Communicating science through newspapers: A comparative...

Journal of Scientific Temper Vol 7(1&2), Jan-June 2019, pp. 38-61

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Communicating science through newspapers: A comparative study between

national & regional newspapers of Nagaland SHIVAJYOTI DAS BARUAH

Assistant Professor, Department of Mass Communication, Nagaland University, Lumami, Nagaland-798627

Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Communicating science in today’s world has been a very important aspect of communication. With proliferation of different technological advancements, science communication is very important as modern lifestyle is intricately related with gifts of science. Another important aspect of science communication is the development of scientific temperament. Here media plays a pivotal role.

Concentrating on newspapers, the study tries to find out how science is reflected in newspapers of Nagaland. The paper summarizes the study of how science is being communicated, what types of science items are getting preference, in what formats science items are being published in the newspapers. With an in-depth content analysis, the study makes a comparison study between national and regional newspapers of Nagaland. Taking two national newspapers along with three regional newspapers for a duration of three months, the paper discusses about various issues of science communication.

Keywords: Science communication, Newspapers, Science coverage, Nagaland

Introduction

Communicating scientific knowledge to the masses is an important aspect for the media. The process of transmission of scientific facts and ideas to the masses is called science communication which is getting significance day by day. Science communication is defined as the use of appropriate skills, media, activities and dialogue to produce awareness, interest, opinion and understanding of science, its content,

SCIENCE COMMUNICATION THROUGH NEWSPAPERS 39

processes and social factors (Burns, O'Connor, & Stocklmayer, 2003). Modern scholars view science communication as a complex and contentious topic that encompasses a spectrum of issues from the factual dissemination of scientific research to new models of public engagement whereby lay persons are encouraged to participate in science debates and policy.

Nelkin (1990) states that for people, “the reality of science is what they read in the press. They understand science less through direct experience or past education than through the filter of journalistic language and imagery”. By framing issues in specific ways, media can influence not only issues that are presented to mass audiences, but also how these are perceived, and what importance the public should attach to them (Durrant, Wakefield, McLeod, Clegg-Smith, & Chapman, 2003).

Media has a pivotal role in shaping public understanding of science and imparting scientific knowledge which can lead to development of a scientific attitude. The newspaper performs an important service in communicating the information to public. Newspaper articles serve as "filters" for technical information by translating it into language that the average lay person can understand and making it accessible to the public. Journalistic decisions on what information to publish, how to slant it, and who to consult for interpretation or reaction, set the tone and boundaries of what reaches the consumers. Although the rise of television and Internet pose a threat to the newspaper, newspaper still attracts people because of its beauty of reading, flexibility of use, consistency, involvement, credibility and creativity.

In a study by A.F. Simon (1997), it was found that an increase in the news coverage of natural calamities and disasters influenced the behaviour of private US citizens, resulting in a remarkable rise in donations by them. In short, news coverage and its intensity have a direct effect on readers, influencing and changing their attitudes. The role of media is very important in informing the public about early-stage science policy debates and avenues for public involvement, potentially raising awareness and participation (Bubela, et al., 2009). With improved public engagement efforts on the part of scientists and their organisations, the communication initiatives are to be guided by careful formative research, using a diversity of media

40 JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC TEMPER, VOL 7(1&2), JAN-JUNE 2019

platforms and audiences to facilitate conversations (Nisbet & Scheufele, 2009).

Presentation is very important in communicating any science message. Information in science communication should be provided with an exploratory bent of mind in clear, eye catching manner without any technological jargon so that the common readers can understand (Dutta & Ray, 2011). Since the target people are the common masses who are mostly from non-science background, the presentation has to be made using appropriate tools like diagrams, graphs, etc (Goh, Pomsagun, Tissier, Dennison, Kremer, & Weichselgartner, 2008).

With a strong impact of newspapers in growing demand for information, a well prepared science item can influence readers and create awareness about important science issues.

Aims & objectives

To analyse the quantitative and qualitative coverage of science items in selected newspapers and make a comparative study between selected national and local newspapers (qualitative analysis means whether there is publication of interesting/ attractive items, i.e. with photographs and good intro, or just informative science, i.e. plain in approach). It also covers other aspects like readers’ perception of credibility of science contents published in the newspapers and overall satisfaction of the readers in reading science items. Another objective is to find out the importance given to different areas of science items published in the newspapers, i.e. health, environment, new technology, cosmos, etc.

