Balancing Act: The Contribution of the Newspaper in Education Programme to The Hindu's Social Responsibility & Business Goals

Newspaper in Education (NIE) is a worldwide partnership between schools and the newspaper industry, to promote the use of newspapers in the classroom. Newspapers are used as a teaching tool and as an educational resource, to promote basic literacy and to inculcate the reading habit in children. (WAN, NAA, 2003) Under the NIE banner, newspaper organizations typically deliver copies of the publication to schools at a subsidized rate, to enable teachers and educators to have access to current affairs and information. They in turn, use the newspaper in the classroom as a teaching tool, while at the same time introducing children to the newspaper to inculcate the reading habit and help them develop critical communication skills.

Apart from this social benefit that the newspaper provides, there is a marketing component to the NIE programme. By introducing children to the newspaper at an early age, there is a strong possibility that the children will grow up to become subscribers to the paper, thereby contributing to the increased circulation of the publication. Thus we see that NIE programmes have a public interest component as well as a self-serving, commercial purpose. There is a potential tension between the self-serving and public interest goals of newspaper organizations and it is essential to explore these goals in depth. Increasing the circulation of a newspaper is not merely an exercise in profit making, but is essential for a newspaper to be financially independent. Freedom of the press depends on this financial independence.

The purpose of this research is to analyze the NIE programme of The Hindu, one of India's leading national dailies, and to explore the ways in which the NIE programme contributes to the organization's larger goals.

Before going into an analysis of the NIE programme itself, it is necessary to delve deeper into the issues surrounding the publication of a newspaper and to focus one's attention on the goals of a newspaper in relation to its obligations. Normative theories of the press point to a social responsibility towards the public. At the same time, being commercial undertakings, newspaper organizations have to survive in a competitive business world. These issues will be dealt with more fully in the following chapters. Suffice to say here that the press has a crucial role in building society. In its role as a watchdog of the public, a newspaper's primary purpose is to provide a public service, and fulfil its responsibilities to society by circulating information and public opinion.

To enable the press to carry out its duties and responsibilities, it is essential that it is free from government and economic restrictions, which is why newspapers follow a particular business model for funding - editorial integrity is maintained by revenue from advertising and subscriptions. Theoretically, this business model ensures freedom of the press.

However, with globalization and liberalization, the media environment in which the press functions has changed dramatically in India. Satellite television and the Internet have a major presence in India today, serving the entertainment and news industries. Newspapers have had to change their functioning to accommodate the needs of audiences increasingly demanding entertainment rather than news and information. This has been the result of a consumer culture that has grown and developed around the consumer goods and advertising industries fuelled by a capitalist economy. As a result, newspapers too, have begun to compete with newer media forms by becoming more market led and catering to the new entertainment needs of the public.

This shift in editorial policy from being news led to market led has resulted in some serious issues to debate regarding the role of the press. By becoming more market led, and under danger of control from advertisers and market pressures, newspapers stand to lose some of their moral purpose. With a media environment surrounding it more geared to entertainment, newspapers have a moral duty to continue their efforts to educate, inform and lead opinion rather than go the entertainment way. At the same time, they also have to conform to certain market pressures in the interests of the business. In such an environment, newspapers have to strike a balance between their social responsibility and their business goals, and find different ways of doing so. Some newspapers in India today have become increasingly market oriented (Sainath, 1999, Seth, 2001) not only because of the demands of consumers but also because they themselves belong to larger conglomerates, which have the resources to diversify into entertainment. The Times of India (TOI) is one such paper, (Ninan, 2003) owned by Bennet, Coleman and co., a holding company with diversified media interests. News Corporation's Star TV is another media organization with an extensive presence in the subcontinent. (Sanghvi, 2003) However, a number of newspapers in the country such as The Hindu are family owned businesses and they still have to exist and survive in a competitive media environment that is dominated by the entertainment industry.

In addition, India has seen a growth in the middle class, strongly entrenched in the new era of consumerism, with greater purchasing power as a result of the opening up of the market place. Children in this generation in India are being exposed more to a consumerist culture and the media industry that caters to it. There is a need for children to be introduced to more serious media content in addition to entertainment, and it is vital for media companies and in particular the press, to ensure that they spend more resources on building up their product to strengthen their social responsibility. The values of entertainment, among them, sensationalism, have entered the news media and the press needs to find a balance between its responsibilities and catering to the demands of the public.

Thus the primary goals of a newspaper are its social responsibility to the public, as well as internal business goals of increasing circulation and profits. This research analyzes how The Hindu's NIE programme contributes to these goals. This has been done by examining the points of view of the people involved in its production. The different professional motivations, ethics and goals of newspaper staff as a result of differing professional ideologies further highlights the tensions between social responsibility and business goals.

Chapter two will review the relevant literature on the issues detailed above. It will also detail the conceptual framework of the research and clarify the research question.

Chapter three will detail the research design and methodology used in this project.

Chapters four and five will outline the framework of the analysis, as well as its results, with one chapter analyzing the interviews conducted, and the other chapter analyzing a regular column published in Quest, the published product of the NIE.

Chapter six will discuss the results of the research, reviewing key findings in the context of the research question as well as the theoretical framework.

Chapter seven concludes the report, highlighting key insights and theoretical, methodological and empirical implications of the research, including possibilities for further research.

Contact:

For the full report, please contact Mandira Moddie m_moddie@yahoo.com