Much has been written or spoken about the Kargil War and the 26/11 attacks and more would be further articulated. During the time, the media worked fundamentally to quench the insatiable urge of the public craving news on these two major incidents. The 26/11/2008 terror attacks received unprecedented continuous live coverage on television. Similarly, the Kargil War became the first live war in South Asia that was given such an elaborate and detailed media coverage. However, the questions that could be raised here might focus on the sensitivity of Embedded Journalism; do the media enunciate War propaganda? This research paper forms a cohesive Sociological perspective on how Sensationalism and Hyperbole become proactive elements during Conflicting times as showcased by the Media in India.

1. [Type text]
ROLE OF INDIAN MEDIA IN CONFLICTING TIMES: AN ANALYSIS
OF THE AUDIENCE RESPONSE AFFECTED BY THE PRINT AND
BROADCAST COVERAGE OF THE 26/11 TERROR ACTS AND KARGIL
WAR PROPAGANDA
by
Swarnalata Bhattacharjee
(Master of Mass Communication)
A Dissertation
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Masters of Mass Communication Programme
Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, PUNE
SYMBIOSIS INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY
30-3-2015

2. [Type text]
Declaration by the Candidate
I hereby declare that this dissertation entitled
_____________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
___
Submitted to the Symbiosis International University in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for award of degree of Master of Mass Communication
(specialization :--------------------) is a original and genuine research work
carried out by me under the guidance of_____________________________,
Professor, Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication and that it has not
formed the basis for the award of any degree/diploma /associateship/fellowship
or any other similar title to any candidate of any university.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page 1 SUMMARY
Page 2
PREFACE
Page 3
ACKOWLEDGEMENTS
Page 5
INTRODUCTION
Page 13
THEORETICAL
FRAMEWORK
Page 22
LITERATURE REVIEW
Page 22
CONCEPTUAL
FRAMEWORK
Page 25
LITERATURE REVIEW
Page 40
RESEARCH ANALYSIS
AND DESIGN
Page 55 CONCLUSION

4. [Type text]
Summary
Much has been written or spoken about the Kargil War and the 26/11
attacks and more would be further articulated. During the time, the media
worked fundamentally to quench the insatiable urge of the public craving
news on these two major incidents. The 26/11/2008 terror attacks
received unprecedented continuous live coverage on television. Similarly,
the Kargil War became the first live war in South Asia that was given such
an elaborate and detailed media coverage. However, the questions that
could be raised here might focus on the sensitivity of Embedded
Journalism; do the media enunciate War propaganda?
This research paper forms a cohesive Sociological perspective on how
Sensationalism and Hyperbole become proactive elements during
Conflicting times as showcased by the Media in India.

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PREFACE
Reporting a war or Embedded Journalism comes under one of the
toughest assignments as there are enormous difficulties, which involve
mostly providing less bias information. The purpose of this dissertation is
to question and argue whether Embedded Journalism in India needs to
change its approach while being brought to the audience. Journalism does
not necessarily involve higher TRPs and readership; there is far more to it
than that.
Two major instances have been taken from India’s defence scenario- The
Kargil War fought in 1999 and the 26/11 Mumbai Terrorist attacks. The
Kargil War lasted from 6th
May-26th
July,1999 and was significantly
impactful for both the nations. Exploding at a time when the Electronic
Media was booming in India, in-depth analysis and cohesive
developments were reported often on the Kargil stories. The main stories
showed straightforward patriotism that the media portrayed while
reporting on the ‘enemy’ country.
Furthermore, six years have gone by since the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist
attacks happened and the incident is as fresh as yesterday. Four days of
constant shooting and the death of hundreds, after which Ajmal Kasab
was nabbed by the Indian police forces. The television audience were
provided with unprecedented live coverage of the attacks as they
unfolded. But no lesson was learnt in this case.

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The main questions were whether the Cameras and journalists too
intrusive and insensitive in the face of such a human tragedy? Did the
media ensure a tiff between ‘peace’ journalism and propagate fear and
anxiety? A more significant question could be raised here about the
media’s inadvertent resolution into War propaganda. A lot of questions
and deliberations were put forward to principal sources such as
Journalists, Defence Personnel and their families. A sociological
perspective was necessary in this case as people had different viewpoints
whether Embedded Journalism was with or without knowledge
deteriorating in all contextual forms. A keen comparison has been made
with the International media with the same events as they unfolded, and
certain similar events with the same scenario, and whether their
journalistic attributes of Embedded Reporting were any different.

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Acknowledgements
There are a number of people who I am eternally grateful to for helping
me complete the research paper in the stipulated time.
To Dr. Eshwar Anand, - my guide and mentor, Professor of Journalism,
Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune for his inexplicable
guidance, overwhelming encouragement and bestowing confidence on
what I had wanted to pursue for my research topic.
To Ms.Ruchi Jaggi, Head of Department, Journalism, Symbiosis Institute
of Media and Communication, Pune for her time and patience every time I
faltered.
To all the Journalists of the various media houses of Delhi for their strong
reportage on understanding the detailed intricacies of Embedded
Journalism and Conflict Reporting.
To all the families of the Martyrs, who have laid down their lives for our
country. Respect and salute always.
To Ms. Anjali Srivastav and Ms. Ragini Iyer for their valuable time in
understanding the brief that a student of Journalism has to go through.
To my friends, Ms.Arunima Bannerjee and Ms.Ankita Saxena for their
constant critical viewpoint regarding my research paper. It has made me
work harder and compile the work on time.

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To my mother, Mrs.Sunanda Bhattacharjee for her never-failing love and
support. Her patience had no bounds each time there would be a pitfall.
Thank you for never losing faith in me.
And finally, to God, Shri Sai Baba, for his blessings and for constantly
showing me light whenever there was darkness.
****

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INTRODUCTION
‘The media is allergic to the uniform and resistant to “management”-
Major General Arjun Ray VSM1 Indian Army.
Shortly, after the Gaza-Israel conflict broke out in 2014, also known as
Operation Protective Edge, many media channels and newspapers from
across the world reported it. The war made headlines and for several days
its details engaged viewers worldwide for days. India too reported it and
called it as ‘another Kargil-war brewing template’. The War lasted for 1
month 8 weeks and 4 days. The media coverage for the war depended on
the varied media sources, for instance, American news sources were more
sympathetic to Israel whereas British news sources were more purported
against Israel.
Perhaps a much more similar incident could be related to with ease; as
the Kargil War exploded in 1999, at a time when the Electronic media was
booming in India, the audience was exposed to live, unprecedented
coverage of the war. Embedded Journalists like Barkha Dutt who had
become a familiar face during the War, made us watch the life of soldiers
on the border, behind a series of bombings and shooting that ensued
between the neighbouring nations. Kargil War soon became the first
South Asian War to be ever telecasted live on television. But soon it was
no longer hardcore reporting as all forms of crucial journalism seem to
have been lost; a new sense of patriotism prevailed filled with dots and
blots of Patriotism.

