A STUDY OF THE LABOUR BEAT IN ENGLISH PRINT MEDIA IN MUMBAI (1982-2002)

A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters in Communication and Journalism

Of UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI By ASHA GOPALKRISHNAN

September 2006

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...v ABSTRACT .vi CHAPTER ONE 1.0 INTRODUCTION ........1 1.1 Preview of other chapters ..2 CHAPTER TWO 2.0 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND LITERATURE REVIEW ....4 2.1 Role of Media ...4 2.2 Liberalisation in India and the changing role of media ....8 2.3 Press in Mumbai ...9 2.4 Definition of a Beat in Journalism ...10 2.5 Labour Beat in Journalism ......10 2.6 Goals of the study ...11 CHAPTER THREE 3.0 BACKGROUND OF LABOUR .12 3.1 Indian Labour Movement ...12 3.2 Definition of labour ......14 3.3 Indian Labour Market and Labour Market in Mumbai .......16 3.4 Labour beat - A cause of worry globally ........17 3.5 Nature of stories that make news .....18

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CHAPTER FOUR 4.0 BACKGROUND OF UNIONISM .20 4.1 Definition of a trade union ..20 4.2 Two aspects of trade unionism ...............20 4.3 Trade unionism today (post liberalisation) .22 4.4 Strike and Lockouts ................24 4.5 Media coverage given to strikes .25 4.6 Unionism in Media .....27 CHAPTER FIVE 5.0 BACKGROUND OF TEXTILE INDUSTRY .......29 5.1 Textile industry in India .29 5.2 Bombay Textile Strike (1982-1983) ..............30 5.3 History of the strike 31 5.4 Effect of the strike ..32 5.5 Media coverage given to the strike .....33 CHAPTER SIX 6.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ....36 6.1 Introduction .................36 6.2 Research Question ..36 6.3 Research Design ..36 6.4 Data Collection ...37 6.4.1 Parameters used to analyse data ...39 6.5 Coding Process ....45 6.6 Interviews ....45

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6.7 6.8

Physical Problems

location encountered

of during

the the

study research

.47 .47 CHAPTER SEVEN 7.0 DATA ANALYSIS AND OBSERVATION .....48 7.1 Introduction ............48 7.2 Table wise explanation ...................50 7.3 Observations ...................54 CHAPTER EIGHT 8.0 CONCLUSION .......57 8.1 Further scope of research ....60 REFERENCES .....62

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to express my gratitude to my Head of the Department, Mr. Sanjay Ranade, my professor, Ms. Suchitra Inamdar and Mr. Sameer Deshpande, who have inspired and guided me, for undertaking this project. I also want to thank my family members, who have supported me morally and financially for this research project. Thanking you, Asha Gopalkrishnan

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research is to discover if labour as a beat exists in the English print media in Mumbai. Labour is an important part of our society and issues related to labour are therefore vital. Media is considered as a reflection of the society and the mention/reflection of labour related issues in the print media is essential. Print media has several beats like crime, politics, business, sports, entertainment etc and labour was one such beat in the 80s. My research tries to establish if this beat still holds its place in the English print media in Mumbai by tracing the coverage given to labour issues over a period of 20 years, keeping the coverage given by print media to the Bombay textile strike (which happened in 1982-1983) as a benchmark for my study. In order to derive answers to my research question Has labour as a beat disappeared from the English print media in Mumbai? I used both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. I have chosen The Times of India (Mumbai edition) as a representative of English print media in Mumbai and I have analysed the newspapers from 1982-2002 to find the change (if any) in the nature of coverage of labour related issues. There is scope for further research on the basis of my research, as I have restricted my research to the English print media in Mumbai. An analysis of the labour coverage with respect to the Indian media could be one of the major aspects for further research. My vi

study answers my research question and raises many more thereby leaving room for further in depth research.

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CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Born and brought up in Dadar (Mumbai), I lived in areas surrounded by mills. The adjacent Bombay Dyeing Mills seemed like a landmark for my area. Workers queuing up for their shift timings were a common sight. Sirens symbolizing accidents in mills and the constant ringing of bells of the fire brigades were a part of the daily routine. I was accustomed to the frequent strikes by workers, their acrimonious slogans and banners that blurted their agitation against the management. Labour, Mills, and Trade unions were terms that frequently made its presence felt in day-to-day conversations. Somehow the whole issue of trade unionism was a matter of concern. They always made news as their issues were largely addressed and reported. The grit and determination of the union leaders created history. The media reported substantially on the unions and labourers. While pursuing my Masters in Communication and Journalism, I began to read the newspapers carefully and realized that the importance given by print media to labour (in terms of coverage) has drastically reduced. Labour like politics, crime, business, entertainment etc was covered as a separate beat in newspapers till the early 90s. However, by 1995, it no longer remained a separate beat and today its existence is in question. The declining coverage of labour issues in print media in Mumbai and furthermore the reasons for the disappearance of the beat, roused my interest in this topic of research. What led to this change (decline) of coverage in labour issues? Does labour as a beat exist anymore in the English print media in Mumbai? These were the key questions that motivated this thesis. Subsequently other related questions followed: If labour beat (from English print media in Mumbai) had disappeared or had been scrapped, what were the reasons for the same? Did liberalisation play a role in changing the kind of coverage that was given to the working class? How are the issues of labour tackled today? Has media become insensitive towards these issues? My research answers these questions and raises many more.

In order to derive whether labour coverage has declined or not, I first needed to establish the coverage that was given to labour issues at one point of time. For the same, I chose to begin my research keeping the coverage given by the English print media to Bombay textile strike, as my benchmark, as the Bombay textile strike marks the history of labour movement in Mumbai. The significance of labour movement, particularly the Bombay textile strike cannot be forgotten with respect to the struggle of the labour. As the Bombay textile strike happened in 1982-83, I had to study the coverage given to it back then. For this, I chose to go through the newspapers of over 20 years (1982-2002), trying to analyse the coverage given to Bombay textile strike, so as to determine the present nature of coverage given to labour related issues. My research is restricted to the print media in Mumbai for which, I have taken The Times of India (TOI) - Mumbai edition, as my sample for data collection, as TOI was/is the highest in terms of circulation and readership. Data analysis followed by in-depth interviews with journalists (who were labour correspondents) gave me an insight to the facts, the changes in Mumbai print media and the problems associated with it, thereby helping me derive conclusions. In this research, Ive also quoted some cases, which establishes the global importance of this research.

1.2 Preview of other chapters My research aims to find out the existence or importance of labour beat in the English print media in Mumbai. But before any further discussions, I need to give a context for my study, for a better understanding of my research question and its conclusions. In the next chapter I explain in detail the theoretical framework and the literature review. In this chapter, apart from defining a beat and more specifically a labour beat, I discuss the role of media on the whole and also the changes in media in the wake of liberalisation. After providing a theoretical framework for my research, in the third chapter, I proceed to give a background of the labour movement in India. It is important as the past and present

scenario of labour movement in India is crucial in understanding the outlook of media towards the labour movement and largely on labour. In the fourth chapter, I describe unionism in India. Right from defining a trade union to analyzing what kind of stories make news, I have incorporated various aspects like strikes, lockouts etc. I have also discussed in this chapter the kind of media coverage given to strikes and even mentioned about unionism in media. This part is very essential as it reflects in my conclusion. I have dedicated the fifth chapter strictly to discuss the Bombay textile strike that happened in 1982-83, as I have taken this strike as a benchmark for its coverage. Beginning with the facts about the textile industry in India and moving on to the causes and effects of the textile strike, I conclude by citing a research which was about the media coverage given to the strike. As this is very crucial to my research, I have drawn references from this research. I move on to explain the research methodology I used in my research. In chapter number six, I discuss my methodology at length even stating the problems I faced during my research. Chapter seven analyses the coded data and interprets the figures. I state my observations in this chapter pertaining to the data collected. I explain at length the conclusions I derived, in the eighth chapter. I also state the scope for further research on the basis of my conclusions.

CHAPTER TWO
2.0 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Role of Media The mass media constitute the backbone of democracy. The most important democratic functions that we can expect the media to serve are listed in an often-cited article by Gurevitch and Blumler (1990). These functions include surveillance of socio-political developments, identifying the most relevant issues, providing a platform for debate across a diverse range of views, holding officials to account for the way they exercise power, provide incentives for citizens to learn, choose and become involved in the political process and resist efforts of forces outside the media to subvert their independence (Gurevitch and Blumler, 1990). The power of media is inexplicable. The media can promote democracy by among other things, educating voters, protecting human rights, promoting tolerance among various social groups, and ensuring that governments are transparent and accountable. The media, however, can play antidemocratic roles as well. They can sow fear, division and violence. Instead of promoting democracy, they can contribute to democratic decay (Sheila S. Coronel). Media has been given a lot of power; the term fourth estate (with the executive, judiciary and parliament comprising the other three), signifies that the media are an important institution of a democratic society that serves as a watchdog of the other arms of government (Grace Rwomushana Agaba, 2004). But with this immense power, comes a huge responsibility. Having stated the importance of media, it must also be stated that it was the print media (initially), which gained this magnitude of respect. In spite of the various forms of mass media (such as print, television, radio, internet etc),

print media continues to be the oldest and has carved a niche for itself today. The newspapers have their strength because of the possibilities for in-depth analysis of issues, social or any other. Newspapers provide ample space for analysis of an issue, followed by discussions. However, there is a growing concern that the print media is not fulfilling these functions properly. McChesney (1997) points out that most newspapers in the developed world today are concerned with their survival rather than setting the news agenda. My research looks at this change in attitude of print media while covering certain aspects of the society (labour issues), which was a part of their agenda at one point of time (till late 80s).

