Religious Tolerance and the Press: An Analysis of Socio-political Factors in the Coverage of Religious Issues in the Indian Newspapers

Abstract

Se analiza, en seis periódicos de la India, la cobertura informativa de tres acontecimientos relativos a la minoría cristiana con la metodología del análisis del discurso complementada con la aplicación de algunas técnicas cuantitativas; para ello se “transforman” conceptos del análisis cualitativo en variables manejables en el estudio estadístico. En conjunto, la prensa ha defendido los valores constitucionales del secularismo y de la tolerancia religiosa, a pesar de privilegiar una focalización política de los acontecimientos religiosos. El análisis discursivo de los editoriales revela que los diarios nacionales, diarios de las élites cultas, han sido “blandos” al condenar las actitudes intolerantes de los fundamentalistas.

The press coverage of three religious events regarding the Christian minority in India is scrutinized in six newspapers with a discourse analysis method implemented with a quantitative methodology that “transforms” concepts of the qualitative analysis into variables adapted for statistical analysis. Overall, the analysis proves that the newspapers keep their role as the watchdog of democracy and secularism that are embedded in the Indian Constitution. Though the three events had a predominant religious meaning, the newspapers framed them into a political angle. A deeper qualitative analysis of the editorials proves that the elite national newspapers were soft in condemning fundamentalists.