1. Introduction :
News articles are the heart and soul of newspapers. Descriptions related to human affairs and human interests are the basic elements in a news story. During the ancient (early) era of Journalism, news about the war, heroism, military activities and defense related matters used to get importance. But along with the development of the very stream, various other arenas such as finance, sports, health, education and other integral human affairs also started to get space and importance in a news page.It’s a content analysis conducted for exploration about the space and value given to such basic human ingredients and constituents by the main stream Nepalese English (daily) newspapers. As assigned under the syllabus of curriculum for Mass Communication & Journalism-302 of 3 years Bachelor Level, 2nd year’s Practical Examinations; a basic research on the news value being given to the very basic need of human’s life and one of the major infrastructure of development – ‘HEALTH’ is tried to analysis under the technique of Content Analysis. For the purpose two major daily English newspapers of Nepal-‘The Kathmandu Post’ and ‘The Himalayan Times’ are taken as the grounds for research.
2.Statement of the Problem :
It’s an attempt to discover the subject of priority or emphasis being granted by the mainstream broadsheet daily newspapers in Nepal. Among politics, crime, education, finance, sports, conflict, health, closure, strike etc, which is the main news covering arena of those papers? Are they bias less on the space and importance to all type news or are they tilted extravagantly to any sector? Regarding the news publication on Education, how far they have made such contributions? Do they really enjoy with political ‘to and fro’ or also endeavor at publication of ‘education related stories’?
3. Importance of the mini-reserach :
What is the most emphasized news aspect by the major daily newspapers of Nepal is tried to discover through the content analysis, which indeed is significant from the point of view of the media effect theory to readers or mass audiences. The Medias are thought makers and they bear the power of changing mentality of their respective receivers. Hence, what sorts of effect is being formulated to the readers through the newspapers, are they sponsored type or if they are simply practicing propagandas to them was a very important aspect to have known. It’s important for the media itself for practicing better journalism and for the state cum listeners for being well informed using their rights to information. So doubtless the fact is that the study of media’s editorial policy is a quite worthy issue.
4. Objectives of the mini-research:
The major objective of the research is to find out how far the news about public concerned ‘health’ is published or given importance by the newspapers. For the purpose, the study of their front page news of one whole week is done.
5. Research procedure:
Content analysis deals with the published (printed) news or articles by a print media house. For this very research the secondary sources are used as in formations or data. So far the studied medias are concerned, the major two daily newspapers that publish from Kathmandu valley i.e. The Kathmandu Post and The Himalayan Times of Bhadra 24 to 30,2065 (only front page news stories) were taken as the samples. The research is based on quantitative method.
The collected data are entered in the following tables.
a) News published in The Himalayan Times Daily:
| Date of Publication | News Published on: | Total Items | |||||
| Politics | Crime | Finance | Health | Education | Miscellaneous | ||
| 05-24 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| 05-25 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| 05-26 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| 05-27 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| 05-28 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| 05-29 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| 05-30 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 8 |
| Total | 17 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 11 | 43 |
b) News published in The Kathmandu Post Daily:
| Date of Publication | News Published on: | Total Items | |||||
| Politics | Crime | Finance | Health | Education | Miscellaneous | ||
| 05-24 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| 05-25 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| 05-26 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 8 |
| 05-27 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| 05-28 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| 05-29 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 |
| 05-30 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Total | 18 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 12 | 43 |
6. data analysis & Presentation :
The Himalayan Times daily published altogether 43 news stories in the front page during 24th to 30th Bhadra, 2065. Among them almost half of the news (17 stories) was dealing on politics of the country. It was managed to publish 4 crime based, 5 finance related, 3 educational and 11 miscellaneous news articles. However, during the whole week just 3 health related news matters are found to have published which is not at all the sufficient proportion. The given bar graph demonstrates its actual condition.
On the next hand, The Kathmandu post also had some equal columns for political stories. Altogether 18 political articles were published during the week in the paper’s 1st page. Publishing 5 news articles on crime made it be the second arena of importance given by the newsroom. The Kathmandu post published 4 financial, simply one educational and almost 10 miscellaneous news matters. Regarding the health based news, it had very less (even lesser than THT) space. Merely 2 news stories during the whole week came printed and it can’t be assumed as a smart proportion. The following bar graph shall illustrate the reality.
(Note: It’s necessary to make clear that the published photos, advertisements, cartoons and brief news are not included in this research.)
7. conclusion :
The both mainstream and leading English daily newspapers of Nepal are found to have been giving their priority extremely for politics and political happenings, expressions and activities. They are found somewhat indifferent to the day to day arenas of publics such as health, education, natural calamities (disasters), environment, meteorology, human interest affairs and the like. It’s disappointing to find that both major dailies have political mentality and not the health or other social type. During the week, The Himalayan Times published three health related news and in case of The Kathmandu Post, it’s even worse. The Kathmandu Post didn’t give more then two news flashing during an entire week.
8. recommendation :
A newspaper should be ‘just’ while selecting (editing) news. It shouldn’t be biased to some kind and close to next. It’s because given extreme emphasis to some sector may get dictated by the readers and ultimately their mentality towards the media and the profession of journalism changes towards negativity causing a long term and serious problem at the industry. Such becomes the worse situation.
The first page of any newspaper is the most read page. The main and banner news are published in the page. A print media is always supposed to maintain balance at it’s news presentation. In case of The Himalayan Times and The Kathmandu Post, they are in need of reducing the extravagant presentation and spacing to the political affairs and that should be fulfilled with human needed and human interested news and views. The news of developments and also the stories of health, education, environment, market price etc should be given excess space for further betterment and improvement of the newspapers.
9. references :
1. Denis McQuail, Mass Communication Theory (2000)
2. टिकाराम गौतम रेसमराज अधिकारी समाजशास्त्रिय र मानवशास्त्रिय अनुसन्धान पद्धति
3. Wirmmer and Dominik, Mass media Research (2002)
4. Newspapers collection at National Library, Hariharbhawan Ltp.
5. Various content analysis reports, done by the fellows of R.R. Campus.
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