2.2 Liberalisation in India and the changing role of media Since mid-1991, India has been embarked on economic reforms which aim - in the words of its government - to liberalize and globalize the economy. Not unlike many other developing and transitional economies, the main reform initiatives were undertaken after a fiscal and foreign exchange crisis which brought India to the verge of default on its foreign loans. Besides a stabilization program, both internal and international economic activity have been sought to be deregulated and liberalized. Internal liberalization included the dismantling of a complex industrial licensing system, opening up of a number of sectors previously reserved for the public sector to private investment, some divestment of stock in the state sector, and decontrol of administered prices. External liberalization measures included removal of non-tariff barriers to imports, reduction in import tariffs, removal of restrictions on - and active encouragement of - foreign investment, some freeing up of technology imports, and attempts to increase portfolio inflows. Apart from these changes that liberalisation brought about in different sectors, it also affected media organisations. Media has undergone a lot of changes post globalization. For the media in India, the liberalisation of the economy (1991), combined with a growing

population of literates, meant new opportunities for growth. The media, therefore, sharpened its focus on the interests and aspirations of the beneficiaries of economic liberalisation to bring in audiences whose numbers and profile would help it lure ever growing amounts of advertising. Indeed, if middle India did not want to know about the countrys underclass, neither did the advertisersthere was no potential market there (Smita Gupta, 2005). With reference to the same, Agaba (2004) in her research cites Curan (1979) and also adds his quote in the Historical Journal: Since sales were inadequate to cover the costs of producing a newspaper, it was the growing income from advertising, which provided the material base for the change of attitude from subservience to independence. The chief methods by which governments could influence the press a direct subsidy, official advertisements, and priority of intelligence were rendered less effective because proprietors could afford to do without them.The growth of advertising revenue was the most important single factor in enabling the press to emerge as the Fourth Estate of the realm. (Historical Journal 1975:721, quoted in Curran 1979: 196) In a country where death, disaster and poverty are the staples of everyday life, the word was out in the newsrooms that the emphasis was to be on feel-good stories, so that typically, a young executive reading the morning paper should arrive at work full of beans and good humour, ready to tackle his work; death and disaster should figure only when the story was really big or sensational, and its negative elements could be offset by the blood, gore and drama of an action filmin short, if it had an entertainment component. From 1991, the media in India grew at a phenomenal pace. The print media invented the

concept of infotainment to ensure that it would continue to get a substantial share of the advertising cake (Smita Gupta, 2005). For example, as respondent no. 1 (a journalist whom I interviewed for my research), said, In 1991, our editor kept telling us Do sunshine stories... You must do happy stories Stories that reflect how happy and good the economy is, but the stories that we were doing, about textile mill workers were not sad stories, they were facts. In 1991 it was not just the economy that was restructured the media too became corporate. The control of the media vested with the corporates of the media. And there was an unspoken and unwritten kind of a thing that the media was now focusing on the happy side of the economic restructuring. Issues like trade union, movements, factories closing and all became a thing of the pass, (Interview with respondent no. 1). The perspective with which the print media organisations today look at different stories has changed as they no longer serve only the interests of the public. Agaba (2004) cites media observers like Picard (1989) and Napoli (1997) who note that media organisations have to serve the interests of four distinct groups; media owners, audiences, advertisers and media employees. Picard (1989:9) in particular observes that owners want high rates of return on their investments and company growth; audiences want high quality products and services at a low price. In turn, advertisers want access to their target customers at a low price and high quality services from the media employees while employees expect fair compensation. All the four groups that are involved in media production and consumption at one stage or another expect value for their money and time. Media has changed its priorities and now-a-days, it serves the interests of the market forces and not the public, (Interview with respondent no. 1).

This change in the attitude of the media is a global concern. Grace Rwomushana Agaba (2004) in her research An exploration of the Effect of Marketdriven Journalism on The Monitor newspapers Editorial Content discusses how The Monitor the only independent newspaper in Uganda has started catering to the market forces, thereby affecting the editorial content. With increasing competition, media has stretched itself to the limit. But this increasing competition does not seem very healthy, as Sheila S. Coronel has observed in her study that the market and the race among media firms for audience and market share can degrade the quality of media reporting. The competition for the market has meant that the media in most new democracies have succumbed to the global trend of dumbing down the news. The stress on glitzy effects leaves no time for serious and in-depth discussion of the issues that matter. The result is that public discourse is dumbed down as well, as both officials and citizens respond to the infotainment type of news they get (Sheila S. Coronel). With entertainment rather infotainment taking precedence over other critical aspects of our society, my study looks at a small but important part of this transformation. CORRECTION DONE TILL HERE. TAKE OVER FROM HERE Media scholars like John McManus have advanced to note what is called market-driven journalism. McManus (1994) argues that the logic of market-driven journalism is the logic of the marketplace. He points out that the media environment has become too competitive to support media companies pursuing traditional journalism with the separation of newsgathering and the state of advertising, sales, production and distribution (McManus 1994:3). He further notes that successful editors must integrate the business and news sub-divisions, as well as become marketing experts. Eventually, he argues that the media should change or they will be changed. McManus (1994:5) sets

out the market-driven journalism model and argues that commercial news production is heavily dictated upon by four sources of finance. According to him, readers trade their attention; sources trade their information; advertisers pay for their potential customers; and owners contribute capital and expect to reap profits.

2.3 Press in Mumbai Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra and the financial hub of India, is a city which is bursting at its seams, not only in terms of population, but also in terms of issues. Every industry, every section of this city is growing and with this fast paced growth, comes a lot of problems, which need to be dealt with at the earliest. Media as an industry has expanded too. With this expansion, comes a lot of power, but one often forgets that with a lot of power, comes responsibility. Media is vested with the responsibility of functioning objectively in this dynamic city. Today, despite the mass medias propensity for sleaze, sensationalism and superficiality, the notion of the media as watchdog and as guardian of the public interest remains deeply embedded. But Mumbai is getting commercialized with every passing day. This commercialisation has crept into the lives of most of the people living in Mumbai. The press in Mumbai has to take notice of the several developments, all happening at one go. The print media in Mumbai has to keep pace with the progress of the city. Agner Fog (Working paper, 2004-05-20) discussing the developments on the media market, addresses commercialisation by saying that advertisements are sneaked into entertainment as well as news stories. The distinctions between advertisements, news and entertainment are increasingly blurred. Audience groups with less spending money are not considered. The study also adds that due to commercial influence, advertisers and owners have influence on editorial decisions.

My research reveals that the print media is today dominated by the market forces. And in the bargain of catering to the market forces, the print media is compromising on several hardcore issues especially related to labour. The newspapers are supposed to be a reflection of the society, but looks like this mirror has stopped reflecting the true image. Either our society is a very happy society or probably the reflection is flawed and the probability is stronger for the latter. My research tries to establish the fact that the issues related to labour or the working class are important and therefore there needs to be a beat specifically assigned to cover it.

2.4 Definition of a Beat in Journalism Since all issues of any society are not of the same nature, they need to be written about in separate sections and also addressed differently. Aspects of the society are categorically divided as civic, business, crime, politics, entertainment etc, and one such category was specifically allotted to labour issues (till the early 90s). When issues of the same category are reported consistently, it forms a beat. It is defined as the type of journalism that a reporter covers on a consistent basis (http://freelancewrite.about.com/od/glossary/g/Beat.htm). When a journalist is assigned a beat, he writes on the various dimensions of the beat. Building sources and keeping a track of every development concerning the beat he covers, is the job of the reporter. When a journalist is assigned a beat, it is his job to follow stories concerning that beat. He puts forth the problem, analyses it by getting in as many perspectives as possible and leaves room for discussions. Beats in journalism are created as per the occurrences in the society. Every page of a newspaper is assigned a bifurcation and news pertaining to that page is thereby printed. The pages in a newspaper are bifurcated as city page, national page world page, business page and sports page. It becomes easy to place a news item in the created section. This pattern makes reading newspaper a lot easier and the same method is

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followed in assembling news too. In order to find and collate news of the same nature, beats have been assigned in journalism.

2.5 Labour Beat in Journalism Labour was a prominent beat in journalism till the late 80s. All the labour issues, especially the Bombay textile strike were written about regularly and at length. But over a period of time (especially post liberalisation), things have changed and my research proves that labour as a beat has disappeared from the English print media in Mumbai. Labour issue these days hardly finds a mention anywhere, as there are no takers for this piece of news. During the Bombay textile strike, there were many journalists who were assigned to labour beat to track down the day to day developments and happenings of the strike. Now even if a journalist wants to cover labour, there is no room for such writing as it is a general perception that with the closure of the textile mills, labour per se has disappeared.

2.6 Goals of the study This study has two goals. First to find out if labour as a beat exists in the print media in Mumbai. And if the beat has indeed disappeared (which this study proves), then through the second goal, this study tries to find the reasons for the same. This study is restricted to the English press and concentrates strictly on the city of Mumbai. And speaking of the English press, this study chooses to restrict itself to the Times of India to collect reports for further analysis. As a point of entry and focus, I examined newspapers of 20 years (The Times of India) from 1982 to 2002 for labour related reports. To get an overall picture and also the reasons, I conducted in depth interviews with veteran journalists

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who, during their career have covered labour as a beat and this formed the second part of my study.

2.7 Research Methods My research analyses the labour beat in English print media in Mumbai. To achieve this, I employed both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods and further conducted in depth interviews with journalists in order to understand their perspectives about the current trend of coverage given to labour related issues. My first goal (as mentioned in the previous section) was achieved by collecting data (which included reports related to labour over a period of 20 years) and coding it. The second goal was achieved by conducting interviews on the basis of the data collected and analysed. A detailed explanation of the methodology is presented in chapter number six.

CHAPTER THREE
3.0 BACKGROUND OF LABOUR
3.1 Indian Labour Movement

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The labour movement is the oldest social movement seeking to transform society in the name of universal values, with the objective of creating a society that meets the needs and aspirations of all human beings. The fundamental value, from which all others are derived, is a sense of dignity of the human being: that is a value stronger than even survival since people are prepared to die for it. (Dan Gallin, 2004) Labour Movement is best defined by G.D.H Cole, in, A short history of the British Working Class Movement (1789-1947). According to him, Labour Movement is a community of outlook. It is an organisation or rather many forms of organisations based upon the sense of common status and a need for mutual help. Mr. G.K. Sharma, in his work on Labour Movement in India, points out that the origin of labour movement lay in 1. The deplorable conditions of women and children in factories and 2. The governments attitude of complete indifference in respect of protection of labour from evils. The beginning of the 20th century gave a political undertone to workers consciousness and marked the commencement of the second phase of the Indian labour movement (1918-1946). In this stage, the Indian labour movement discovered itself, acquired all India stature and learnt first lessons of political trade unionism. This stage also gave birth to trade unionism, as it was during 1918-1921 that the industrial workers learnt to wage mass struggles over a large area and the increasing number of strikes led to the formation of trade unions of the industrial workers. Political factor also helped in the formation of unions. As workers were not in a position to lead themselves; this second phase of labour movement was largely a movement FOR the workers and not OF the workers, as others from outside felt the need to fight for the cause of the workers (G.K. Sharma) The importance of the Indian Labour Movement in relation to the National Movement (led by the Indian National Congress) has been very well quoted by B.P. Wadia, the

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founder of Madras Labour Union (MLU) (1918), the first trade union to be formed in India [MLU became the forerunner of trade unionism in India]. He wrote in 1921: It is very necessary to recognize the Labour Movement as an integral part of the National Movement. The latter will not succeed in the right direction of democracy, if Indian working classes are not enabled to organize their own forces and come into their own. The stage of the Indian labour movement (1947-1960) is an important phase, as it begins on the eve of Independence. In the immediate post war period, there was a lot of industrial unrest and violence. Several reasons were attributed to this, such as demand for greater participation in war profits, change in the political sphere in the labour field, change in the political context which created expectation in the minds of the workers etc. All this unrest led to an outburst in this stage, post independence. It witnessed a steep rise in the number of trade unions and its membership (G. K. Sharma) * The trade union movement is the most important component of the labor movement in its wider sense. It is the first, and often the last line of resistance; workers have to defend themselves and without it none of the other institutions of the labour movement could survive. It is also the most representative part of the labor movement. The labour movement is a multi-faceted social movement with a cause and a vision of society (Dan Gallin, 2004). * I could not get a more recent research on the Indian labour movement. He in his research states that the transnationality of the labour movement is rooted in the perception that workers constitute a class with a common cause. Because it has no vested interest in exploitation but, on the contrary, has a vital interest in its abolition for all people, the labor movement is not only a self-help movement of workers, but also the liberation movement of humanity.

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The Indian labour movement, which at one point of time was a strong force, has faded over the years. Today, the labour movement is as good as non-existent. Either because people do not relate to the labour movement anymore or because now-a-days, people increasingly have started feeling that they are not a part of labour force. They do not consider themselves as labour (Interview with respondent no. 2).