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According to the research article Journalism Caught in Narrow
Nationalism by Dr.Dwaipayan Bose, the author expresses an overt
bias that exists between the Indian and Pakistani media. The author
enunciates on the statement on how two landmark incidents (Kargil War
and 26/11 attacks) in India-Pakistan relations illustrate how nationalist
and jingoistic the media can get when reporting on an enemy country.
The author provides striking instances of the media from both the nations
where patriotism ushers in before actually reporting. Examples of Indian
Media like the Telegraph, Times of India, India Today etc have been
exposed highlighting the nationalist strata of reporting. The Pakistan
Media had also joined the ‘war of words’ with the India Journalists,
provoking sentiments and refreshing old wounds. ‘Nowhere does the
weight of history so dominate over journalism and its practitioners than
when it comes to India and Pakistan reporting on each other’, the author
quotes.
But has the lesson been learnt? 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks are perhaps
the most hard-hitting terrorist activities ever that crippled India. The
attacks that involved bombings, hostage crisis and siege went on for 4
days (26/11/2008-29/11/2008), as people sat glued to their television
sources watching as the events unfolded. The paper All for brownie
points: reappraising the new commercial media and media–
terrorism nexus in the context of the Mumbai attacks of 26/11 by
Antara Mitra talks about investigative journalism has been deficient as it

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has been continuously taken strides towards infotainment journalism; in
other words how journalism has become commercialised and focuses only
on raising the TRPs of their channel. Quite shocking?
A major lesson coming out of the 26/11 attacks were related to the media
coverage of the incident. The visual media had become competitive and
broadcasted minute details to the audience. It hadn’t come to their
realisation that Pakistani terrorist handlers were taking help of the Indian
media, and had created situational awareness of their compatriots in
Mumbai; a solidified move that faced the brunt of humongous criticism
from analysts and critics.
An important argument could be raised her that might focus on the issue
of sensitivity of Embedded Journalism in particular that although the
gruesome images which were showcased on TV were intriguing and
provided first-hand information to the global audience yet were the
Cameras and journalists too intrusive and insensitive in the face of such a
human tragedy? Was there too much involvement of Hyperbole and
Editorialising of content in order to rake up viewership? The exposure to
Mumbai terrorist attacks was as volatile a spread as different news
channels tried to bring their different news angles to their story. All very
journalistic, yes, but in our attempt to showcase the gripping truth has
Embedded Journalism ensued a tiff between ‘peace journalism’ and
propagate fear and anxiety...

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A sociological perspective analysing the behaviouristic pattern of civilians
and families of defence personnel have been added in this dissertation to
highlight the propagation of mass hysteria through gruesome images. To
bring out this argument forcibly, the research paper All for brownie
points: reappraising the new commercial media and media–
terrorism nexus in the context of the Mumbai attacks of 26/11 by
Antara Mitra has been referred again. The paper elaborates that the
Supreme Court of India had slammed the electronic media for its live
coverage of the 26/11 terrorist attacks. The Apex Court said that by doing
so the TV channels did not serve any national interest or any fundamental
social cause.
To see if the media entails War propaganda has also been explored
through the dissertation. According to Media and Terrorism by CA
Damm, ‘Terrorists are dependent on the publicity they receive, and the
media acquire from the terrorist their staple in news reporting: an event
newsworthy, unexpected, and violent, which the public is drawn to hear,
see, and read about.’ There is substantial evidence that terrorists
orchestrate dramatic incidents to maximize their propaganda impact; the
propaganda of invoking mass hysteria. The media falls prey to its events
always which results in amalgamation of deviation from investigative
journalism, that gets dragged to a different tangent of radical news
articles and expression of thoughts.

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Anything more radical than voluntary self-restraint in reporting terrorist
activity would be a threat to the democratic principles of freedom of the
press and speech. The media's awareness of the efforts of terrorists to
manipulate them for terrorist purposes should put the media on guard
against becoming a propaganda arm for terrorism. Furthermore, the a
significant focus is constructed on war propaganda and to further reiterate
one of the arguments if media focuses on war propaganda. Questioning
the fact whether reporting about terrorist activity would be a threat to the
democratic principles of freedom of the press and speech would also be
dealt to justify the standpoint.

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Theoretical Framework
War will never be the same for us Indians again. Much has been written
or shown about the War and further more would be articulated. It started
rather cautiously with bombardments and soldiers marching with Bofor
Guns. But soon the momentum of the media took over; Reporters rubbing
shoulders with the soldiers and climbing up to the mountain side, thus,
they became surrogate heroes themselves. Embedded Reporting took a
backseat. The country too was sensitised by these images. It was the first
South Asian War that was brought live to the televisions at home and was
given a human face.
But what was completely forgotten during this time was the sanctity of
War and Journalism; endless pictures of widows, bereaved bodies of
soldiers not only rekindled patriotism in the most cynical viewers but also
re-established a sense of hatred towards the ‘enemy-country’. Through
the concept of theoretical framework arguments would be proved with
sufficient evidence both theoretically and concurrently from the media.
The first theory to be proved in this context is Media promotes War
Propaganda. Propaganda refers to the no-holds-barred-expectations to
propagate specific beliefs and expectations. The most important goal of
propaganda is to change the way people act and then let them believe
that their kind of behaviour and perspective towards different spheres
underlying them are their own.

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Propaganda theorists have analyzed media content and speculated about
its influence. The television broadcast of the Kargil War and the way it
was depicted showed that the media had in its nature a requiem of potent
jingoism and nationalism that it wanted to spread. Pakistan was regarded
as the ‘enemy-state’ not only in India but throughout the world. Hence, it
could be safely said that India had won the Kargil War, partly owing to
the media propaganda of depicting Pakistan as the ‘bad’ nation.
In this context, the filters described by Noam Chomsky and Edward
Herman developed 4 filters through which they believe that propaganda
passes can be used to substantiate the point such as Ownership,
Advertising, Flak and Source.
According to Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman, ‘Propaganda refers to
particular doctrines or principles deliberately spread widely by an
organization or a movement. They believed that any form of propaganda
had highly coherent characteristics that meant using absolute covert
means to spread the message fundamentally, choreographing the
methods of communication etc. In their book Manufacturing Consent: The
Political Economy of Mass Media, written in 1988, they say “the private
media business is the sale of readers and audiences to other businesses
(Advertisers) and not the sale of quality news to the public.”
Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman put forward the following five filters
as part of this theory: Ownership, Advertising, Source, Flak and Anti
Communism. An excellent example of the use of propaganda is the United

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States war against Iraq, which has been examined below in the context of
the five filters of the propaganda model.
Ownership: According to the theory many media houses set up
connections with the government and they are only allowed to broadcast
what the government wants them to do. The media worked overtime to
quench the insatiable public craving for news on Kargil.
During the 1990 Indo-Pak War, according to senior journalist VC
Natrajan "the press had access to forward areas when the war broke out.
Neither the top brass of the armed forces nor the bureaucracy made any
effort to hinder the media from reporting what was happening on the
battlefront." Since that war, there have been immense progressive
changes in the kind of TV coverage that was made available to the
common man in India. It was due to a proliferate cable TV regime and
immense changes in the Information Technology sectors.
It was as if the Government wanted the war to be telecast in the social
milieu and invoke feelings of patriotism among its people. Similarly, the
same example could be adhered to the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks.
The TV news channels were right at the spot, reporting every minute
detail to its audience, harnessing extravagant information to its viewers.
India Tv’s Rajat Sharma had exponentially arranged an interview with the
terrorists asking questions such as ‘How are you today’. It would be quite
seamless to say, nevertheless, that there could be providential
government links with the TV News Channels.

