Agenda Setting Role of the Press on Telangana Issue

Abstract

The demand for a separate Telengana state is one of the most contentious as well as politically volatile issues the nation is facing ever since Independence. The people belonging to the region have been agitating from time to time and political leaders under different banner keeping the issue burning and gaining political mileage. However, the people of the region have been subjected to suffering because of these developments. They are neither getting a separate state nor getting their due share within the undivided state. The plight of the people of Telengana goes back to pre-Independence days. Under the Nizam’ s rule majority of the people were oppressed a lot. Keeping in view of the controversy and importance of the issue, the authors made an attempt to assess the news media’s agenda, if any, on the contentious Telangana issue. For the purpose of the study two English dailies: the Deccan Chronicle and the Times of India were purposively chosen. The former is regional English daily largely confined to Andhra Pradesh and the latter is the largest circulated English daily in the country. The contents of the newspapers under study were quantitatively measured and then subjected to framing analysis in order to assess their agenda on the issue.