The Representation of Dalits’ Movement in Print Media: An Analytical Study of English National Dailies

Abstract

The research is about the control and reflection of ruling ideology in state owned and private or elite run print media. The research takes the news coverage during the Dalits' Movement and analyzes them as content analysis. It selects texts from English National Dailies i.e. The Rising Nepal and The Kathmandu Post about the Dalits news coverage from 11th July 2007 to 22nd August 2007. The thesis claims that the news coverage of Dalits' movement in both the media was governed, controlled and mediated by the state ideology. Since The Rising Nepal depends upon government in terms of regulation and funding it remained biased thus failed to provide adequate voices to the subaltern uprising. Similarly the private media like The Kathmandu Post could not sufficiently make justice to the subaltern cause because of the censorship or the state ideology that was imposed upon it. Dalits' news coverage in media thus remained miserable, stereotyped, ideologically contaminated and the Dalits' movement misrepresented. With the support of wide range of concepts, concerning ideology, power, discourse, politics etc., the study proves that print media simply became an Ideological State Apparatus and remained indifferent to the powerless people and community like the Dalits.