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Advertising: According to the theory, “in order to maintain their cost of
production, without increasing the price of their newspaper, media houses
are heavily dependent on advertisers. Therefore, stories that conflict with
the consumer’s ‘buying mood’ or the mood the advertiser wants to set will
not be run.”
Advertising in this case did not happen as the Indian government did not
permit it. However, films were made both about the Kargil War and the
26/11 Mumbai attacks, desensitizing the issue as a mere labyrinth of
songs and dances. The films were made to honour the martyrs who had
laid their lives down for their country, but a behaviour analysis and a
sociological perspective later, the families of the defence personnel who
had fought for their country, were indeed a sensitive issue.
However, in this scenario it could be said that the Advertising filter would
not regenerate any kind of propagandist agenda.
Source: According to the theory. “The media is dependent on their
sources for a steady supply of fresh news. As a result, their execution of
their duties may be biased for fear of jeopardizing a valued relationship.
In the context of the Kargil War and the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks,
India was largely nationalistic while promoting its entire message.
Although it is quite applicable for the 26/11 attacks but the War was
disintegrated into a nationalistic approach.

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Every news show spoke about how the War became Pakistan’s betrayal of
trust. Even War correspondents reporting from the location, would exhibit
physical dangers, and suddenly Embedded Journalists became War
Reporters rather than the real soldiers.
The news channels and newspapers, in perfect accordance with the
government had exhibited jingoistic vices and invoke the aspects of
infotainment journalism. For instance, initially quite hesitant of the
television crews and journalists, the army slowly engaged themselves and
took the media’s role as force multiplier quite literally. The defense
personnel got so carried away with the media’s questions and the live
coverage of war that they gave them access to all information that they
could find.
There were slip-ups for which the Indian Army had to pay such as the
blazing lights of the photographer outside the Brigade Headquarters drew
attention of the enemy at Drass. This led to heavy shelling in which four
soldiers were killed and the correspondent of a national daily was injured.
Flak: According to the theory, this refers to “the negative lash back to a
media statement, or even to the media’s coverage.”
In the context of the Kargil war, consistent examples of biased, distorted
reporting with regard to the war as the events detonated. Then there was
much uproar about Star News announcing the date and time of the

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assault on Tiger Hill, three days before it actually was to take place. Much
to its chagrin, the army realised what hungry reporters could do to file a
scoop.
While the horror was being played out for the viewers till the last terrorist
was shot dead, another farcical tragedy was also unfolding for them. In
spite of having 67 news channels, not one of them was able to come up
with the mix of restrained, sensitised and balanced reporting that a terror
attack of a magnitude of this length required. Instead, reporters brought
out conflicting and wrong information without trying to mark and
understand the gravity of the situation, and generated new angles to
make shows and debates with various incomprehensive ideas and
attitudes.
Therefore, the Kargil war serves as an excellent example of the use of
propaganda in its various forms.
Another theory that could be analysed is the Mass Society theory that
puts media as an influential yet negative in nature. The Mass society
theorists believe that the media is viewed in a perspective so as to
profoundly shape our attitude and perceptions of the world we live in. The
main assumption of the theory is that the media influence must be
controlled as it preaches negativity and instils wrong emotions.
The mass media theory could be applied to both the broadcast of the
Kargil War and the 26/11 terror attacks. A comparison could be made in

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this context, with the help of the 2013 Nairobi Westgate Supermarket
attacks; India reported it as another 26/11 in the making. An analysis by
Brahma Chellaney has revealed that as a separate entity the media must
not black out coverage but must do it in such a way that it does not help
the terrorists by giving them the wisdom of situational awareness. The
way out was restricting direct media access to such an event and
providing periodic credible and vetted updates through a government
spokesperson
During the Westgate mall attack, the media was kept at a distance and
out of direct visual contact of the mall. However, as this was not followed
up by official updates and the information void was filled with relevant
information by powerful government agencies. Social media played an
important role in the dissemination of news during the attack on Westgate
mall originating from various government agencies, NGOs, journalists and
citizens. It was being constantly updated with information.
The media plays a significant role in keeping the agitated public during
times of terror and war informed and calm. Unwanted hysteria and lack of
mental peace creates an indefinite void between people and fuels
nemesis. Chaotic scenarios other redundant information and visuals must
be avoided completely. Basically, it brings a degree of transparency in
such an incident of national and international interest. Within the

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parameters of the Mass Society Theory, the treatment of the media
during Mumbai and the Nairobi terror attacks presents two extremes of
how not to let the media play out during such incidents.
Third Theory used to prove this point is the Agenda Settings Theory,the
theory doesn’t tell the masses what to think but rather what to think
about. According to Mass Communication Theorists, “this theory was
providentially confirmed through the research of Maxwell. E. McCombs
and Donald Shaw. According to them, “The mass media may well
determine the important issues – that is, the media may set the ‘agenda’
of the campaign”
By applying this theory during the generation of Kargil War videos and
newspaper readings, the media not only showed images of the Indian
soldiers fighting against all odds to defeat the enemy but it also showed a
fundamental attribute towards Nationalism and patriotism. According to
Role of Media in Kargil War by Anshu Bhatia The paper thoroughly
examines the agenda setting attribute of the media and says that the
media is responsible for changing and affecting the minds of people, thus
evoking judgmental bias and understanding.
It is again applicable to 26/11 attacks wherein the media has been
extremely vulnerable in order to provide an in-depth news analysis thus
being extremely intrusive. The journalists played with the minds of the
audience and created a major paranoia in the society and engulfed with

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zero sensitivity and the desire for generating more funds into their news
channels. All 67 channels (counting up to date) were updating the same
kind of news with intense competition with each other.

