Extensive, Theatrical: What People Thought of the Mumbai Terror Attacks Coverage on TV

Newswatch, India, an online news service, did an opinion poll-style survey of what India’s internet users thought of the television coverage of the Mumbai terrorist attacks and hostage taking of December 2008. The research was done in response to criticism through newspaper columns and blogs, among others, of the general TV news coverage as a "watershed in India’s television history". The survey was conducted over a web-based interface from December 3-6 2008.

9,906 responses were selected for the analysis, whereas 631 were rejected as being incomplete. There was no sample identification; completed survey forms, consisting of 16 questions on the perceived negative aspects of the coverage of the Mumbai terror attacks by news and business channels, were accepted as submitted. 21 English and Hindi channels were listed for assessment. Respondents were asked to rate each of these 21 channels on a scale of 1 to 5, in an increasing order of perceived negativity. The survey does not rank media sources. It reports how many of the viewers of each source found it somewhat to very negative on a range of queries, not which sources were perceived to be the most negative relative to the other sources.


Issues queried included, among others:

* speculative reporting.
* whether the news channel questioned information or simply accepted information from their various sources.
* round-the-clock coverage.
* theatricality of presentations, anchors, and reporters.
* appearances of too many celebrities.
* use of experts.
* "colourful and loaded" language.
* treatment of released hostages.



The report includes excerpts of some of the criticism of reporting, as well as a response by Barkha Dutt, Group Editor-English News, NDTV, who asks in the response: "Should there be an emergency code of dos and donts for the coverage of such crises? We in the media would welcome a framework for sensitive events and are happy to contribute to its construction." It concludes with comparing comments gathered by Newswatch intern Disha Gadhiya from viewers both inside of Mumbai and in other cities of India.