3.2 Definition of labour One of the many definitions of labour is A social class comprising those who do manual labour or work for wages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_market). This is the basic definition of labour. The labour law in India has no definite or uniform definitions of labour. Every labour law is different in context while deciding its applicability. A labour is therefore also termed as a worker, permanent, temporary, casual, badli*, employee, contract labour, bonded labour, underground worker, above ground worker, with and without skillette etc. (Dilip Maruti Dhiwal, 2002). There has been a systematic submergence of labour laws over a period of years, (Interview with respondent no. 4)

* badli is a workman appointed in post of a permanent workman or probationer who is temporarily absent In post-colonial India, labour was given the connotation of work in industry. The labourer as a social figure became linked to the modern economy, a direction in which Indian society was to develop at a rapid rate. At the start of the post-colonial era India had less than ten million industrial workers of whom considerably less than half were subject to a labour regime that could be called factorized (Jan Breman A study of Industrial Labour

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in Post Colonial India). Nevertheless, the literature described this small minority as the prototype of the labour force which was to determine the future of land and people. Jan Breman in his research, quoted Pant (1965) as, [...] their importance does not lie in numbers. This small section of the total labour force is important because growth and expansion of the economy depends, to a large extent, upon its attitude towards industrialisation. It being the only section where labour organisation exists and can grow easily it can influence the pace of change. It is this section which along with its problems will grow with the progress of industrialisation. (Pant 1965:12) Dilip Maruti Dhiwal in his Ph.D. thesis on Casualisation of Workmen in Industry explains the concept of labour as multi dimensional, from the economic point of view, it is a factor of production, from the political view, it is the ballet power and from the sociological view, it is the symbol of status. It is observed that labour is defined differently by different people. For some, labour is a connotation only for one who works in factories. But, I believe, factory workers are not the only ones who fall into the definition of labour, yet, due to this changing meaning of labour there is a conflict in the interpretation of the term. Now-a-days, it is below the dignity of an individual to call himself as a labourer. According to many, labour as a class ceases to exist. This kind of a thought process exists in the media too and hence they do not see the grave issues of labour. My research looks deeper into this in the chapter dedicated to discussion.

3.3 Indian Labour Market and Labour Market in Mumbai India having such a large workforce (labour force), it becomes difficult to segregate and do justice to the whole lot of organized and a larger lot of the unorganized sector. Organized is a term generally used when we refer to enterprises, in which more than 10 employees work together. The problem begins when we define the unorganized sector.

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It is an all encompassing sector and often called the residual of the organized sector. It is quite a paradox to call the unorganized sector the residual of the organized sector as the former constitutes 93% of our total workforce, while the latter forms a mere 7%. In order to demarcate the labour force, T.S. Papola and Mr. K.K. Subramanian (1975), necessitated the existence of labour market and defined it as: A system of allocating and pricing the labour services; Its function consists in matching workers and jobs and fixing the prices of various categories of labour in a manner that ensures required quantity and quality of labour supply, without, at the same time adversely affecting the demand of labour. The term labour market sounds sophisticated and complicated at the same time. But Dilip Maruti (2002) explains labour market in simple terms. He says that like any other commodity market, selling and buying labour is labour market. It has all the features of commodity market - buying and selling of labour, consideration, regulation and competition between employers and workers. It functions through the interaction of workers and employers. Labour economics looks at the suppliers of labour services (workers), the demanders of labour services (employers), and attempts to understand the resulting pattern of wages, employment, and income. The very fact that our labour force is vast, a lot of research is done on the labour market. L.K. Deshpande conducted a study on Bombay Labour Market in 1979 for World Bank, with a sample size of 6000 employees and non employees distributed into 5000 regular employees and 1000 casual workers employed in factory and small establishments in Mumbai. He theorizes in his study that segmentation of urban market begins in rural market/areas. He explains that 76 of the sample workers were migrants Due to lack of sectoral mobility the casual worker continues to be employed at the lowest rung of the socio-economic ladder in Bombay just as he was in the village. Thus in a sense, the segmentation of urban market begins in the villages.

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According to a research conducted by the Ambekar Institute of Labour Studies (1996), the labour market in Mumbai is not well integrated because of various barriers to mobility. The main source of supply of labour in Mumbai is from Uttar Pradesh, which forms about 16% of the wage earners. Next in line is the migration from Gujarat which forms about 9% of the wage earners and the southern region contributes about 10% of the wage earners. Overall, in Mumbai, the supply of unskilled labour is much more than the demand. I feel that for my research, these explanations of the term labour and labour market are quintessential, as it proves that labour still exists, unlike the common misconception of disappearance of labour after the closure of textile mills. Newspapers in Mumbai have shut themselves from the activities and issues of labour, as they feel that the labour class has disappeared, but they cannot avoid the issues of such a huge population, (Interview with respondent no. 5)

3.4 Labour beat - A cause of worry globally The disappearance of labour beat from the English print media in Mumbai is not only an issue in Mumbai; it is a cause of worry, round the globe. For example, early in the year 2005, Los Angeles Times (LA Times) scrapped its labour beat, which was followed by a lot of debate (http://takebackthetimes.blogspot.com/2005/12/san-fernando-valley-plantclosed-nancy.html). One well known labour correspondent, Nancy Cleeland working for LA Times, no longer has her beat, as labour beat has disappeared or rather scrapped from LA Times. Nancy Cleeland, who shared in a Pulitzer Prize (2003) for the series about Wal-Mart, no longer has her labor beat, and the Times will not have a replacement soon, according to Russ Stanton, the section editor. In 2003, Cleeland was one of several reporters on a three-part series about Wal-Mart's labor practices that won the Times a Pulitzer Prize. That, she had hoped, would convince her editors of the value of covering labor, but in the end it didn't,

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she said. They don't consider themselves hostile to working class concerns, but they're all making too much money to relate to the problems that working class people are facing," observed Cleeland (http://weblogs.jomc.unc.edu/talkingbiznews). There has been a lot of unrest on scrapping the labour beat and it is explicit from whatever is being said about it by experienced journalists. William Serrin, a former labor reporter at The New York Times, argues that most editors dont know or care about labor reporting. It was just something you had to have in the paper, like obituaries. Even when labor is covered, unions defending worker rights is called troublemaking, while the media like to tell workers to learn to live with layoffs. There are plenty of interesting and informative labor stories to cover that would give society a better picture of why unions are declining in membership and what many union leaders are doing to combat newly aggressive corporations and industries, but there are few media that want them, believes Serrin. My research findings also state that the priorities of the media organisations have changed and today, news pertaining to entertainment gets more value than hard core issues like unemployment, bonded labour etc.

3.5 Nature of stories that make news Connie Syomiti Kisuke (2004), in the research cites Hall et al (1978), who state that the moment of construction of news, involves presenting the news item to an assumed audience, in terms, which, as far as the presenters of the item can judge, will make it comprehensible to that audience, thus placing the news within a frame of meaning familiar to the audience. In the guise of catering to the audiences interest, the era has become entertainment centric. News is packaged differently and presented. Now-a-days, for most of the issues, quotes from celebrities are taken, even if they are not associated with the concerned matter (Interview with respondent no. 6). Three kinds of factors have been identified as influencing news coverage of events: the predispositions of news organisations or of particular reporters towards certain kinds of

19

events or issues, journalistic norms and standards for assessing the news value of events and issues and the mundane routines of producing news reports to deadlines (Daniel J. Myers, Pamela E. Oliver, 1999). There was a time, when before writing a story a journalist would have a background of the same ready. But today, it has become very mechanical and every story is treated in isolation without looking into its past. It is considered that labour related issues dont make news any more, as they do not cater to the interests of the readers. The issues of the textile workers after the closure of the textile mills were termed as sad and gloomy stories. A lot of issues have changed. Now it is all about real estate. But whats the point of writing about real estate? Everyone knows how much land is being sold, if you see the Times, the kind of stories that appear on the front page about x amount of land being sold at y and all, these kinds of stories never existed in those days. A land deal is a land deal; but now the land deals are news, (Interview with respondent no. 1). The next chapter gives a detailed description of trade unionism in India, its past and present. It discusses strike as a form of protest and thereby explains the relation of media and protests.

CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 BACKGROUND OF UNIONISM
4.1 Definition of a trade union

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According to the Trade Unions Act 1926, Trade union, means any combination whether temporary or permanent formed primarily for the purpose of regulating the relations between workmen and employers or between workmen and workmen or between employees and employers imposing restrictive conditions on the conduct of any trade or business and includes any federation of two or more trade unions. In simpler words, a trade union is a legitimate system for organizing workers and to voice their rights and grievances. It is a group of workers who act collectively to address common issues. Responsible unions help to create a middle path in the relationship between management and labour while maintaining the responsibilities of the former and the dignity of the latter.

4.2 Two aspects of trade unionism Debashish Bhattacharjee (1999) in his research cited Freeman and Medoff (1984), who examined the impact of unionism on the employment relationship in the US economy, contrasting the two faces of unionism: the monopoly versus the collective voice view. The first view analyses unions as large monopolies in the labour market whose basic objective is to increase their members wages above the market level by restricting labour supply. This wage mark-up leads to a misallocation of human and capital resources, and is therefore not only economically suboptimal, but may also be socially undesirable in that it leads to greater inequalities within the workforce. In addition, strikes of all kinds impose an easily measurable loss on the economy. In sharp contrast, the collective voice view asserts that unions have positive economic, political and social effects in pluralist democracies. The unions collective voice, determined by a median voter, provides management with information on workplace and shop floor issues, acting as a communication channel. This leads to the development and retention of specific skills, improves worker morale, provides conditions that eliminate quitting, and enables the union to pressure management to act fairly and efficiently in its daily operations. It is

21

believed that unionized work environments are more productive than comparable nonunionized environments. Finally, unions are socially beneficial as they represent the interests of lower income groups and vulnerable sections of society. This argument stands true for the Indian trade unionism. Trade unionism in India has gone through tumultuous changes in its manner of functioning. It has been party to the tripartite agreement of solving problems i.e. trade union, state and the management (till mid 60s). Till mid 1960s union voice effects were probably larger than monopoly effects, as both unionization and employment in the organized sector increased significantly. Unionism has taken different forms during times of industrial segmentation and inflation, when deceleration had adversely affected the level of employment in the economy (mid 1960s to 1979). It was a period when disputes had increased rapidly and there were break ups amongst the trade union. Although, it looked like the monopoly of the unions, the need of the hour was the inception of collective bargaining. As a result of dissatisfaction with the bargaining weakness of the traditional unions, independent unions arose to take over the worsening situation (1980-1991). The liberalisation in 1991, undoubtedly lead to more employment flexibility, greater decentralization in bargaining structures (especially in public enterprises) and hence less government intervention in the bargaining process, fewer strikes, and a possible halt to the fragmentation of the union movement (Debashish Bhattacharjee, 1999). Till the unions were centrally organized, they dominated the labour market. But with the decentralization of trade unions, their strength has reduced. The multiplicity of trade unions has led to the complexity of the problems of the workers. The trade unions need to be integrated for a stronger command and better functioning. The organized labour movement will have to come to terms with global competition, technology, new industrial organization and structural/demographic changes in the workforce. The earlier, relatively insulated, systems for regulating employment will have to give way to more market sensitive and flexible systems, ultimately even in the public sphere. Unions, especially in the service sector, will have to become sensitive to consumer needs. In the private sector, trade unions have adapted their structures in