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CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
The Conceptual Framework involves various definitions of several words in
the dissertation topic. The words highlight the main component of the
dissertation through which the concept is duly generated. It involves the
operational definition of the word according to the topic and
conceptualization as well as the definition that pertains universally.
Conflict Reporting has been fundamentally used in many aspects in the
whole process of the dissertation. Conflict Reporting, in this case, stands
for the reportage during unusual activities, for instance, war, terrorist
activities in this case. According to an UNESCO Report, ‘Conflict Reporting
stands for is that violent conflict attracts intense news media attention
that requires greater analytical depth and skills to report on it without
contributing to further violence or overlooking peace building
opportunities’. The report further attributes that conflict reporting is
highly sensitive in nature and it should contribute to peace-building and
reconciliation.
War propaganda has been particularly put as the argument puts forth the
point that the Media generates War Propaganda thus generating more and
more disharmony in the country. This can be further attributed to that
during the Kargil War, both the global and Indian media unified and
convened that Pakistan was the ‘enemy state’. So much so that through a

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unique propagandist agenda India won the war. According to the
American Historical Association,’ War propaganda is a combination of
military, economic and political pressure against the enemy. It is fought
on all four fronts at once, the military front, the economic front, the
political front, and the media front’.
Nationalism is another important definition that has been continuously
used. Nationalism, in this case, meant the feeling of pride and respect
towards one’s own country. This was brought forth during the Kargil War
went both the Pakistani and Indian media was determined Nationalists;
this was also reported in their reporting as journalists also brought forth
views of strong despise against the enemy state and support one’s own
nation. According to Nationalism in India by Pooja Mondal,’ Nationalism is
a sense of loyalty towards one’s own nation. It creates a sense of
psychological bond with the nation. The bond of affinity is strong to such
an extent that people belonging to a particular nation are suspicious of
foreigners’. In the dissertation it invokes the feeling of Nationalism during
times when diplomatic relations between two countries are at stake. The
media should have presented an unbiased report about the war and not
evoked sensitive emotions as Nationalism.
Hyperbole is another concept that has been mentioned here significantly.
Hyperbole is essentially the usage of strong words and figures of speech
in order to create a definite impression on an individual. This could be

25. [Type text]
solely adopted to both Kargil and 26/11 attacks as Embedded Journalists
were constantly in the momentum of exaggeration in order to influence
the public. Be it the newspapers or the TV channels, Hyperbole was at its
maximum during the Conflict times. According to JACK W. GERMOND &
JULES WITCOVER, authors of ‘Hyperbole Reigns’, Hyperbole is the
complete exaggeration of situations by using sentences and words which
can prevail within seconds of time’. It is usually attributed to a negative
form of communication.
Embedded Journalism is another important term that marks the milestone
for the conceptual framework in the dissertation. The term, in this means
that Journalists to attach themselves to certain military units in order to
cover a war or certain other terrorist activities. This is applicable to both
the Kargil War and the 26/11 terrorist attacks when the journalists had
attached themselves to the soldiers, and the security agencies in order to
find stories. According to the Dangers of Embedded Journalism by David
Ignatius, the concept is attributed to Embedded Journalism emerged from
USA when journalists travelled with the military to cover stories.
However, it arose more fervently as Journalists not only gained access to
information and talkative sources, but also inherited the distortions and
biases that came with travelling with a separate entity.

26. [Type text]
Literature Review
Topic: Role of Indian Media in Conflicting times: An analysis of the
audience affected by the Print and Broadcast coverage of 26/11 Terror
Acts and Kargil War.
Objective: To determine whether Sensationalism and Hyperbole are the
main factors of Embedded Journalism during conflicting times in India,
and to further understand the behaviouristic responses of the society
during the Kargil War and 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
Literature Review: The first paper that I have read is Journalism
Caught in Narrow Nationalism by Dr.Dwaipayan Bose. The purpose
of reading the paper was to conceive the idea as to how an overt bias
exists between the Pakistani Media and the Indian Media. The author
enunciates on the statement on how two landmark incidents (Kargil War
and 26/11 attacks) in India-Pakistan relations illustrate how nationalist
and jingoistic the media can get when reporting on an enemy country.
The author provides striking instances of the media from both the nations
where patriotism ushers in before actually reporting. Examples of Indian
Media like the Telegraph, Times of India, India Today etc have been
exposed highlighting the nationalist strata of reporting. The Pakistan
Media had also joined the ‘war of words’ with the India Journalists,
provoking sentiments and refreshing old wounds. Nowhere does the
weight of history so dominate over journalism and its practitioners than
when it comes to India and Pakistan reporting on each other. For years

27. [Type text]
now, the media of both nations have been fighting a proxy war that is
blurring out factual and unbiased coverage of events in the subcontinent.
Overly nationalistic posturing and jingoism lie at the heart of this.
Journalists, columnists, TV anchors and analysts of one country are busy
exposing the ‘bias’ and ‘hypocrisy’ of the other, and in the process, adding
insult to a 64-year-old injury.
After reading this paper, it has led me to believe that a thorough analysis
could be done regarding the type of Embedded Journalism that the two
nations follow. It would be interesting to note how the two countries had
responded, through Print and Broadcast mediums regarding the Kargil
and 26/11 terror attacks and to question if national posturing disguises
itself as Embedded Journalism.
The next paper that I have read is All for brownie points:
reappraising the new commercial media and media–terrorism
nexus in the context of the Mumbai attacks of 26/11 by Antara
Mitra. This research paper takes the direction of the emergence of a new
global media preached by the globalization of the 21st
Century. The paper
focuses on how commercial media does not conquer on the attributions of
investigative and crucial journalism and instead focuses on infotainment
journalism. It basically preaches on the deficiency on the part of the news
channels to point towards raising their TRPs rather providing concurrent
information related to the topic.

28. [Type text]
Through the specific case study of the media coverage of the Mumbai
terror attacks, the study aims to reveal how the commercial agenda of
the new media ends up elaborating the terrorist agenda, albeit in
immediate short run, of inculcating mass hysteria through the
propagation of the visuals, irrational mob fury directed against the state
thereby eroding, however temporarily the popular sovereignty of the
state.
This paper talks about the media being an independent corporate
business model solely dependent on advertising revenues. Although the
paper focuses on the commercialisation of the media it makes on a
judgement pass at the profit oriented model of the media. However, a
question arises in this matter that does the new revenue-inferring model
of the media coinciding with the facets of Journalism. It raises the
impertinent question of how commercialisation of the media tampers with
real journalism. This paper is figurative in nature and focuses on
corporate capitalism than the sacrosanct behavioural model of the media.
It does raise a question on how true the media is and to the extent that it
would go to prove its nature of Fourth Estate in the economic
liberalisation, neo-political associations and globalization through its
vulnerability and volatility.
The third paper I have read is Watching Barkha Dutt: Turning on the
news in Television Studies by R Parameswaran. This essay examines
Barkha Dutt, host of the popular NDTV news talk show ‘We the People’, as