Methods

The study is based on content analysis. The content analysis includes both quantitative and qualitative analysis of the newspaper content to identify the quantum and nature of coverage of science. Qualitative analysis of the content seeks to find out the type and nature of presentation of newspaper contents on science, whereas the quantitative analysis attempts to measure the number of science items published and percentages of different types of science items making a comparison among the selected national and regional newspapers.


Two national newspapers – The Hindu (Eastern Edition) and Times of India (North Eastern edition) – were selected for the study. Among the four regional English newspapers of Nagaland, three were selected except Nagaland Page which is a tabloid. The others are Nagaland Post, Eastern Mirror and The Morung Express.

Units for analysis: News, Article, Editorial, Letter to Editor, Interview, Photo, Graphics, Scientoons, Queries, Science Fiction.

Creation of variables: The selected units of analysis had been divided into various variables pertaining to quantitative and qualitative analysis of science content in newspapers.

Space (in square centimeter): The space was measured in terms of total space of newspaper, edit space and space devoted to science item(s)

Placement: The placement of the unit item was analyzed on account of front page, editorial page, supplement page, science page and other page.

Subject Area: The unit item analysed the subject area depicted under the categories: agriculture, environment, health and medical, veterinary, information technology, nuclear or atomic energy, media technology, cybercrime, cosmos and general science.

Presentation: The unit item was analysed on the basis of presentation of science in two categories: 1. Interesting and 2. Just Informative.

Interesting: The science items are categorized as Interesting when they satisfy three conditions: a. Have proper photographs, b. Have graphs or table and c. Have an attractive lead. Attractive lead means when the introduction of the topic is indirect rather than straight or making direct reference to the readers.

Just Informative: Includes science items without any visualization and not attractive lead.

Illustration: It was analysed whether the unit item is substantiated with any illustrations like photograph, graphics and charts.

Context/level of reporting: The context/level of reporting of the unit item had been analysed in terms of international, national, regional and local presentation.


Data interpretation

Table 1 shows the mean area of total space, editorial space, advertisement space and science space in square centimetres of the selected five newspapers. It is evident from the table that The Hindu has the highest total space coverage (35997.50 sq cm). In regional newspaper category, all the three newspapers, i.e. Nagaland Post, The Morung Express and Eastern Mirror have almost equal mean total space coverage, the mean values being 21547.20 sq cm, 21232.05 sq cm and 21407.71 sq cm, respectively.

Table 1: Distribution of Space Allocation of Science & others in different newspapers

Newspaper Total Space in cm2

(Mean)

Editorial Space in cm2

(Mean)

Ad Space in cm2

(Mean)

Science Space in

cm2 (Mean)

The Hindu 35997.50 144.48 7015.94 591.86

Times of India 28968.35 283.50 14054.10 481.15

Nagaland Post 21547.20 231.15 5151.16 530.99

The Morung Express

21232.05 172.25 1502.63 731.80

Eastern Mirror 21407.71 202.47 1869.02 480.09

In Editorial Space, Times of India tops the list with 283.50 sq cm among the 5 newspapers. In Ad space also, it is Times of India which has the highest coverage with 14054.10 sq cm which is almost double the space of The Hindu (7015.94 sq cm). Of the regional newspapers, Nagaland Post is the highest for Ad space with 5151.16 sq cm.

For science space, The Morung Express has the highest coverage with 731.80 sq cm which is more than national newspapers The Hindu and Times of India. In national category, The Hindu has the highest coverage with 591.86 sq cm.

Table 2 shows the number of types of science items according to five selected newspapers. Content analysis is done to find out different types of science items in 10 categories, i.e. News, Article, Editorial, Letters to the Editor, Interview, Photo, Graphics, Scientoons, Queries and Science Fiction.


Fig. 1: Distribution of space allocation of science and others in different newspapers

It is evident from the table that in News category, The Hindu has the highest number, i.e. 183 science items published while Times of India is the second highest with 178 items among the five newspapers. Thus at national level, The Hindu is at top and at local level, The Morung Express is at the top with 120 news items followed by Eastern Mirror (74 items).

Table 2: Distribution of science items according to newspaper and types (formats) of science items in numbers

Types of Science Items

Newspaper

The Hindu

Times of India

Nagaland Post

The Morung Express

Eastern Mirror

News 183 178 53 120 74

Article 43 52 47 74 87

Editorial 6 6 1 0 1

Letter to Editor 5 0 0 0 0

Interview 3 2 0 0 1

Photo 7 7 0 4 3

Graphics 7 3 2 1 0

Scientoons 1 1 0 0 0

Queries 0 4 0 0 0

Science Fiction 0 0 0 0 0

Total Numbers of Science Items

255 253 103 199 166


In Article category, Eastern Mirror tops among the newspapers with 87 science items published. Among the national newspapers, it is Times of India with 52 items which is at the top. The number of science items published in The Hindu, Nagaland Post and The Morung Express are 43, 47 and 74 respectively where The Hindu has the lowest number in article category.