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response to the decentralization of industrial relations, but these adjustments are painful and difficult in the public sector. There is no other way but to increase membership, which means organizing vulnerable workers in the informal sector. This is the most obvious way for unions to win broader community support. Finally, trade unions can only gain by cooperating and working together. Perhaps the new millennium will witness a series of mergers leading to a united and independent labour movement (Debashish Bhattacharjee, 1999). 4.3 Trade unionism today (post liberalisation) Mumbai, once an industrial center and the main employer of textile mills, with the closure of textile mills, became service oriented. The trade unions in these textile mills were the pillars of strength for the workforce. The common notion is that with the closure of mills, the chapter of trade unions is closed. Today, a great deal of talk revolves around 'development of the mill lands' and of Mumbai being converted into another Singapore or Shanghai. While these proposals promise benefits to industrialists, financiers, builders, property developers; the mill workers and other groups of the working poor are left to fend for themselves. Mumbai is to be converted into a financial hub, a service centre, as I mentioned earlier, but on the re-employment, re-skilling and housing of the workers there is a deafening silence. The sale of the mill lands is given more importance than the repercussions of the closure of mills on the lives of the workers, (Interview with respondent no. 10) But, the trade unions have an altogether different meaning in todays parlance. Trade unions have become synonymous to aggression, especially after the strike by the workers of the Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India Private Limited, Gurgaon and the subsequent lathi* charge by the police, on 25th July 2005, which made a lot of news. The incident wasnt a sudden upsurge, tension had been brewing for the past six months over complaints of ill-treatment of workers, including women, and increased workload. The workers were keen to form a union and they had applied for registration with the

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government. The registration process was almost through and the workers' decision to form the union met with tremendous resistance from the industry associations and the Honda management. In April, four workers were dismissed from service without notice. Following which, in May, the management suspended 13 workers and 37 more a few weeks later. The dismissals, which were by all counts illegal, were seen as part of a concerted design to break the unity of the workers. But the management's efforts failed. On June 27th, they were told that they would be allowed to enter the factory only if they signed an undertaking for "good conduct". The majority of the workers resisted the management's move. According to the management, the workers were on strike, but the workers claimed that it was an illegal lockout. On negotiations, the management, on July 17th put out a notice stating that it would take back workers in batches of 400. But on July 18 the number was scaled down to 100. The changing intentions of the management, led to frustration among the workers and thereby it resulted in violence, on the 26 th of July. The brewing conflict was never reported by media, though it was spread over a period of six long months. Any problem or conflict should be detected or discovered, before it becomes a big issue. If journalists are not able to unearth such rifts, what kind of journalism are they doing? Otherwise, journalism will be boiled down to mere reporting of events without any prior study or research, (Interview with respondent no. 4) * lathi means a stick in Hindi 4.4 Strike and Lockouts Protests never arise in a vacuum; they are a response to other events or problems (Pamela E. Oliver). Strike is a one form of protest. Strike is the mass refusal by employees to perform work due to certain grievances. If an agreement could not be reached, workers could strike, or refuse to work until certain demands were met. The counterpart to a strike is a lockout, in which an employer refuses to allow employees to work (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/strikes-lockouts). For a common man, a strike by trade unions (especially after the Bombay textile strike) might seem like a common occurrence, but it is an interesting fact that although, strikes in a factory or in an industry seems very frequent, the truth is that lock outs are actually more in number. A study by

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Ruddar Datt (1992), on the Lockouts, Closure and the role of the State, proves that the number of man days lost due to lockouts is much more than those lost due to strikes. According to the study, lockouts account for nearly 60% of the industrial man days lost in India, reversing the earlier trend. It was before Emergency that the labour strength was more than the employers, which was showcased by the continuous number of strikes. But post the Emergency period, the voices of the working class was muzzled out and employers militancy overpowered the labour strength. It can be appropriately described that lockouts are much severe in intensity and is an instrument of punishment/repression of the working class. It is derived that lockout is a private sector phenomenon. Awareness about this aspect of lockouts being more than strikes is not known to all. This happens due to lesser attention given to labour issues by media. There are several factors that are taken into consideration before the management decides for a lockout and in the process most of the situations are deliberate. In any kind of strike or lockout, apart from the union, management and the state (optional), media plays a very important role. Media is an integral part of this dispute.

4.5 Media coverage given to strikes As I mentioned above, trade unionism today has become synonymous to strikes and violence over a period of time, as it is largely strikes and violence that get highlighted by the media. Events generally have to receive media coverage to be significant, but those that receive coverage are a subset of the larger set of potentially-significant events, events that could have political influence if people knew about them. Pamela E. Oliver in her study states that the "selection bias" of the media is the process whereby potentiallysignificant events are excluded from media coverage. Characteristics of an event or issue affect the likelihood that the media will cover it,

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including

especially

its

size,

other

factors

affecting

its

"newsworthiness," and its fit with news routines and beats. At least one factor affecting media attention to an issue is newsworthy protests and demonstrations about the issue. Pamela Oliver in her research The Content and Timing of Media Coverage of Message Events: Cycles and Comparisons mentions that most research and theory in social movements are implicitly based on a very neat image of the relation between protesters, police, and media: protesters plan and carry out a protest event, police are caught by surprise by the event and attack or arrest protesters, and media report what happened in the confrontation. But this neat image is more wrong than right for the 1990s. Protesters, police, and reporters are more like members of an improvisational troupe: the script isn't fixed, but the players have worked together before, follow general guidelines, and can predict each other's actions. A protest event is thereby covered. Iyengar (1991) distinguishes thematic accounts which locate protest events in a larger context from episodic accounts which focus on the particular event in question, generally criticizing the mass media for too much episodic reporting and too little thematic reporting. Newspapers now-a-days cover events in isolation. A thematic form of reporting would enable a newspaper to put forth all perspectives of an issue and also conduct an in depth research of the conflict. If thematic reporting were applied by newspapers, then the brewing conflict in the Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India Private Limited, Gurgaon, would have been brought to the fore and the violence would not have been a stand alone. Journalists today are a comfortable class, who would not want to put in efforts to understand the core issue. They lack interest in labour issues, which back then (in 80s) were not the case (Interview with respondent no. 9)).

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The results of "selection bias" analyses in Pamela Olivers research found that events are more likely to receive media attention when they are larger; make claims, and involve conflict; are sponsored by business interests, nonprofit institutions, or event-specific groups; are not sponsored by religious groups; have local ties; involve vehicles; attract unexpected police action; occur at the Capitol or the University; occur when there are fewer other events occurring; and occur on some days of the week rather than others. This selection bias is the factor which determines the coverage of an event. If a newspaper organisation thinks the news is newsworthy, then it gets covered. The decisions are based on individuals reasoning. McCarthy, et al. (1996), in line with Snyder and Kelly (1997), found clear evidence of selection bias, and concluded that event size was the most important factor in determining if events got covered. This also includes the number of people involved in the event or protest. If they constitute a large number, then it gets the desired coverage. Many of the reports (that I got during my data collection) show that many small strikes were written about. The space allotted for those reports were (many a times) barely one column, but the fact is that it was reported. But today, the perspectives have changed and so has the social milieu. Now if a demonstration is held, the number of people present in the demonstration would matter more than the issue for which they are present, (Interview with respondent no. 9). The respondent says that irrespective of the gravity of the issue, the newspapers would still look at the numbers. He mentioned an incident where he says, I once informed my editor, about a demonstration being conducted at a particular place, but he told me that the number of people participating in the demonstration was too few and therefore, it does not make a good story. 4.6 Unionism in Media

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Unionism is a part and parcel of every sector, but the acceptance of such a union is the matter of concern. An individual cannot fight a system. One needs an institution to fight a system; one needs a system to fight a system. And trade unions are precisely needed for the same. In my research, I am talking about the disappearance of labour as a beat from the English print media in Mumbai. To understand the reasons for the lessening coverage of labour movement and trade unionism, I felt it was important to study the unionism in media. Journalists have their own unions like the Brihanmumbai Union of Journalists (BUJ), Indian Federation of Working Journalists (IFWJ), National Union of Journalists (NUJ), etc. The NUJ is essentially and primarily a trade union federation formed to improve or restructure the economic conditions of journalists by securing for them decent levels of wages and allowances, and equitable share in the prosperity of the newspaper industry, better working conditions and rights under the various labour and trade union laws. But like any other trade union, the union of journalists has also undergone a tumultuous change. At one point of time (in the 80s) the membership with the BUJ was very high (nearly 1000 members). The problems of the journalists were taken up by the union and placed before the management. Their issues were solved by the union. The journalists had a lot of problem with the management in terms of wages, working condition etc (Interview with respondent no. 8). As they often addressed (by resorting to unions) issues of a similar nature like those addressed by workers in textile mills or any other sector, journalists empathized with their problems and wrote about them too. But post liberalisation, the environment changed; the membership (in BUJ) started declining gradually. The governments provision for salary could not keep pace with the media industry and the wage board already appointed was over thrown by contract system. The contract system got was readily accepted by the journalists as they too prefer a higher pay package. As they are literally paid three times the amount they were paid at one point of time, they choose to remain silent not only on the issues within their organisations, but also about the outside world.

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Journalists were employed on a contractual basis, and over a period of time, journalists stopped associating themselves with the unions. The membership with BUJ dropped to about 150 members or so (Interview with respondent no 4). This detachment between unionism and media was reflected in the newspapers as there was a gradual decline in coverage of labour-management related issues or any labour conflict. This was one of the reasons for the disappearance of the labour beat from Mumbai print media. As the journalists today, do not comprehend unionism, they do not relate to the issues of unions in other sector. Today, unionism has been replaced by individualism, in newspaper organisations. "The death of unionism has led to the birth of professionalism in journalism, (Interview with respondent no 8). To engage younger readers with growing money power, TOI pumped lifestyle, fashion, films, sports and local news items into its news pages; these were written, generally, in the vocabulary of corporate India and Indipop. This culture was slowly adopted by most of the print media in Mumbai, in the guise of keeping up to the reputation of corporate India.

