digital news portals, seen as the new, shiny alternative to legacy media, also contain bylines dominated by journalists from the general category. Nine websites were surveyed: EastMojo, Firstpost, Newslaundry, Scroll, the Wire, the News Minute, Swarajya, the Mooknayak, and the Quint.
Importantly, alternative digital media outlets like EastMojo and Mooknayak fared better in terms of reports written by people from marginalised caste groups.
Nearly 69 percent of English bylines in Newslaundry were by journalists from the general category, followed by Firstpost (61.9 percent) and Scroll (54.7 percent). Mooknayak was an exception, with only 33.3 percent of bylines from the general category. Fifty percent of the portal’s leadership positions are from the SC community, followed by News Minute with 25 percent.
Overall, over 55 percent of writers in digital media were from the general category, and less than five percent from SC or ST communities.
Recommendations
If the situation hasn’t changed in four years, how can it change four years in the future?
Based on interviews with marginalised communities, the report said a “mere change in leadership position will not address the issue. Representation should be ensured at all levels to bring about a democratic transformation.” It also suggested organisations bring out annual diversity reports to make media houses “more accountable” and conduct “uniform and transparent” recruitment processes.
On a larger level, it suggested introducing “affirmative policies in the news industry for marginalised groups as done by the Indian government” and constituting a body to oversee diversity in newsrooms.
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