Expanding public debate? Examining the impact of India’s top English language political talk shows

Abstract

As a genre, current affairs talk shows occupy a distinct space within the Indian television universe. Typically built around a single host and invited guests, talk shows constitute a relatively inexpensive format that most news channels deploy to market themselves. Although the extent to which such shows enhance the potential of rational-critical debate has been widely investigated in Western contexts, their implication for public deliberation remains unclear, at least in the case of India. Through an ethnographic content analysis (ECA) of such shows as represented by Newshour aired on Times Now and The Debate aired on Republic TV, this article explores the presentation styles adopted by these programs and their content both in terms of the participants invited and the range of topics discussed. This research found that instead of enabling meaningful deliberation on a variety of important civic issues, television talk shows in India were fixated on promoting religious majoritarianism, defending the policies of the Modi government, and advocating hyper-nationalism. Further, employing a combative style and polarizing tone, talk show hosts were found to stifle dissenting voices and forestall free expression. Ramifications of such blatant partisanship among current affairs talk shows for the Indian public sphere are discussed.

Keywords:

• TV News
• India
• Times Now
• Republic TV
• Arnab Goswami

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Republic TV is owned by anchor Arnab Goswami who had previously worked in Times Now. Republic TV was initially funded by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a media baron and currently a minister in the Narendra Modi government. In 2019, he sold most of his shares in Republic TV to Arnab Goswami (Narasimhan, 2019).

2 Times now is owned by one of India’s largest media conglomerates—the Times of India group. The channel was launched in 2006. Until the launch of Republic TV in 2017, it was the most-watched English news channel in the country.

3 Congress refers to the Indian National Congress (INC), which is India’s main opposition party. The party is currently led by Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi.

4 We use majoritarianism here to refer to Hindu religious supremacy, which implies favoring Hindu identity, cultural practices, social mores, and traditions over secular values that are inclusive of religious minorities including Muslims and Christians. Hindu majoritarianism creates inequitable conditions in Indian society where Hindu interests supersede national collective interests.

5 A controversial site in the city of Ayodhya in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Hindus believe that this is the birthplace of Hindu god Rama. A mosque stood at this site until December 1992. Hindu nationalists demolished the mosque followed by religious violence and a long legal battle. In 2019, the Supreme Court of India ruled that the site should be handed over to Hindu groups for the construction of Ram temple. In August 2020, Narendra Modi took part in the groundbreaking ceremony of the proposed temple.

6 Naya Bharat is a Hindi word for ‘New India’