CHAPTER FIVE
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5.0 BACKGROUND OF TEXTILE INDUSTRY 5.1 Textile industry in India It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Bombay Textile Industry is the history of the Mill Industry in India -- Hubert Van Wersch (1992) In my research, I have taken Bombay textile strike as my benchmark, in terms of coverage given by the English print media in Mumbai, in order to analyse the change in the nature of coverage thereafter. Bombay textile strike represents the history of labour movement in Mumbai and therefore becomes a crucial and the best representation of labour in my study. Mill-made cotton textiles were Indias first modern industry, and this industry was what transformed Bombay from a sleepy colonial backwater to a robust industrial and trade centre, the motor of urban and regional growth until the 1950s, and a magnet for the masses of the subcontinent. In the twenties and thirties, Bombays cotton market was one of the largest in the world, comparable only to Liverpool and New York. Bombay was once upon a time called, Indias Manchester. India was the second largest producer of textiles globally, and ranked third amongst exporters of textiles. Even post liberalisation (mid - nineties), the production of textiles was Indias largest industry, after agriculture, accounting for about a fifth of total industrial production in the country. Supplying both the domestic and international markets, it was by far the largest earner of foreign exchange for the Indian economy, estimated at roughly 9 billion dollars. In the global market, India claims 3% of total world trade in textiles (Shekhar Krishnan, 2000) The textile industry in India covers a wide gamut of activities ranging from production of raw material like cotton, jute, silk and wool to providing high value-added products such as fabrics and garments to consumers. The textile industry plays a significant role in

30

Indian economy by providing direct employment to an estimated 35 million people (in 2001-2002), by contributing 4 per cent of GDP and accounting for 35 per cent of gross export earnings. The textile sector contributes 14 per cent of the value-addition in the manufacturing sector (http://www.rediff.com/money/2005/feb/11bspec.htm). Darryl DMonte (2002) says, it can therefore be said that the belief that textiles were the backbone of Indian industry persists. He quotes Jawaharlal Nehru: The history of cotton and of textiles is not only the history of the growth of modern industry in India, but in a sense it might be considered the history of India. Although, the textile industry in India is one of the largest industries, the Bombay textile strike in 1982-83 brought everything to a standstill in the 80s. Even now over two decades after the strike, the city is still recuperating from its loss.

5.2 Bombay Textile Strike (1982-1983) It is a matter of fact that all labour struggles are usually the result of conditions prevailing long before the actual stoppage of work, outbreak of a strike or any other demonstration of dissatisfaction of workers with the circumstances under which they have to toil and the Bombay textile strike is an excellent example of that (Hubert Van Wersch, 1992). In its relative failure, as it would have been in its success, the Bombay textile strike of 1982-83 had proved to be a watershed in the history of Indian labour. In almost two years long struggle, the textile workers in Bombay threatened to break down a carefully designed structure that straitjacketed them for over three decades. If the success of the strike would have heralded a new era in the history of Indian labour, its failure facilitated the spatial remaking of the city and its cultural transformation. The struggling workers of Bombay also understood to their dismay that how the ruling classes and industrial capital could unite to act against the economic rationality, as understood by the working class. Undoubtedly, the issues that the strike raised were not only numerous but also extremely complex for the historic interpretations (Hemant Babu, 2000).

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The outbreak of the textile strike was no mere accident or a simple case of inter-union rivalry but the result of accumulated frustrations among the textile workers built up over the years about wages, labour conditions and the performance of the Rashitriya Mill Mazdoor Sangh (RMMS) (Hubert Van Wersch, 1992). The Bombay textile strike lasted for a very long time, starting from 1982-83. It wouldnt be wrong to say that the Bombay textile strike has still not ended (Interview with respondent no. 3). The strike was officially never called off, so technically it is still going on, in spite of the closure of the mills. The workers today still bear the consequences of the Bombay textile strike. But contrary to what is commonly believed, the great majority of the workers did not expect the strike to last long and neither did the mill owners or the government anticipate its amazing duration. Against the workers firm conviction that the employers would have to given in soon, stood the employers belief that the strike was bound to collapse before long. Both sides were proved wrong. The weapon of the indefinite strike proved to be a double edged blade without a handle; the risks for those who wished to use it appeared to be no less than for those against whom the weapon was used (Hubert Van Wersch, 1992).

5.3 History of the strike Hubert Van Wersch (2000), in his research has looked into the details of the Bombay textile strike and with the help of in depth interviews with trade union leaders, representatives of the management and by using the reference material from different trade unions, has tracked the history of the strike:

Before the strike, the textile mill sector faced threat from 1. internal market (as power loom sector claimed a larger share of the market)

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2. international market (as Pakistan and China had a larger market share of textile production and Indias export declined) 3. poor capacity utilization 4. presence of obsolete machinery (which was due to government policy and the neglect of the mill owners) All this accumulated threat and causes like discontent among workers concerning the activities of the RMMS the sole representative of the textile workers under the Bombay Industrial Relations (BIR) Act 1946, led to the outburst in the form of strike. The favouritism practiced by the Sangh, in the times of recruitment and getting work done, in return of a share in gratuity (from the workers) and offering meager interest rates (for grant of loans) of about 7% - 8% to the supporters of RMMS and charging exorbitant rates to workers, were the reasons that the workers disliked the union to the core and wanted it to be scrapped. The strike which was thereby led by Datta Samant was fought for years together, before, it became history. The term biggest strike is somewhat obscure as criteria of scale and duration are being mixed up. Although, it is not difficult to find examples of strikes lasting longer than the officially acknowledged 18.5 months that the textile strike lasted or involving more people than the roughly 2.5 lakhs textile workers, it will be very hard to find examples matching both these records simultaneously. There may not be another example even in world history (Hubert Van Wersch, 1992).

5.4 Effect of the strike As every action has an equal and opposite reaction, similarly, the Bombay textile strike has its own repercussions, which once again is a history in itself. A research was conducted by The Ambekar Institute of Labour Studies, to understand the impact of the strike on the workers with respect to the workers earnings, social security, social and community life. It was found that strike is not just an economic struggle but a sociological phenomenon, expressing the aims and aspirations, fears and suspicion,

33

tensions and frustrations of workers. With opportunistic trade unionists, complacent employers and an indifferent government, the Bombay textile strike not only lost a battle, but also extinguished the spirit of the workers for a long time to come.

5.5 Media coverage given to the strike Bombay textile strike symbolizes the labour movement in Mumbai. Reports analyzing various dimensions of the strike were printed. Both the management and the labour side of the story were given. But with the impact of the textile strike fading away, media appeared to lose interest in both, the strike and the overall issues of labour. This coverage kept declining with every passing year and that labour issues beat in newspapers vanished. Hubert Van Wersch (2000) in his research, Bombay Textile Strike 1982-83 Workers Views and Strategies, has elaborately mentioned the role of press (print media). In his study, Wersch, analysed two English newspapers, The Times of India and The Indian Express (chosen on the basis of highest circulation) and two Marathi newspapers, Navakaal (newspaper largely read by workers) and Shramik Vichar (greatest influence on the workers), for over a period of one and a half years (18/1/82 - 2/8/83). During this period, only reports in which strike was mentioned explicitly were taken into consideration, others were excluded. His findings were that during the mentioned period were as follows: Publication The Times of India The Indian Express Navakaal Shramik Vichar Total no. of reports 240 (82) 400 (83) 100 (98) 207 (125)

*Figures in brackets indicate front page reports After analyzing the reports on qualitative terms, Wersch (2000) pointed out that:

34

1. Although, the number of articles in the English newspapers was more than those in the Marathi newspapers, the coverage and reportage in the latter was better in quality. 2. 3. He felt that the press did not give much attention to the historical strike. The pattern followed by newspapers was simple and it did not allow a comprehensive view of the situation. 4. The news published was fragmentary in nature and it was often biased in terms of sources. 5. He discovered that the reports published in The Times of India lacked interest in the workers perspective and issues. It merely reported the happenings and many a times took the managements side, without showcasing the other side of the coin. 6. He realized that there were no dedicated journalists to follow the developments in the strike. Werschs (2000) analysis of the role of press also unearthed an interesting aspect about the print media. During the strike, the mill owners used columns to carry out propaganda or threaten the workers to resume duty. This could be done by the mill owners as they could afford it, unlike the workers. The press let itself, to be used under these circumstances. In an advertisement taking half a page in The Times of India (24/12/81) was used by the Members of Association (MOA), to explain in detail what according to the organisation caused the present trouble. All this surely influenced the reader and shut him off from the complete reality. The press published letters written from one organisation to another, threatening notices meant for the workers and also an appeal made to the families of the workers, inducing them to send the worker back to work (The Times of India, 8/11/82). It was in this manner that the press was used and abused. But this research considered only a span of one year to study the coverage given to the famous strike, due to time constraints. The role of press in any case is inevitable. Wersch (2000), in his research has discussed both about the English and regional press. The fact that he found 240 reports in TOI over

35

a period of one year shows that the strike was given a lot of coverage. Journalists were assigned to write specifically about the strike and on its developments. They covered it as a beat in the 80s (Interview with respondent no. 1). Wersch (2000) analysed newspapers for about one and half years, as he wanted to find out the role of the press. In my research, as I am trying to find out the reasons for the disappearance of the labour beat from Mumbai print (English) media, I have chosen to go through newspapers of 20 years, in order to analyse the trend of reporting and reach conclusions. Werschs (2000) role of press, in his research, forms a good basis for my research as I am looking at existence of labour beat in print media in todays scenario. I am not carrying forward his research, but referring to his analysis for my research.

CHAPTER SIX

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6.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 6.1 Introduction This chapter presents the methodology used to carry out the study. It discusses the research designs, data collection methods and elaborates on the interviews. This chapter also discusses the problems I encountered while conducting this research and how I attempted to over come them.

6.2 Research question Has labour as a beat disappeared from the print media in Mumbai? The objective of my research is to find out if the labour beat still exists in the English print media in Mumbai. If the beat has disappeared, then I seek answers for the same with the help of in-depth, semi structured interviews with journalists (who were on the labour beat). In my research, the textile workers represent the term labour. My study is with reference to the Bombay textile strike, as it represents the peak of labour movement in Mumbai. So, I analyse the coverage given by English print media in Mumbai to the textile mills, its workers and the issues revolving the closure of the mills and trace the change in the nature of coverage over a period of 20 years.

6.3 Research Design In designing this study, I first had to choose an English newspaper, which would be a representative for the English print media, in order to analyse the coverage given by it to labour related issues in Mumbai. If any one organisation epitomised, encapsulated and led the changes in the media (especially in English but also in the other Indian languages), it was Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd (BCCL), Indias largest media

37

house, whose revenue was estimated in 2001 at Rs15 billion. Its flagship paper, The Times of India, founded in 1838 and once known as The Old Lady of Boribunder, reinvented itself in the 1990s as a rather skittish young woman (Smita Gupta, 2005). I thereby chose TOI, as it is the highest selling newspaper in Mumbai. It has a Mumbai edition and most importantly, the widest circulation and readership (among the other English publications). Connie Syomiti Kisuke (2004) and Agaba (2004) have used similar research methodology I in their research studies. methods Referring that I to their methodologies, selected considered

appropriate for my study, and that would yield optimum answers to my research question. In this research, I combined qualitative and quantitative methods of research. In line with what Deacon et al (1999:3) propose, I mixed the study methods in an effort to generate data that could answer the questions I have about the labour beat in English print media in Mumbai.. In other words, I wanted my data to answer the hows and whys of the process of disappearance of the labour beat from the English print media in Mumbai.

