Indian Newspapers

One headline in the Times of India read 'Acid-throwing psycho on prowl in city?' Although it's disturbing that some madman followed women at night to throw acid at them, I had to smile. It's because of the word psycho. I don't think I've seen that word in a headline in any serious newspaper in Switzerland, the States or the UK. And if you read that headline to yourself with an Indian accent it gets even better.

There's the remembrance page where photographs of the deceased as well as some well wishes are published on the anniversary of their death. It's a nice idea. Most of the young ones mentioned were soldiers. The military is very visible here and it seems they're recruiting heavily.

Fight corruption ads feature very prominently. Not just in the papers but at the airport or the railway stations there's always a name and a number to contact. There are rules saying you shouldn't offer bribes and act as a whistleblower if someone else is involved in corruption. I have no idea how successful this initiative has been but it's a good start.

You can tell that Indian journalists are not fond of China or Pakistan. It was reported that the Chinese questioned the success of the Indian moon mission and although they didn't write anything nasty you could just feel that they were angry about this. Instead of a Pakistani they referred to one of them as Pak-man.

In another article about children's education it was striking that they never talked about parents but children's guardians, which hints at the fact that a considerable number of kids are brought up by someone else.

Half a page is devoted to religion. It's divided into sacred space, containing quotes from Buddha, Krishna, the bible and other religious figures. It's nice how all of them can happily co-exist in a little, gray box. The rest of the page is taken up by some religious leader who offers guidance about how to apply religion in daily life.

Two full pages were devoted to the retiring cricket star Anil Kumble. Only the Obama coverage a few days later got more space. They also report football results from the Premier and the Champions league which makes me wonder why on earth they haven't qualified for the World Cup?

What I found illuminating about this little reading exercise is how facts are implicitly part of what is communicated. By looking at word choice, subjects covered or the amount of space given to an article opinions and values shine through, regardless of if it was intended or not. By turning to another culture we can understand what we might not notice in our own papers.