Reformation of Indian Business Press after Economic Reforms: A Comparative Study of Three Business Newspapers

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine how different business newspapers has changed their content after the advent of economic reforms in India over the past 30 years. A content analysis of 352 issues of three different business newspapers with the highest readership according to the IRS, 2017 showed that between 1991 and 2021 the nature/type of news stories has changed significantly.Findings revealed that over the past three decades Indian journalists have redirected their attention away from broad national economic issues toward greater coverage of individual corporations and MNC’s. The major portion in all the newspapers altogether has been devoted to business news stories with M= 60.75 in the past 30 years. The comparative analysis suggests that business newspapers such as Economic Times and Business Line have marginalized economic news about government policies, infrastructure, poverty, unemployment, retail, trade policies and business laws over corporate and financial news. In contrast, the newspaper Business Standard supported an absolute positive relationship with upward slope indicating an increase in the coverage of economic news stories.Consequently,findings revealed a statistically significant interaction between the effects of time period and different business newspapers on certain type of news stories with p < 0.05. Also, newspapers like Economic Times and Business Line suggest the possibility that India’s business newspapers may have turned to corporate advertisers for financial support and, as a result, may have short changed public concerns by marginalizing issues about the economy-in-general.