29. [Type text]
a symbolic portal into the rise of television news celebrity culture in
India's altering mediascape. The essay first situates Dutt's work as a
reporter and a talk show host within the context of Indian television
journalism's role in the democratic public sphere and then explores the
implications of Dutt's class and gender identities for the hierarchies of
celebrity status in commercial television news. In the end, this case study
of Barkha Dutt argues that greater attention to India's exploding
journalism industry – its star personalities, political economy, critiques of
news programmes and talk shows' representations and audience
responses and how it will revitalize and enrich the evolving trajectories of
television studies.
The paper talks about how Barkha Dutt brought the Kargil War to our
homes through the television and made the global audience watch the
war live. However, the courageous war reporter got engulfed into a
controversy where it was said that most of the interviews with the
soldiers were staged. It also further elaborates on the fact that how with
the intrusion of the media many soldiers were killed.
Slamming the electronic media for its live coverage of the 26/11 terrorist
attacks, the Supreme Court had said that by doing so the Indian TV
channels did not serve the national interest or any social cause.
A Bench of Justices had said that the reckless coverage gave rise to a
situation where, on the one hand, the terrorists were completely hidden
from the security forces and they had no means to know their exact

30. [Type text]
positions or even the kind of firearms and explosives they possessed and,
on the other, the positions of the security forces, their weapons and all
their operational movements were being watched by the collaborators
across the border on TV screens and being communicated to the
terrorists. In these appeals, it is not possible to find out whether the
security forces actually suffered any casualty or injuries on account of the
way their operations were being displayed on the TV screen. But it is
beyond doubt that the way their operations were freely shown made the
task of the security forces not only exceedingly difficult but also
dangerous and risky.”
Holding that any attempt to justify the conduct of the TV channels by
citing the right to freedom of speech and expression would be “totally
wrong and unacceptable in such a situation, they further attributed that
,Freedom of expression, like all other freedoms under Article 19, is
subject to reasonable restrictions. Hence, a political framework would be
important to support my argument. The Right to Freedom of Speech and
Expression would form an integral component of my research.
The fourth paper that I have read is Scar Cultures Media, Spectacle
and Suffering by PK Nayar. The article examines the discourses and
representations of suffering in public culture. Situated within cultural
emotion studies, it assumes that suffering is tied to ‘spectacles’ of bodily
injury and vulnerability. It first analyzes images and the rhetorics of
suffering, pain and trauma. There is now a near-persistent visual culture

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of extreme and distant deprivation—voluntary, in extreme sports, or
involuntary like war or starvation victims—beamed into our living rooms.
Discourses of suffering deploy, a trauma-aesthetic that consists of
individualization–personalization and the making of a ‘barbaric space’.
Visual cultures of bodily trauma constitute now a spectacle of sentiment,
the article argues.
It also talks about the emergence of a moral imagination, a sense of
affective communities and a new geopolitics of the world through the
discovery of the shared precarity of lives. Scar cultures, the article
concludes, has a role to play in global politics because they initiate
ethical, affective responses. It is through a commodification of suffering
and its ethical consumption that the space is cleared for a new politics of
recognition—and this politics is based on the emotional intelligence of the
global community.
This article helped me to understand the sociological perspective required
in my research paper. The perception of the audience and the aftermath
of the images would form a convenient attribute to my paper. Preferably,
the families of those personnel who had fought during the Kargil and
26/11 terrorist attacks, it wouldn’t be an attack of sensitivity but would
try to determine the behavioural patterns of the people as they watched
the ‘traumatic’ images unfold.

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The fifth paper that I had read was Perceptions of a Conflict; A
qualitative analysis of the Indian and Pakistani Mass Media by
Lagnestal Melhuss. In this essay the aim is to study the current
situation and recent development of an international conflict from a social
constructivist perspective, with an emphasis on the conflicting parties’
mutual perceptions. The long conflict between India and Pakistan is here
chosen as an example. According to a social constructivist perspective the
dynamics on the international arena depend on shared ideas and
expectations. Therefore the question that is sought to be answered here
is how India and Pakistan perceive each other, currently and over a
recent time period.
In this research paper the focus lies on the images articulated in the
countries’ mass media. 500 news articles were selected from Indian and
Pakistani newspapers and analysed using a social psychology conflict
model. The author has put forth the argument that the images displayed
in mass media affect the development of the conflict.
The result of this study is that although the combined development in
each country remains constant, both countries display negative
developments in some aspects and the current situation is not hopeful in
either country. By analysing the mutual perceptions of the conflicting
parties it seems that the conflict will not de-escalate in the near future
and both countries continue to perceive the other hostilely.

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This research paper forms a similar approach to one of the above
research papers. However, it would be interesting to note how the foreign
media had perceived the Kargil War and the 26/11 attacks. Hence, an
analysis of 5 foreign newspapers and 5 foreign broadcast channels
showing the attacks along with their perspectives would be interesting to
note and may answer the question whether Kargil was a media-driven
war and if India owed it victory to the Mass media.
The sixth paper I have read is Nuclear Terrorism Commentary: The
myth of Nuclear deterrence in South Asia Commentary: The
psychology of terrorists by I.Hefland, ZA Bhutta, K Colvard, L
Forrow, J Tiwari. The attack on the World Trade Center in New York
clearly showed that there are terrorists who are willing to inflict civilian
casualties on the scale that would be expected with the use of a weapon
of mass destruction. In this article we consider the form that nuclear
terrorism could take and estimate the casualties that would occur if a
nuclear bomb the size of that dropped on Hiroshima was detonated in a
large urban area. The enormous casualties to be expected from such an
attack argue strongly for a strategy of primary prevention. In the
aftermath of 11 September 2001 nuclear terrorism has emerged as a real
threat.
Nuclear terrorism could take several forms, from an attack on nuclear
power plants and reactors to the detonation of a nuclear bomb in an
urban area. The international community urgently needs to expand its

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efforts to secure existing stockpiles of nuclear weapons and materials,
particularly in Russia, Pakistan, and India. The elimination of nuclear
weapons should be high on the global public health agenda
Nuclear terrorism might take several forms. An attack on a nuclear power
plant or other nuclear installation could result in a massive release of
radioactive material. Despite initial statements by the US Nuclear
Regulatory Commission that commercial power plants could withstand an
aircraft crashing into them, it seems likely these plants are highly
vulnerable. As early as 1982 a study by the Argonne National Laboratory
of the US Department of Energy found that, if a jet aircraft crashed into a
nuclear reactor and only 1% of its fuel ignited.
Although this research paper forms a comprehensive study about the
psychology of terrorists from the point of view of the World Trade Centre
attacks, it could be further attributed to the psychologist’s perspective on
the terrorist’s mindset. This could be linked to the 26/11 terrorist attacks
and could be applied to the connection between the bloodshot imagery
and their frame of mind. However, this might form a small component of
the dissertation as it may bring in too many conceptualizations.
The seventh paper Electing To Fight; Why Emerging Democracies Go
To War by Edward D. Mansfield and Jack Snyder. In democratizing
states, nationalism is an ideology with tremendous appeal for elites whose
privileges may be under threat. It tries to convince newly empowered