6.4 Data Collection From the quantitative research methodology tradition, I used content analysis. Agaba (2004) in the research cites Wimmer and Dominick (1994) who add that content analysis helps researchers to study patterns or trends in media portrayals and test hypothesis about policies or aims of media producers. It is also useful in studies that compare media content with the real world, assess the representation of particular groups in society or draw inferences about media effects. In my study, I focused upon factors related to two features of print media coverage

38

volume and prominence. Volume entails the amount of newspaper space devoted to covering an event. Prominence entails the use of newspaper space in ways that facilitates a reader in locating events related to text and images. I started analyzing TOI from 1982, as it was the year when the Bombay textile strike happened and this strike symbolizes the labour movement in Mumbai. As my research looks specifically at the coverage given to labour issues in Mumbai, I have taken the coverage given to the Bombay textile strike (by TOI) as a benchmark for my study. I also chose to analyse TOI over a period of 20 years, as, in order to identify any trend in reporting, I need a considerably long time span. First, in my research I am talking of the disappearance of labour beat from Mumbai print media, thus I have to spread my analysis over a substantial amount of time. Starting from 1982 (keeping the coverage given to Bombay textile strike as a benchmark), I look at the change in coverage till 2002. For better analysis, Ive divided my data collection into two parts, each depicting one decade; the 80s and the 90s. I did so, as I wanted to analyse the changes brought about by liberalisation/globalisation in the reporting patterns vis--vis labour coverage. Therefore, I divided the data in two sections - Pre Liberalisation (1982-1991) and Post Liberalisation (1992-2002). I analysed the reports that were found over a period of 20 years on the basis of the following parameters: 1. Page Number 2. Fold of the newspaper 3. Side of the newspaper 4. Report Spacing (columns) 5. Report Spacing (centimeters) I rated each parameter on a scale of five, making it a total of 25. Therefore, every report is rated on a scale of 25.

39

Note: In my research, I divided my data into two decades, wherein the layout differed with every decade. In the 80s (till the early 90s) the layout was vertical in nature. All the reports were placed in a vertical format, where it was easy to divide the page into two halves, above and bottom and further divide it in to sides as left and right. Till early 90s the Times of India had eight columns, which was made seven by the 90s, as the layout of the newspaper changed to a modular format. In the modular layout, apart from there being a clear demarcation between above the fold and below the fold, there is a change in the left and right side divide (due to the seven column format). Due to this change in newspaper layout, I framed a rating scale, which would cater to the needs of both, the vertical and modular format. And also, since I did not find a research which would give me a readymade scale to rate the reports, I formed one keeping in mind the change in newspaper layout. I therefore prepared the scale based on the advertising standards that are applied to a newspaper.

6.4.1 Parameters used to analyse data The following explanation elaborately specifies the ratings of every parameter: 1. Page Number: (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) Page no. 1 Page nos. 2 to 7 -5 -4

Page nos. 8 to 14 - 3 Page nos. 15 to 20 - 2 Any page > 20 -1

Explanation: In any newspaper, the page on which a report appears plays a very essential role as it signifies the importance of the report.

40

(i) (ii)

Any report which appears on the first page of the newspaper is the most important and is therefore rated 5, the highest on the scale of five. Pages from 2 to 7 are dedicated to city news and therefore a report on Bombay textile strike appearing in any of these pages falls next in line in terms of importance. It is therefore rated 4.

(iii)

Pages from 8 to 14 form the national news. So report placed on one of these pages loses its importance and it therefore gets one point less than the city news. It gets 3 on a scale of five.

(iv)

Page from 15 to 20 consists of world news and if a report finds its mention in these pages, the value of the report reduces in comparison to the other reports from across the globe. Thus, it gets 2 on a scale of five.

(v)

After page no. 20, business and sports sections begin, because of which any labour related event if reported there, would have no value of its own. The report would be completely misplaced and thereby be rated 1, lowest on a scale of five.

2. Fold of the newspaper (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) Above the fold Anchor story On fold with report above fold On fold with heading above fold Below fold -5 -4 -3 -2 -1

Explanation: Reports in a newspaper are placed on the basis of the fold of the paper. Newspaper is divided into three sections namely the upper part of the fold, the lower part of the fold and the part on the fold. All these divisions are on the basis of the way a reader reads

41

newspaper. Important reports are placed accordingly. Based on further specifications, this parameter of fold is rated on a scale of five with the following value labels. (i) The part which lies above the fold of a newspaper is the most important in terms of placement of a report, as it is this part, which gets the first glance by a reader. The Headlines of a newspaper is what grabs the attention of the reader and hence the most important report is placed on this portion of the page. Therefore any report appearing above the fold is rated 5. (ii) After the stories on the upper part of the paper, the next important report would be the one which forms the anchor story. Although, an anchor story lies below the fold, its placement holds special importance. Therefore a report on Bombay textile strike as an anchor story is rated 4 on a scale of 5. (iii) Once the above mentioned placements are rated, the middle part of the newspaper becomes the focus. Reports, with both the headline and the report above the fold and a part of the report running below the fold (thereby making it on the fold), is rated 3 on a scale of 5. This kind of a placement is as good as being placed above the fold, but since a part of the report runs below the fold, it loses out on some points and gets 3. (iv) Reports of which only the heading lies above the fold and the rest of the report lies below the fold (thereby making it on the fold), are rated 2 on a scale of five. Such a placement is as good as being placed below the fold and is of lesser importance and therefore is marked 2. (v) Reports placed below the fold are rated the least on a scale of five. In comparison to other placements, below the fold gets 1. 3. Side of the newspaper (a). (i) (ii) Page No 1 Centre Left Centre -5 -4

42

(iii) (iv) (v)

Left Right Centre Right

-3 -2 -1

(b) Side of the newspaper (Rest of the pages) (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) Right Right centre Centre Left Centre Left -5 -4 -3 -2 -1

Explanation: The side where the report is placed plays an essential role in ascertaining the importance of the report. Thus on the basis of these specifications, the parameter of side is rated. As The Times of India had eight columns in the 80s; The left side meant - column numbers one and two, Centre included - column numbers three, four and five Right side meant - column numbers six, seven and eight. Left centre and right centre means a report extending from the left to centre and from centre to right respectively. But in the 90s, since The Times of India has only seven columns; thereby making column number one as left side, columns, two, three and four as centre and columns five, six and seven as right For Page No 1 (i) Any report in the centre of the page gets the highest ratings. It gets 5 on a scale of five, as centre placement of the report in case of page 1, carries a lot of weightage.

43

(ii)

Moving on from centre, on page 1, the report on the left centre is what is observed next by a reader and as per the advertising standards, the left centre has high value. So it is rated 4 on a scale of 5

(iii) (iv) (v)

A report placed on the extreme left of the report forms a small part of the page and therefore it is rated 3 on a scale of 5. Right centre of page no 1 is rated 2 on a scale of 5, as on the first page the right hand side carries less weightage than the left. The extreme right side of the page is rated least on a scale of five. As mentioned earlier, the right side carries lesser weightage than the left.

For rest of the pages: (i) The rules are a little different for the rest of the pages. In the inside pages, the right side of the page is more important than the left and accordingly more points are given to the right side. Thus, for the rest of the pages, the right side of the newspaper gets 5 on a scale of five. (ii) (iii) Similarly as right side is important, the right centre would also be equally essential and thereby is rated 4 on a scale of five. As the analysis, in the inside pages moves from right to left, centre is the next important. Any report placed in the centre of the page is rated 3 on a scale of five, which means that the report is placed somewhere on the third, fourth, fifth column (during 80s) and second, third, fourth columns (during 90s) (iv) (v) Left centre placement of the report gets 2 on a scale of five as the importance of the report then starts diminishing. Extreme left (column one and two in 80s and column one in 90s) is least important and is therefore marked 1 on a scale of five. 4. Report Spacing (a) Columns

44

(i) 3 columns (ii) 2 columns or 4 columns (iii) 1 column or 5 columns (iv) 6 columns or 7 columns (v) 8 columns Explanation:

-5 -4 -3 -2 -1

The space given to any report is determined by its importance and value. If there is a burning labour issue, then the coverage that it would demand would be substantial. The space given to a report could range from one column to eight columns. Although, it is considered that more number of columns mean more importance that is not the case. An ideal space that can be allotted to any report would be three columns. Anything more or less would not be able to retain the value of the report. Space of less than three columns, would make the report too short, thereby unable to convey the true picture of any event and more than three columns would be too long for a reader to read and sustain. Thus, a three column report gets 5 on a scale of five and the other reports with more or less than three columns would reduce its points and a report with space of eight columns would get the least, i.e. 1 on a scale of five. (b) Report Spacing (Centimeters) (i) 5 cm (ii) Less than 5 cm or more than 5 cm but less than 10 cm (iii) More than 10 cm but less than 15 cm (iv) More than 15 cm but less than 20 cm (v) More than 20 cm -5 -4 -3 -2 -1

45

Explanation: Report spacing is explained not only in terms of number of columns, but also in terms of the measure of the report. An ideal report should measure 5 cm (a column), as it then depicts a complete report, which is both concise and all encompassing. Thus, a report which is 5cm in length is rated the highest on a scale of five. And other report which is either less than 5 cm or more than 5cm, fails to retain its value. Reports either become too short to convey or too long to comprehend. Any report which is more than 20 cm is rated the least on a scale of five. Although such reports might indicate huge coverage, its purpose is not solved. A report which is occupies three columns and measure 5cm in length is an ideal report.

6.5 Coding Process A total number of 653 reports were found over a period of 20 years. Thus the data collected summed up to 653 reports, inclusive of editorials, banner stories, reports with pictures/photographs and some photographs which I considered as reports for the purpose of my research. I did so, as photographs (very small in number) symbolized the event or the story. I coded all 653 reports on the basis of the parameters mentioned above and the value labels thereby assigned to the parameters. The coding process took me about two weeks.

6.6 Interviews In line with the overall purpose of this study, I used semi-structure interviews in order to draw explanations from, and the perspectives of, the reporters and editors about their choices of new source. As Bower, 1973, cited in Jensen (2002) puts it, the best way to find out what the people think about something is to ask them (2002:240). The semi

46

structured

interview

method

is

said

to

resemble

everyday

conversation, but it does not conform to its conventions such as fluctuation between different responses (Deacon et al, 1999:65). To sustain the discussion that would lead to responses relevant to my study purpose, I used an interview guide. Through the use of this tool, I was able to steer a purposeful conversation with the respondents, and to allow flexibility as well as to redirect the course of discussion whenever responses tended to fluctuate. Overall, I was able to conduct my interviews in ways that gave me control of the terms of discussion as well as allow flexibility to gain maximum data. This was done in consideration of a number of things: the limitation on time and material resources on the part of the researcher, the availability of the respondents in relation to time constraints and demands of their work, the number of the news stories involved, and the number of journalists and editors sampled for the study. This type of interview also allowed adjustments and alterations of the sequence of the questions in order to accommodate the different respondents key editorial decision makers and senior reporters and to cater for the level of comprehensibility and articulacy among them (Fielding, 1993: 136; Deacon et al, 1999: 6566). This type of interview technique also permitted further probing (Fielding, 1993: 136-40). The technique further helped in guiding the discussion in terms of the themes embedded in the study questions. I conducted a series of interviews with 10 journalists, who at some point of time in their career were labour correspondents. Most of them (9/10) were journalists with TOI during the 80s and have covered labour substantially. Now they are with different publications / media organisations, but were still kind enough to spare time for the interviews. They too felt that this topic of research had a wide recognition. I recorded all the interviews on a digital voice recorder in order to capture details. I also wrote down

47

background notes following key themes and topics of the study. The interviews ranged from an hour to an hour and a half depending on individuals ability to deliver precise information. I chose to conduct the interviews after the coding exercise so that I could use them to probe further the trends that I had noted during the coding exercise. The interviews were tape recorded and later transcribed, and the notes used to supplement the explanatory part of the study findings.