Science Editorial is not seen very commonly. Both Times of India and The Hindu have the highest numbers with 6 items while at the local level, the two newspapers Nagaland Post and Eastern Mirror have 1 item each. The Morung Express has null value in Science Editorial category.

The Hindu is the only newspaper to have Letters to the Editor of science items with 5 publications. All other four have no publications.

In Interview also The Hindu tops the list with 3 items followed by Times of India with 2 publications while in local newspapers Eastern Mirror has 1 publication and other two have no publication.

In Photo and Graphics, The Hindu tops the list with 7 items in both categories. Times of India also tops in Photo category with same as The Hindu, i.e. 7 items. Among the local newspapers, it is The Morung Express in Photo (4 items) and The Nagaland Post in Graphics (2 items) to have highest numbers.

In Scientoon category, The Hindu and Times of India are the newspapers to have publications, with 1 item. The remaining newspapers have no publication.

For Queries, Times of India is the only newspaper to have 4 items and none of the others have any publication. No newspaper has published any item in the Science Fiction category.

In total number of science items published, both national newspapers are almost the same, i.e. Times of India tops the list with 253 items and The Hindu publishes 252 items.


Fig. 2: Distribution of Science items according to newspaper wise and types (formats) of science items in numbers

Table 3 depicts the comparison between national and local newspapers in different categories of science items in numbers. It is evident from the table that in news category, national newspapers are providing more coverage than that of the local dailies. While national newspapers have a mean value of 2.14 items, local has only .97 as mean value which is less than half of the mean value of national newspapers.

In Article category, local newspapers publish more than the national newspapers where local newspapers have .75 mean value and national newspapers have .55 as mean value.

For Editorial, national newspapers have higher score of .07 than local with .05 as mean value.

In Letters to the Editor and Interview section, it is only national newspapers which have publications with .03 as mean value in both categories.

For Photo and Graphics section, national newspapers have higher number than the local newspapers. While national


newspapers have .08 and .06 as mean values, national newspapers have only .03 and .01 as mean values.

In Scientoon and Queries, national newspapers have got .01 and .02 mean value but there is no publication in local newspapers.

There is no publication in Science Fiction category by any of the newspapers from both areas.

Table 3: Distribution of Science items according to National vs Local dailies and types (formats) of science items in number

Types of Science Mean

/SD

Newspaper

National Local

News Mean 2.14 .97

SD 2.12 1.11

Article Mean .55 .75

SD 1.07 1.26

Editorial Mean .07 .01

SD 1.11 .58

Letter to Editor Mean .03 0

SD .41 0

Interview Mean .03 0

SD 0 0

Photo Mean .08 .03

SD 0 0

Graphics Mean .06 .01

SD 0 0

Scientoons Mean .01 0

SD 0 0

Queries Mean .02 0

SD 0 0

Science Fiction Mean 0 0

SD 0 0

Total Numbers of Science Items

Mean 2.99 1.77

SD 4.71 2.94

Table 4 depicts the percentages of various formats of science items published in selected newspapers. It is obvious from the table that the most popular format of science items appeared in the newspaper in the News category. With 608 items, News is the most widely appearing format for science items with 62.30%.


Fig. 3: Distribution of science items according to National vs Local dailies and types (formats) of science items in number (Mean)

Table 4: Distribution of types (formats) of science items in percentage of selected newspapers in numbers

Types (Formats) of Science Items Number of Items Percentage

News 608 62.30 % Article 303 31.05 % Editorial 14 1.43 % Letters to Editor 5 .51 % Interview 6 .61 % Photo 21 2.15 % Graphics 13 1.33 % Scientoons 2 .21 % Queries 4 .42 % Science Fiction 0 0 % Total 976 100

Just below News, Article is another widely used format for science items with 303 items and 31.05%. Here it is evident that both News and Article formats are mostly used for science item publication.

The rest of the categories are not as high as the News and Article formats. Photo is in the third position with 2.15% (21 items).

Editorial and Graphics have almost equal percentage, i.e. 1.43% (14 items) and 1.33% (13 items) respectively.


Similarly, Letters to the Editor and Interview have got almost equal numbers, i.e. 5 items (.51%) and 6 items (.61%) respectively. As the numbers suggest, they are not most frequently published science items in the selected newspapers.