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constituencies that the cleavage between the privileged and the masses is
unimportant compared to the cleavages that divide nations, ethnic
groups, or races. Nationalism holds that the people as a whole have the
right to self-rule, but it does not necessarily promise that the government
should be strictly accountable to the average voter through democratic
processes governed by the rule of law. Its rhetoric demands government
for the people, but not necessarily by the people.
In an especially worrisome case, the nuclear-armed, elected regimes of
India and Pakistan fought the Kargil War in 1999. After the 1988 death of
Pakistani military dictator Zia ul-Haq, a series of revolving-door elected
civilian governments had presided over a rise in militant Islamic efforts to
liberate majority-Muslim Kashmir from Indian control. In Kashmir itself,
the restoration of elections after Indira Gandhis period of emergency
authoritarian rule (197577) had polarized politics and led to violent
conflict between Muslims and the state. These turbulent processes
culminated in the 1999 war, when Pakistani forces infiltrated across the
mountainous frontier in northern Kashmir. The war broke out as Pakistan
was taking steps toward greater democratization, including constitutional
changes in 1997 that were intended to strengthen the powers of elected
civilian rulers.
The research paper, therefore, studies the process and sequence of
democratization to identify when and how it leads to peace or may
instead increase the risk of war. The authors have used statistical

36. [Type text]
evidence to establish general patterns, and we use case studies to trace
causal mechanisms. Their research shows that incomplete democratic
transitions ⎯ those that get stalled before reaching the stage of full
democracy ⎯ increase the chance of involvement in international war in
countries where governmental institutions are weak at the outset of the
transition. In such transitional states with weak institutions, the risk of
war goes up by a factor of four to fifteen. Seven percent of all wars since
1816 are associated with an incomplete democratic transition. Democratic
transition is only one of many causes of war, but it is a potent one.
The research paper does not essentially support or withdraw my
argument. Hence, it only a part of the argument could be used to nullify
my statement of choice and pertinence.
The eighth paper would be Media and Terrorism by CA Damm.
Terrorists are dependent on the publicity they receive, and the media
acquire from the terrorist their staple in news reporting: an event
newsworthy, unexpected, and violent, which the public is drawn to hear,
see, and read about. There is evidence that terrorists choreograph
dramatic incidents to maximize their propaganda impact. Terrorism only
works because a handful of persons inflicting violence directly on a
relatively small number of people receive worldwide publicity for a
terrorist group and its demands and ideology.

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In June 1978, an International Congress on Terrorism and the Media
convened in Florence, Italy. Some government representatives appealed
to journalists to stop using the propaganda language of terrorists, and
news organizations from the United States, Britain, Japan, and West
Germany said they should exercise voluntary self-restraint and cooperate
with security authorities when reporting political acts of violence.
Anything more radical than voluntary self-restraint in reporting terrorist
activity would be a threat to the democratic principles of freedom of the
press and speech. The media's awareness of the efforts of terrorists to
manipulate them for terrorist purposes should put the media on guard
against becoming a propaganda arm for terrorism.
This research paper provides a significant focus on war propaganda and to
further reiterate one of the arguments if media focuses on war
propaganda. It questions the fact whether reporting about terrorist
activity would be a threat to the democratic principles of freedom of the
press and speech.
The ninth paper is Reporting Conflict by Pluralism, Newspaper Type
and Ownership by George A.Donohue, Clarice N. Olien and Philip J.
Tichener. Structural diversification has been a fundamental aspect of
social change. New and innovative forms of social organization result in a
multiplicity of power centres serving diverse internet groups. Such
pluralism has inherent conflict, the control of which is a central concern
for system maintenance and achievement of goals. Conflict, whether

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arising among governmental agencies, labour and management groups,
or political parties, is engendered by scarcity of resources, particular
social power resources. Newspaper reporting of conflict, which is the focus
of this study, is basic to all forms of public controversy.
This paper presents an analysis of conflict reporting in a sample of
newspapers in Minnesota communities with varying degrees of cultural
pluralism at two points in time. The focal points of the inquiry are conflict
reporting, pluralism, and newspaper type and newspaper ownership.
Conflict reporting by any given newspaper will depend upon the
characteristics of the social structure in which the newspaper exists. The
conclusion that the amount of conflict reporting by newspapers is lower
under conditions of lower degrees of pluralism has been
Although Pluralism forms a core component of Conflict reporting yet it
would be of minimal use to my research paper. My arguments would not
support pluralism as it has a different categorical substance altogether.
The final paper is the Mumbai massacre and its implications for
America and South Asia by Bruce Riedel. The attack on multiple
locations in Mumbai, India in November 2008 by terrorists of the Lashkar-
e-Taiba (LET) has the reputation of being extremely horrifying and ‘open
genocide’, and ranks as the most significant acts of terrorism. The
terrorists had not only had several locations under siege but had also
managed to capture the attention of worldwide media for sixty-hours.

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Hostage crisis, deaths, bombardments etc, had formed an integral part of
the terrorist attack. According to the author, the first objective of any
terrorist attack is to terrorise their target audience, the attack is certain
to be a model for terrorists around to world to ape.
The events in Mumbai were planned with sheer dexterity. The paper gives
an insight as to what kind of communication had transpired between the
terrorists and the process of communication with the terrorist handlers in
Pakistan. The author quoted that “The attack severely disrupted a
budding rapprochement between India and Pakistan, likely one of its
major goals and highlighted the emergence of LeT as a major player in
the global Islamic jihadist movement”.
Since the attack, LET had established a strong relationship with the
Pakistan Army and intelligence agencies. Despite leaders had been
arrested, many masterminds were let off without any proper judicial
proceedings. According to the research paper, ‘American interests in
South Asia, including the NATO war in Afghanistan, would be set back
considerably by another attack similar to Mumbai, especially if it results in
a major Indian military response’. The author highlights the fact that if
necessary steps are not taken, India might face under attack that would
cripple its wings permanently.
Conclusion of the Literature Review: The Conclusion derived from the
review of 10 papers has led to the believe that a comprehensive study is

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possible. It has let me take away all the redundancy that has been trying
to latch itself to the topic.
Hence, the new reformed topic would be Role of Indian Media in
Conflicting times: An analysis of the audience response affected
by the Print and Broadcast coverage of 26/11 Terror Acts and
Kargil War Propaganda.
The conclusion derived from the literature review has led me to
understand the belief of War Propaganda that results from Conflict
Reporting, and how the society gets into turmoil. The inter-relation and
the inter-dependency of the Conflict Reporting and Nationalism leads to a
biased form of representation of the Media; the sociological perspective of
the audience to the visual ‘crucial’ visual imagery and what steps has the
government taken to the Censorship of news in its potent fundamental
right of Freedom of Speech and Expression Article 19 (1).