6.7 Physical location of the study In order to gather reports of TOI for a period over 20 years, I approached the Department of Archives, Elphinstone College (Fort) as they are known to have archives of several publications. On seeking permission, I started collecting my data from Elphinstone College (Fort). The process of data collection went on for about two months, as going through each and every newspaper of 20 years, takes a lot of time. Once the data was collected, I coded and analysed it at home. After the analysis, I conducted interviews with journalists, as per their convenience and also at the place of their choice. Most of the times, I met them at their work place, but some interviews were conducted in coffee shops and also at the residences of the journalists.

6.8 Problems encountered during the research There were certain hindrances while I was conducting my research, but I did find a solution for all of them. During my data collection, I was not allowed to take photocopies of the newspapers (due to some technical

48

difficulty). I was allowed to take pictures, but it was very expensive, as the number of reports was many in number. Due to these technical and financial constraints, I sat there throughout the day analyzing each report on the spot. I couldnt get them home for a detailed analysis.

CHAPTER SEVEN
7.0 DATA ANALYSIS AND OBSERVATION 7.1 Introduction This chapter presents the findings and discussion from two forms of data; content analysis and interviews. The findings answer the research question, which was to know the existence of labour as a beat in the Mumbai print media. The results indicate that the labour beat has disappeared from the Mumbai, English print media. The data collected and its analysis (which forms a part of this chapter) reveals the disappearance of the beat and the analysis of the interviews substantiates this fact. I have divided the total number of reports (653) into two sections as pre-liberalisation (1982-1991) and post-liberalisation (1992-2002). The data collection reveals that there is a sharp decline in the coverage given to labour issues in the post-liberalisation in comparison to the pre-liberalisation period. There are several reasons for this disappearance, some of them being, the changing face of media which 49

is today dictated by the market forces, the changing nature of news, the changing priorities of both the reader and the media and many more such reasons are elaborately explained in the conclusion part. As mentioned in the previous chapter, every report is analysed on a scale of 25. A report which is placed on the first page, above the fold, centre of the page, is about three columns and measures about 5cm in length, is the one which scores the highest (25). But since it is difficult to have all the five factors in the same report, the highest a report has reached is 23.

Notes: 1. Out of the 653 reports, 12 were editorials and as analyzing editorials on the basis of the above mentioned parameters is not possible, they were not included in the reports which were rated. (They would be analysed qualitatively later). 2. There were 17 reports with pictures to support it. As visual analysis was not a part of the parameters, these articles were excluded for separate analysis. 3. Amongst all 653 articles, there were just two banner stories*. As banner stories are pure exceptions, they are not included in the process of data analysis. They would be analysed separately. 4. Therefore it can be said that out of 653 reports, 31 reports were excluded on the basis of the reasons mentioned above. Thus, only 622 reports were quantified and analysed. They were first quantified and then qualitatively analysed.

50

*Reports which make headlines and run across all the eight columns, along with pictures 7.2 Table wise explanation Table 1: Analysis of PAGE NO as a parameter (Expressed both in number and in terms of percentage) (1982-1991) PAGE NO Page No 1 2 to 7 18 to 14 15 to 20 Above 20 No of reports 176 297 86 10 7 Percentage 28.30 47.75 13.83 1.61 1.12 (1992-2002) No of reports 9 34 2 1 Percentage 1.45 5.47 0.32 0.16 -

1. In the pre-liberalisation period, there were about 176 reports out of 622 (28.30%), which were page 1 reports. A mere 1.45% (9 out of 622) found its place on the first page post liberalisation, as can be seen in table no 1. 47.75% of reports were placed in the city news section of the newspaper during the 80s, which reduced to 5.47% in the 90s. There were about 86 (13.83%) reports and 10 (1.61%) reports reported in the nation and world news section respectively in the 80s,

51

which dropped to about two (0.32%) reports and one (0.16%) report correspondingly in the 90s. Table 2: Analysis of FOLD OF THE PAGE as a parameter (Expressed both in number and in terms of percentage) (1982-1991) FOLD Above the fold Anchor story On fold With report above fold On fold Only heading above the fold Below fold 115 18.49 5 0.80 21 3.77 No of reports 369 42 38 Percentage 59.32 6.75 6.11 (1992-2002) No of reports 30 2 Percentage 4.82 0.30

2. 369 reports were found above the fold in the 80s, as the issues back then were given a lot of importance. But after liberalisation, the importance diminished and only 30 reports appeared above the fold. It is interesting to know that after 369 reports, above the fold, 115 (18.49%) reports were found below the fold in the 80s. But it is indeed surprising that only 42 (6.75%) stories were anchor stories in the 80s and there were NO anchor stories post liberalisation. Table 3: Analysis of SIDE OF THE PAGE (for the first page) as a parameter (Expressed both in number and in terms of percentage) (1982-1991) PAGE NO 1 Centre Left Centre Left Right Centre No of reports 42 48 33 23 Percentage 6.75 7.72 5.30 3.70 (1992-2002) No of reports 1 4 3 Percentage 0.16 0.64 0.48

52

Right

30

4.82

0.16

3. Maximum number of reports (48) appeared on the left centre (columns 1, 2, 3, 4) of page number 1 in the 80s, which dropped to four (columns 1, 2, 3) reports post liberalisation. The next maximum number of articles (42) was placed in the centre (column 3, 4, 5) of page 1, which reduced to one (columns 2, 3, 4) report in the second half of the analysis. Table 4: Analysis of SIDE OF THE PAGE (for other pages) as a parameter (Expressed both in number and in terms of percentage) (1982-1991) OTHER PAGES Right Right Centre Centre Centre Left Left No of reports 88 43 174 43 52 Percentage 14.15 6.91 27.97 6.91 8.36 (1992-2002) No of reports 8 12 11 5 1 Percentage 1.29 1.93 1.77 0.80 0.16

4. In pages other than page number 1, maximum number of reports was placed in the centre (columns 2, 3, 4). About 174 (27.97%) reports were placed in the centre in the 80s, which drastically dropped to 11 (1.77%) reports post liberalisation. Although, in the rest of the pages, right side is the most suitable position, only 88 (14.15%) reports were placed on the right in the 80s, which again reduced to a mere 8 in the 90s. Table 5: Analysis of REPORT SPACING (columns) as a parameter (Expressed both in number and in terms of percentage) (1982-1991) COLUMNS 3 columns 2 or 4 No of reports 71 271 Percentage 11.41 43.57 (1992-2002) No of reports 9 19 Percentage 1.45 3.05

53

1 or 5 6 or 7 8 columns

242 1 -

38.90 0.16 -

9 -

1.45 -

5. Although 3 columns is the ideal space to be given to any report, there were just 71 reports out of 622 that were of 3 columns in the 80s. Most of reports were either 2 or 4 columns or 1 or 5 columns, making it to a total of 271 and 242 respectively pre-liberalisation. Post 91, the number of reports with 3 columns was just 9.

Table 6: Analysis of REPORT SPACING (centimeters) as a parameter (Expressed both in number and in terms of percentage) (1982-1991) Centimeters 5cm Less than 5cm or more than 5cm up to 10cm More than 10 cm to 15cm More than 15cm to 20cm More than 20 cm 6. Although 5cm is the ideal measurement of a report, more than 50% of the reports in 80s were more or less than 5cm but definitely less than 10cm, as shown in table no 6. But post liberalisation, the trends changed and about 2.89% of the reports were more than 10cm and less than 15cm and only 1.77% reports were between 5cm and 10cm. 187 44 14 30.06 7.07 2.25 18 6 2 2.89 0.96 0.32 No of reports Percentage 23 3.70 317 50.96 (1992-2002) No of reports 11 Percentage 1.77

54

Table 7: Analysis of the ratings of the report on a scale of 25 (Expressed both in number and in terms of percentage) (1982-1991) Total Points 21 to 25 17 to 20 13 to 16 9 to 12 5 to 8 No of reports 125 330 119 11 Percentage 20.10 53.05 19.13 1.77 (1992-2002) No of reports 7 24 6 Percentage 1.13 3.86 0.96 -

7. As mentioned earlier, an ideal report would be one, which is rated 25 on a scale of 25, but since it is difficult for any report to be perfect in all parameters, the highest a report has been rated is 23. This is the closet a report has reached in order to be rated high. In my research, a reports that have been rated 23 (the highest), have not necessarily scored the same in all parameters. The permutations have changed depending on each report. About 125 reports rated between 21 and 25, in the pre-liberalisation period (as seen in table no 7), which dropped to a mere seven reports post-liberalisation. Nearly 53% of the reports in the 1982-1991 time span were rated between 17 and 20 on a scale of 25, thereby symbolizing that most of the reports were both, well placed and important. 11 reports in the first section were rated really low; say between, 9 and 12, on a scale of 25. But during 992-2002, there were no reports that were rated this low.

7.3 Observations 1. Out of the 653 reports found in The Times of India on the Bombay Textile Strike from 1982-2002, 92% of the coverage was given in the pre-liberalisation period

55

(1982-1991) and 8% in the post- liberalisation period (1992-2002). This clearly depicts the disappearance of the beat from the print media in Mumbai. 2. Liberalisation has played a key role in the change in reporting by the media. It is clearly evident from the tables that in the post liberalisation period, the coverage given to labour stories decreased drastically. There are several factors such as the changing priorities of the media, favouritism towards market forces etc, which led to this disappearance, but the foremost the effect of globalisation. 3. Out of the 653 reports based on labour related issues that I found, 12 reports were editorials. It is indeed surprising to know that over a period of 20 years; just there were just 12 editorials. And it is a very interesting fact that all the 12 editorials were written in the pre liberalisation period. THERE WERE NO EDITORIALS WRITTEN POST LIBERALISATION. Editorials are usually written in order to make people think and form an opinion. Editorials form the soul of the newspaper and issues that are indeed grave are discussed and elaborated on in the editorial space. My research shows that just 12 editorials were written about in 20 years. Editorial written on 9.7.82 was An unwise policy, which was written in the context when there were strikes in factories and also when mill workers and trade union leaders were asking for a legal process to end the mill stir. Further, an editorial on 23.9.82, titled In the right direction when many mill workers got back to the factories and resumed work, the editorials looked like their stand was completely anti-labour. There are several such editorials which seem more bent towards the management. 4. There were 17 reports with pictures out of 653 reports. These were reports which were accompanied by photographs, thereby giving it a very real look and also as pictures are more explicit in explaining the context and the problem, if a report with a photograph is placed in the newspaper, it carries more weightage. Each picture was with a caption thereby supporting the content of the matter. There were about five pictures, which were a stand alone, meaning they did not support

56

any report, they were all by themselves. Five pictures in isolation; they were self explanatory, with the help of the captions. The pictures were of Indira Gandhi addressing an audience. As they were with captions, it did not need anything else. In my research, Ive therefore considered these pictures as stand alone and included them in the coding process. 5. Throughout the research, although Ive found 653 reports pertaining to labour related issues, I found just two banner stories. A banner story is a report that runs along all the seven or eight columns of the page. A banner story is usually placed on the upper part of the page, thereby leaving no space for any other report. A banner story is written in times of prime importance of the issue. The very fact that an issue gets coverage like being placed as a banner story, speaks volume of its significance. Banner stories are an exception. It doesnt happen every other day. Both the banner stories that I found in my study, are from the post liberalisation period and both the reports are accompanied by pictures (with captions). The first banner story I found was on 30.9.96 with the heading Mill land becomes bone of contention, with a picture to support the story. The next banner story was on 9.04.01 with the heading With mills on the loss workers' cheques of hope bounce, which was once again supported with a picture. One thing to be noted is that both these banner stories did not find its mention on the first page. The former banner story was on page number 18 and the latter was on page number five. 6. In the 80s, bylines were sacrosanct and getting a byline for a story was commendable. But now-a-days, every journalist gets a byline for every story he/she does. In my research, with a total of 653 reports, 85 reports had bylines, out of which 57 bylines were in the 80s and the remaining 28 were post liberalisation. Vidhyadhar Date, a journalist (who was with TOI till 2004) has the maximum number of bylines (29).

