Coverage of Issues Related to Sexual Violence: Comparative Study of The Indian Express and The Times of India

Newspapers are considered the important platforms to mobilize and sensitize the people regarding different social issues. The issues of the women, their rights and atrocities meted out against them, need to be raised in various forums including the newspapers. This study is aimed at understanding news media’s agenda on issues related to women with specific reference to sexual violence meted out against them. To analyse the coverage of the issues relating to sexual violence against women, two mainstream national English dailies. The Indian Express and The Times of India were purposively chosen. The systematic random sampling technique was employed to select the contents published in the newspapers between 01 January to 30 June 2017. It was revealed that the newspapers had given more prominence to negative aspects of women’s issues and presented their image as a consumable product. There has been a little variance in tonality and resonance of reporting between the two newspapers under study. The findings also reveal that there are numerous incidents of sexual harassment against women to which the newspapers paid scant attention and it seems that they are not in the news agenda. Most of the times, the news stories pertaining to women’s rights were presented in negative frames.