41. [Type text]
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES, DESIGN AND ANALYSIS
Topic: Role of Indian Media in Conflicting times: An analysis of the
audience affected by the Print and Broadcast coverage of 26/11 Terror
Acts and Kargil War Propaganda
Objectives: A cohesive Sociological perspective on how Sensationalism
and Hyperbole become proactive elements during Conflicting times as
showcased by the Media in India; an analysis of the behaviouristic
pattern of people as they watched and read about events unfolding during
the time of Kargil War and 26/11 terrorist attacks through Print and
Broadcast Media.
 Effects on the community (Adults- Army Families and Civilians).
 To find out if Sensationalism and Hyperbole become the main
factors of Embedded Journalism.
 A detailed analysis of the Media Coverage (Print and Broadcast) of
the 26/11Mumbai Terrorist attacks and Kargil War (1999) in
comparison with the 9/11 World Trade Centre attacks and the Gaza-
Palestine War(2014).

42. [Type text]
 5 newspapers and TV channels of India showcasing the Kargil War
and the 9/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks in comparison to 5
newspapers and TV channels of the International Media- (Media
Coverage of War and Terrorist Attacks)
 5Pakistani Newspapers and TV channels- Newspapers: Dawn
(1947), The Frontier Post (1985), The News International (1991).
News Channels: Dawn News, AAJ News.
 5 Indian Newspapers and TV channels: Newspapers- Times of India,
The Telegraph, The Hindu. News Channels- NDTV, India Today.
 5 International Newspapers and TV Channels: Newspapers- The
New York Times, Washington Post, The Huffington Post; News
Channels- BBC,CNN.
 Gauging the audience perspective.
Research Design:
 An analysis of the Media Coverage (Print and Broadcast) of the
26/11Mumbai Terrorist attacks and Kargil War (1999) in
comparison with the 9/11 World Trade Centre attacks and the Gaza-
Palestine War(2014).

43. [Type text]
 Qualitative content analysis of 5 newspapers and TV channels of
India showcasing the Kargil War and the 9/11 Mumbai terrorist
attacks in comparison to 5 newspapers and TV channels of the
International Media. [An analysis of the Media Coverage (Print and
Broadcast) of the 26/11Mumbai Terrorist attacks and Kargil War
(1999) in comparison with the 9/11 World Trade Centre attacks and
the Gaza-Palestine War(2014).]
 The National media to International media comparison would be to
see whether traces of Sensationalism and Hyperbole with
unnecessary editorialising of events have occurred during times of
conflict coverage.
 Primary Research would be to see specific changes in behavioural
patterns of the audience; to comprehend the sociological
perspective of the masses during Conflict times. Secondary
Research would be to understand and focus whether there is a
distinction between ethics and the courage to overwhelm Patriotism
in the course of peace-keeping, resolution and Embedded
Journalism.

44. [Type text]
Research Analysis and Findings:
Research Analysis is to question whether Hyperbole and Sensationalism
exists at the stroke of Embedded Journalism in India. In order to support
the argument that Defence Journalism in India does more of Editorialising
of News reports, 5 main media houses of India were taken into
consideration. Videos and articles were drastically followed based on what
was written and broadcasted.
It was analysed that when Kargil War(1999) was being fought striking
instances of the media from both the nations where patriotism ushers in
before actually reporting. Examples of Indian Media like the Telegraph,
Times of India, India Today etc have been highlighted the nationalist
strata of reporting. The Pakistan Media had also joined the ‘war of words’
with the India Journalists, provoking sentiments and refreshing old
wounds. Nowhere does the weight of history so dominate over journalism
and its practitioners than when it comes to India and Pakistan reporting
on each other.
For years now, the media of both nations have been fighting a proxy war
that is blurring out factual and unbiased coverage of events in the
subcontinent. Overly nationalistic posturing and jingoism lie at the heart
of this. Journalists, columnists, TV anchors and analysts of one country
are busy exposing the ‘bias’ and ‘hypocrisy’ of the other, and in the
process, adding insult to a 64-year-old injury.

45. [Type text]
It has further led me to believe that a thorough analysis could be done
regarding the type of Embedded Journalism that the two nations follow. It
would be interesting to note how the two countries had responded,
through Print and Broadcast mediums regarding the Kargil and 26/11
terror attacks and to question if national posturing disguises itself as
Embedded Journalism.
In order to support this argument further, a proper classification of has
been carried out; a distinction between the coverage of news in the
International media. An analysis of the Media Coverage (Print and
Broadcast) of the 26/11Mumbai Terrorist attacks and Kargil War (1999)
in comparison with the 9/11 World Trade Centre attacks and the Gaza-
Palestine War(2014). The National media to International media
comparison would be to see whether traces of Sensationalism and
Hyperbole with unnecessary editorialising of events have occurred during
times of conflict coverage.
Further, a sociological perspective in order to understand the gravity of
the showcase of these events and how they affect the audience. Hence,
an Audience Research was conducted. The research was conducted
through the medium of Snowball Sampling and Judgment Sampling,
included Intensive Interviews and Case Studies methods.
15 individual different responses were recorded. They include:
 2 Journalists
 5 Army Officials

46. [Type text]
 5 civilians
 3 members of families affected during the attacks.
Keeping in mind the sensitivity of the situation, the questions were kept
monotonous and did not steer any emotional outbursts. Also, because the
information required is sensitive on many level their names have not been
disclosed in this dissertation. 5 questions were posed to all the samples:
1. The gruesome images which were showcased on TV were although
intriguing for the global audience, but did they raise the same
amount of curiosity for the families of those who were fighting
(Army Families);
2. Were the Cameras and journalists too intrusive and insensitive in
the face of such a human tragedy? Did the media ensure a tiff
between ‘peace’ journalism and propagate fear and anxiety?
3. Are there ethics of Nationalism that overwhelm courage in the
media?
4. Security agencies have often argued that unrestricted media
coverage of Kargil War and 26/11 attacks ended up helping the
enemy as real-time movement of forces and their operations have
been revealed by the media to the enemy forces. Should the Indian
media, Print and Broadcast, discuss norms that govern the way
conflict is covered?
5. Are there needs to pause and assess conflict reportage, keeping in
focus Kargil War and 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks. (focus on the

47. [Type text]
recent norms discussed by I&B Minister Arun Jaitley, may result on
a new pathway of research)

48. [Type text]

49. [Type text]

50. [Type text]

51. [Type text]

52. [Type text]

53. [Type text]

54. [Type text]

