Abstract
This content analysis of prime-time news bulletins during India’s election campaign 2014 in seven mainstream TV channels in Hindi and English studied the construction of development, deprivation, inequality, and governance by main political parties and their leaders. The author counters a popular impression that development was a central theme of campaign coverage. The TV channels accorded more importance to star campaigners and to “ticket” distribution rather than to policies concerning development. Sectarian politics and hate speeches invariably got more coverage on TV rather than social sector issues. Hunger, poverty, inequality, discrimination, and displacement were nowhere in the debate. Political parties and politicians, including Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Narendra Modi who got more coverage than all rivals, also avoided defining “development” in precise terms almost as a deliberate choice. Brand Modi seems to have been treated as a proxy for development and good governance. Corruption and inflation came across as non-issues on TV.
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