57

CHAPTER EIGHT
8.0 CONCLUSION This chapter presents the conclusion of this research and also gives an overview of the limitations of the study. My research results show that that labour as a beat has significantly lost its status in the English print media in Mumbai. Labour was a beat till the early 90s. Labour related issues were taken seriously and written about till the Bombay textile strike. With the fading importance of the strike and the consequent fading importance of labour movement in Mumbai, labour as a beat from the Mumbai print media started disappearing. Although it is a misconception that with the closure of the textile mills, labour per se has disappeared, it also has to be noted that with the closure of textile mills, the labour movement in Mumbai has declined. Post textile strike, 'Labour class' as such had become a 'middle class', although they were working on machines, they were blue collar, but their social status became of a white collar, (Interview with respondent no. 2). With the decline of labour movement, even trade unionism in Mumbai faded. Although the movement declined, labour related issues still persists. It is just that it is not being addressed by the print media. As my research is restricted to the English press, I derive the conclusion that labour as a beat has disappeared from the English print media in Mumbai. There are several reasons associated with this disappearance. It is a matter of fact that over a period of time, as the social construct or environment has changed, the nature of labour related problems too has changed. Initially there were problems largely related to employment and wages, but now money is not that big a problem (although unemployment continues to persist in many sectors). In BPOs or shopping malls or any unorganized sector for that matter, employees are being paid well, but are being exploited in terms of longer working hours or in terms of sexual exploitation of women etc. So it can be said that the nature of problems are changing, but that does not reduce the importance of unions or labour movement in the present time,

58

(Interview with respondent no. 2). Another major concern is that today, one does not relate to the word labour. As every individual (irrespective of the sector he/she works in) is given a designation and he /she prefers to be addressed so in public. No one explicitly identifies himself as a labourer or associates himself with the labour class. This demarcation of labourer and a professional has been made in every industry. Journalists too are given fancy designations and they do not follow the technical definition of labour, which makes every one who works for wages/remuneration a labourer. Labour is largely treated as a mills phenomenon. Journalists in the 80s had a background of the labour movement. They were either closely associated with the movement or were at least aware of the developments in the movement. But today, most of the journalists, hardly know anything about the history of labour movement in India. Since they lack an understanding of the context on which the present scenario is based, they do not seem to comprehend the troubles of the working class. As a consequence, journalists do not write about the labour related issues as they lack interest in the same. Many bigwigs in the media organisations (irrespective of having seen the labour movement closely) choose to overlook the current status of the working class, as their well being is associated with the interests of the market forces. As the stories about workers and unions do not make a sunshine story, they are not considered. My research proves that coverage is given to labour related issues largely when there is drama or violence. Finally the results suggest that the drama of controversy and polarization is central to what is understood by reporters and the general public as interesting or newsworthy and that the way an issue is framed is more salient that the novelty or disruptiveness of an event, especially if the disruption remains really small (Daniel J. Myers, Pamela E. Oliver, 1999). The inception of contract system was one major blow to the trade unionism. There was a lot of conflict concerning the same but then a huge chunk succumbed to this system. The trade unions opposed the contract system because it caused reduction of regular employment. But today, contract system has become so common that even journalists are on contract system. Media organisations employ journalists on a contractual basis. The

59

very fact that media organisations themselves do not find anything wrong about the contract system, justifies them not addressing issues related to this, of a labourer. Liberalisation has played an important role in the disappearance of the labour beat from the Mumbai print media. Post liberalisation, print industry became market driven and the market forces dominated the print industry. The newspapers cater more to the market forces than to the interests of the public. Even if a story needs to be printed and the editors give an approval of the same, the management can come in and stop the release of such news, (Interview with respondent no. 5). The advertisers have the last word in todays era of print journalism. An issue which interests or benefits the advertiser is written about more often than problems of the working class. If middle India did not want to know about the countrys underclass, neither did the advertisersthere was no potential market there. This lack of potential market led to the scrapping of the labour beat. In my research, I used TOI as a representative of the English print media (in Mumbai) as it is the highest in terms of circulation and readership. I discovered that beats such as crime, politics, business etc stayed over a period of 20 years but lately, beat such as entertainment has gained prime importance and the newspaper is widening its base with respect to entertainment. It is understood that news has become entertainment centric and most of the news items are given a touch of entertainment. Newspapers today believe in packaging information with entertainment, thereby making it infotainment. As I said, labour related issues like employment, organizing the unorganized sector, exploitation of the labourers etc are still present. With the closure of the textile mills, the workers of the factory were not only unemployed, but also displaced. But stories of their survival after the closure of the mills were hardly written about. The problem persists, but the nature of coverage given to this problem has changed. Initially the coverage given by print media to the textile mills and workers was in the context of closure of mill lands which has today been converted into sale of mill lands. This change in the nature of

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coverage shows that the issues pertaining to the labour beat have been given a business angle and now is a part of the business beat. My research shows that labour as a beat has indeed lost its status from Mumbai print media. But there is a need for labour beat in the journalism. After in depth interviews with journalists (who were labour correspondents) I realized that the issues back then were given a lot of importance and even today there is a need for taking notice of the issues of the working class.

8.1 Further scope of research My research gives a base for many to carry out further research pertaining to a broader aspect of topic. In my research, I restricted myself in studying the media only in Mumbai, as due to time and financial conditions, I could not afford to expand the study any further to other cities or region. My study can be taken forward by analyzing the labour beat vis-vis, the number one newspaper in the metropolitan cities. A research concentrating on the whole of Indian media, could establish the importance of labour in the context of Indian media. I restricted my research to just one newspaper (TOI), due to time constraint in submitting the dissertation. There can be a research which can probably look at more than one newspaper and analyse and substantiate on the end. More than one newspaper gives one an understanding of the perspectives involved. In an attempt to take this research forward, an analysis of the broadcast industry (TV) can be done. A comparison between the print and the broadcast industry can also be taken up as another research. As my research proves the disappearance of labour beat from the English print media in Mumbai, on the basis of a newspaper which represents the remaining newspapers in the English print media, it leaves ample space for a research wherein a comparison between the English and regional press (in terms of labour

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coverage) can be stated. To understand perspectives of the media organisations, both the English and Regional press should be closely studied to derive the attitude amongst media. In my research, Ive mentioned in the second chapter and in sub section 2.4, the global application of my research. Ive stated how Nancy Cleeland, a labour correspondent with LA Times witnessed the scrapping of labour beat. This proves that there is a gradual disappearance in the coverage given to the labour force of a country. Therefore a separate thesis involving the global significance of labour force or the global significance of the labour beat in media organisations.

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REFERENCES:
Ambekar Institute of Labour Studies and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Labour Market in Transition - Case of Mumbai Agner fog (Working paper, 2004-05-20) The supposed and the real role of mass media in modern democracy Berger, G. 2000. Grave new world: Democratic Journalism Enters the Global Twenty-First Century, Journalism Studies, 1 (1): 81-100 Connie Syomiti Kisuke (2004): An investigation of the role of news values in the selection of news sources in a contemporary third world newspaper: a case study of the daily nation newspaper, Rhodes University Curran, J. et al (eds) 1979. Mass Communication and Society, London: Open University Press. Dan Gallin , 2004 The Labour Movement Daniel J. Myers (University of Notre Dame), Pamela E. Oliver (University of Wisconsin, Madison), (1999): How events enter the public sphere: Conflict, location, and sponsorship in local newspaper coverage of public events. Deacon et al (1999) Debashish Bhattacherjee - Organised Labour and Economic Liberalisation: Past, Present and Future, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta

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Dilip Maruti Dhiwal in his Ph.D. thesis on Casualisation of Workmen in Industry G.K. Sharma, Labour Movement in India Freeman R, Medoff. J. 1984. What do Unions Do? (New York, Basic Books) Gurevitch M, Blumler JG (1990) Political communication systems and democratic values. In: Lichtenberg J (ed) Democracy and the mass media Cambridge University Press. Hansen, A. et al.1988. Mass Communication Research Methods, London: Macmillan. Hemant Babu, (2000) Death of an Industrial City: Testimony of life around Bombay Textile Strike of 1982 Hubert Van Wersch, (1992), Bombay Textile Strike 1982-83 Workers views and strategies Iyengar (1991) Is Anyone Responsible? How Television Frames Political Issues, University of Chicago Press. Jan Breman, A study of Industrial Labour in Post Colonial India L.K. Deshpande, (1979) Segmentation of Labour Market, A case study of Bombay McCarthy, et al. (1996), "Images of Protest: Dimensions of Selection Bias in Media Coverage of Washington Demonstrations, 1982 and 1991." American Sociological Review 61(3): 478-499 McChesney, R.W. (1997). Corporate Control and the Threat to Democracy, Open Media Pamphlet Series, New York: Seven Stories Press.

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McManus, J.H. (1994). Market Driven Journalism: Let the Citizen Beware? Thousand Oaks,California: Sage. Napoli, P.M. (1997). A Principal-Agent Approach to the Study of Media Organisations: Towards a Theory of the Media Firm, Political Communication, Vol.14: 207-219. Pamela Oliver in her research The Content and Timing of Media Coverage of Message Events: Cycles and Comparisons Pant, S.C. (1965) - Indian labour problems. Chaitanya Publishing House Allahabad Picard, R.G. (1989). Media Economics, Concepts and Issues, California: Sage. Ruddar Datt - Lockouts, Closure and the Role of the State, The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Vol. 35, No. 1, 1992 Sheila S. Coronel - The Role of the Media in deepening Democracy Shekhar Krishnan (April 2000) - The Murder of the Mills:A Case Study of Phoenix Mills, A Report by the Girangaon Bachao Andolan and Lokshahi Hakk Sanghatana, Smita Gupta (2005) Post-Liberalisation India: How Free is the Media? South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, Vol. XXVIII, no.2 Snyder and Kelly (1997), Conflict Intensity, Media Sensitivity and the Validity of Newspaper Data, American Sociological Review 42:105-123.

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T.S. Papola and K.K. Subramanian (1975) - Wage structure and labour mobility in local labour market - A study in Ahmedabad

WEBSITES
http://freelancewrite.about.com/od/glossary/g/Beat.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_market http://takebackthetimes.blogspot.com/2005/12/san-fernando-valley-plant-closednancy.html http://www.rediff.com/money/2005/feb/11bspec.htm http://weblogs.jomc.unc.edu/talkingbiznews http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/strikes-lockouts

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