This document outlines a research plan to study changes in Telugu journalism towards commercialization. The researcher will collect information through newspaper archives, websites, and interviews. Interviews will include discussions with senior journalists, contemporary journalists, the public through a website, and discussion forums. Data collection methods aim to understand the root causes and effects of commercialization from different perspectives. The collected data will be analyzed to draft the thesis under the guidance of the research director. The overall goal is to examine trends pushing journalism away from social responsibility and suggest ways to reestablish its values.

1. Research Plan
By
Researcher
K.A. Muni Suresh Pillai
Research Director
Prof. P. Bobby Vardhan

2. Welcome

3. Change is an indication of updating
Changing trends in any field is inevitable and it includes
its progression towards updating
Journalism has no exemption from this phenomena.
Modern Telugu Journalism especially after 1970s has
witnessed enormous changes. Origin of Eenadu set a
trend and itself lead to many changes in telugu
journalism. And one among those trends is,
journalism proceeding towards commercialization.
The beginning of 21st century can be termed as
‘decade of paid and commercial journalism’.

4. Paid Journalism and commercialization of journalism
became a regular practice in majority of news papers.
Researcher wish through this research to figure out the
root causes that initiated this trend. And Researcher
can try to discover the possible ways to curb this.
Journalism is not mere a profession or business.
The Researcher’s attempt may serve the purpose of
changing its path towards social responsibility and
public service. It may help to reestablish its own
glorious values.

5. Research includes …
 Collecting information from libraries, news paper
clippings
 Collecting information from archives of websites
 Collecting various reports of Press Council of India
 Collecting data about such practices in other parts of
India and foreign countries
 Data collection through interviews

6. Data collection largely includes interviews
These interviews are planned as 4 different methods.
Each method has a specific purpose and reason.
• Interaction with seniors, having atleast 30-40 years
of experience with telugu journalism. They are the
witnesses of changing trends in telugu journalism.
Their experiences can help us to figure out the root
causes that tend journalism towards
commercialization.
• Interviews with contemporary journalists in telugu
journalism. As, they are part of today’s journalism,
they can tell us about the effect of these commercial
trends. And how they were tuned to work
accordingly.

7. Contd…
3. Interaction with common public from all over the
world for which a separate website will be
launched. Through this researcher will collect
opinions of readers/ public from all walks of life.
As they are at the utility end, they can comment on
these trends. And their opinions help us to
understand better the effect of commercial/ paid
journalism on the society.
4. Discussion fora will be held in 3 various parts of
Andhra Pradesh i.e., Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad
and Tirupati. Who ever are interested in telugu
journalism will be invited to participate. This will be
more like a open platform to the public and people
from various sections of society. All the discussions
in the fora will be recorded on video and the inputs
are used in thesis.

8. Home page of website planned
The site will be launched in a separate programme
& will get into live

9. Additionally…
 Researcher wish to interview Justice Markandeya
Katju, Chairman of Press Council of India. He is
very keen in the subject of paid journalism.
 Researcher wish to interview other celebrities who
are connected with journalism in one way or
another, like Meenakshi Natarajan who presented a
private bill in Loksabha demanding a regulatory
authority on media,
 Researcher wish to convene a discussion forum in
New Delhi with telugu senior journalists located
there to take their opinions on these trends and
practices. If a discussion forum is not possible,
researcher will interview some of them.

10. While getting into the details..
 1st part of interviews largely includes oral
interview with seniors
 2nd and 3rd parts of interviews will be in electronic
format. A online-questionnaire will be sent to
contemporary journalists and in the same manner a
online-questionnaire will be sent to the people who
shares their opinions through website.
 4th part of interviews is discussion and video shoot
will be done completely.

11. The data collected will be used in analyzing /
drafting thesis. And any required additional
work will be done according to the guidelines
of Research Director Professor P. Bobby
Vardhan garu in formulating the thesis
adequately .
The Researcher request your kind suggestions
Thanking you
K.A. Muni Suresh Pillai
+91 99594 88088
kamspillai@gmail.com
www.suresh.adarsini.com