55. [Type text]
RESEARCH ANALYSIS
The answers given by the respondents first analyse images and the
rhetorics of suffering, pain and trauma. There is now a near-persistent
visual culture of extreme and distant deprivation such as in voluntary, in
extreme sports, or involuntary like war or starvation victims had been
beamed into our living rooms.
It also talks about the emergence of a moral imagination, a sense of
affective communities and a new geopolitics of the world through the
discovery of the shared precarity of lives. It is through a commodification
of suffering and its ethical consumption that the space is cleared for a
new politics of recognition, and this politics is based on the emotional
intelligence of the global community.
The perception of the audience and the aftermath of the images have
formed a convenient attribute to the paper. Preferably, the families of
those personnel who had fought during the Kargil and 26/11 terrorist
attacks, it was not an attack of sensitivity but would try to determine the
behavioural patterns of the people as they watched the ‘traumatic’ images
unfold.
A major lesson coming out of the 26/11 attacks were related to the media
coverage of the incident. The visual media had become competitive and
broadcasted minute details to the audience. It hadn’t come to their

56. [Type text]
realisation that Pakistani terrorist handlers were taking help of the Indian
media, and had created situational awareness of their compatriots in
Mumbai; a solidified move that faced the brunt of humongous criticism
from analysts and critics.
The scar Culture component was a unique attribute to the Dissertation.
According to the research paper Scar Cultures Media, Spectacle and
Suffering by PK Nayar, the families of the Defence personnel were
afflicted by the complete theorem of the aftermath of the images. Most
have answered in mere one- word syllables and some had not replied to
the queries. A psychological catastrophic avenue indeed.
The findings also include that the media was an independent corporate
business model solely dependent on advertising revenues. Although the
paper focuses on the commercialisation of the media it makes on a
judgement pass at the profit oriented model of the media. However, a
question arises in this matter that does the new revenue-inferring model
of the media coinciding with the facets of Journalism. It raises the
impertinent question of how commercialisation of the media tampers with
real journalism. This paper is figurative in nature and focuses on
corporate capitalism than the sacrosanct behavioural model of the media.
It does raise a question on how true the media is and to the extent that it
would go to prove its nature of Fourth Estate in the economic
liberalisation, neo-political associations and globalization through its
vulnerability and volatility.

57. [Type text]
The analysis also inferred that most of the newspapers and television
channels, even international were consistently in support of India during
the Kargil War. It has been quoted by many as a completely ‘Media-
Propagandist’ War.
Further analysis may be quoted from Watching Barkha Dutt: Turning
on the news in Television Studies by R Parameswaran The paper
talks about how Barkha Dutt brought the Kargil War to our homes
through the television and made the global audience watch the war live.
However, the courageous war reporter got engulfed into a controversy
where it was said that most of the interviews with the soldiers were
staged. It also further elaborates on the fact that how with the intrusion
of the media many soldiers were killed.
Slamming the electronic media for its live coverage of the 26/11 terrorist
attacks, the Supreme Court had said that by doing so the Indian TV
channels did not serve the national interest or any social cause.
A Bench of Justices of the Kargil Committee attributed ‘ the reckless
coverage gave rise to a situation where, on the one hand, the terrorists
were completely hidden from the security forces and they had no means
to know their exact positions or even the kind of firearms and explosives
they possessed and, on the other, the positions of the security forces,
their weapons and all their operational movements were being watched

58. [Type text]
by the collaborators across the border on TV screens and being
communicated to the terrorists. In these appeals, it is not possible to find
out whether the security forces actually suffered any casualty or injuries
on account of the way their operations were being displayed on the TV
screen. But it is beyond doubt that the way their operations were freely
shown made the task of the security forces not only exceedingly difficult
but also dangerous and risky..”
Holding that any attempt to justify the conduct of the TV channels by
citing the right to freedom of speech and expression would be “totally
wrong and unacceptable in such a situation, they further attributed that
,Freedom of expression, like all other freedoms under Article 19, is
subject to reasonable restrictions. Hence, a political framework was also
included to highlight the probability of a disrupt of the Freedom of Speech
and Expression fundamental Right in this case.

59. [Type text]
CONCLUSION
It is quite important to remember here that Media is often described as
the Fourth Estate, however, a sociological perspective may raise here
questions about the evident superficiality associated with the core concept
of media (high TRP and high readership). When the 26/11 terrorist attack
was in progress, and the world gasped with bated breath as 10 terrorists
fought their way at the Taj and Nariman Point, Rajat Sharma’s India
Today organised telephonic interviews with two other terrorists.
The research paper leads to understand the belief of War Propaganda that
results from Conflict Reporting, and how the society gets into turmoil. The
inter-relation and the inter-dependency of the Conflict Reporting and
Nationalism leads to a biased form of representation of the Media; the
sociological perspective of the audience to the visual ‘crucial’ visual
imagery and what steps has the government taken to the Censorship of
news in its potent fundamental right of Freedom of Speech and
Expression Article 19 (1).
A major lesson coming out of the 26/11 attacks were related to the media
coverage of the incident. The visual media had become competitive and
broadcasted minute details to the audience. It hadn’t come to their
realisation that Pakistani terrorist handlers were taking help of the Indian
media, and had created situational awareness of their compatriots in

60. [Type text]
Mumbai; a solidified move that faced the brunt of humongous criticism
from analysts and critics.
Anything more radical than voluntary self-restraint in reporting terrorist
activity would be a threat to the democratic principles of freedom of the
press and speech. The media's awareness of the efforts of terrorists to
manipulate them for terrorist purposes should put the media on guard
against becoming a propaganda arm for terrorism. Furthermore, the a
significant focus is constructed on war propaganda and to further reiterate
one of the arguments if media focuses on war propaganda. Questioning
the fact whether reporting about terrorist activity would be a threat to the
democratic principles of freedom of the press and speech would also be
dealt to justify the standpoint.
The purpose of this paper was to conclude that Crucial Journalism is being
overtaken in a very fast pace by Infotainment Journalism. Instances of
the Reportage of newspapers and television news have been to prove the
same. Media is known as the Fourth Estate in Indian, hence, it is
necessary that its stands firm on its pillars of significance and not deploy
into senseless embellishments for the sake of high TRPS and readership
while reporting for concrete news.

61. [Type text]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
 BOSE,D.(2011).
Journalism Caught in Narrow Nationalism.
Reuters Institute of Journalism.
University of Oxford, London, England.
 CA, Damm.(1982)
Media and Terrorism.
Journal of Security Administration Volume 5
(Published on 1982)
National Institute of Justice, USA
 I.Hefland, ZA Bhutta, K Colvard, L Forrow, J Tiwari. (2010)
Nuclear Terrorism Commentary: The myth of Nuclear
deterrence in South Asia Commentary: The psychology of
terrorists.
MIT PRESS.
University ofCambridge, London, England.
 MELHUSS,L.(2010)
Perceptions of a Conflict; A qualitative analysis of the Indian
and Pakistani Mass Media.
Publication Unavailable.
University of Leicester, London, England.

62. [Type text]
 Parameswaran,R. (2005)
Watching Barkha Dutt: Turning on the news in Television
Studies.
Publication Unavailable.
University of Missouri, Kansas.