Queries has got only 4 items (.42%). Since majority newspapers have no separate pages except The Hindu, Queries has got very low numbers as generally it occurs in science specific pages only.

Scientoon is also very low in the newspapers. Only 2 items have been published in the selected period (.21 %). The category of Scientoon is apparently new to this media which may be the reason.

There is no publication in Science Fiction category in the selected period.

Fig. 4: Distribution of types (formats) of science items in percentage of selected newspapers in numbers

Table 5 depicts the placement of science items of selected newspapers in five categories: Front, Editorial, Science page, Supplement and Other page.

The table shows that The Hindu has highest publications in Other page with 158 items (61.96 %). It is followed by Science page with 54 items (21.18%). Front page of the newspaper has 23 items (9.02%). While Supplement page has got 11 items (4.31%), Editorial page has got the least number of items with 3.53 % (9 items).


Table 5: Distribution of placement of science items of selected newspapers in percentage

Placement of Science

Items

The Hindu

Times of India

Nagaland Post

The Morung Express

Eastern Mirror

No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %

Front Page 23 9.02 21 8.30 22 21.36 25 12.56 29 17.47

Editorial Page

9 3.53 8 3.16 12 11.65 22 11.06 39 23.49

Science Page 54 21.18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Supplement Page

11 4.31 31 12.25 33 32.04 0 0 0 0

Other Page 158 61.96 193 76.28 36 34.95 152 76.38 98 59.04

Total 255 100 253 100 103 100 199 100 166 100

In Times of India, 193 items got placement in Other page. Like The Hindu, here Other page has got is highest publications of science items with 76.28 %. Since Times of India has no Science page, it has got nil in this section. Then it is Supplement page with 31 items (12.25%) followed by Front page with 21 items (8.30%). Only 8 items (3.16%) has got publications in Editorial page.

In terms of total number, The Hindu has got the highest among the five with 255 items which is closely followed by Times of India with 253 items. In local newspapers, it is The Morung Express with 199 items which is at the top. Eastern Mirror has got 166 in total followed by Nagaland Post which is the least with 103 items.

For Nagaland Post, again Other page has got the maximum number with 36 items (34.95 %). It is closely followed by Supplement page with 33 items (32.04 %). 22 items have been published in Front Page (21.36%) while 12 items have been published in Editorial page with 11.65%. There is no separate page for Science in Nagaland Post.

The Morung Express has published more items of science than any other newspaper among the selected regional newspapers. It has published 152 items (76.38 %) in Other page which is the maximum among the categories of pages. In Front page there are 25 items (12.56 %) get published which is closely


followed by Editorial page with 22 items (11.06 %). There is no either Supplement page or Science page for this newspaper.

Like other newspapers, Eastern Mirror has also highest number of items published in Other page, 98 items (59.04%). Here Editorial page 2nd highest publications with 39 items (23.49%) and it is followed by Front page with 29 items (17.47%). Like The Morung Express, it has also no publication in either Science page or Supplement page.

From the analysis, we can see that only The Hindu has separate space for Science. Almost all the newspapers have provided highest space in the Other page category, except in Nagaland Post where it is almost same as Supplement page.

Fig. 5: Distribution of placement of science items of selected newspapers in percentage

Table 6 depicts the distribution of subject area of Science items according to the selected newspapers. It is evident from the above table that The Hindu focuses more on Environment (33.66%) than any other items, followed closely by Health and Medical (32.25%), since rising temperature and other environment issues and their impact on health have made it a hot topic. We can see that The Hindu publishes Cosmos and General Science which is in the third position with 18.89%. Other items do not have substantial percentage. While Information Technology has got 4.56%, Veterinary and Media Technology


have got same percentage of 3.58% each. Again Agriculture and Nuclear/Atomic Energy have got same as 1.63% and Cybercrime is at the bottom of the chart with .33% only. Table 6: Distribution of subject area of science items according to newspapers

Subject Area

The Hindu

Times of India

Nagaland Post

The Morung Express

Eastern Mirror

No.

(M

ean)

%

No.

(M

ean)

%

No.

(M

ean)

%

No.

(M

ean)

%

No.

(M

ean)

%

Agriculture .05 1.63 0 0 .01 .82 .08 3.25 .01 .57

Environment 1.04 33.66 .56 18.06 .23 18.85 .73 29.67 .37 21.02

Health and Medical

.99 32.25 1.22 39.35 .7 57.38 1.01 41.06 .74 42.05

Veterinary .11 3.58 .13 4.19 .15 12.30 .08 3.25 .07 3.98

Information Technology

.14 4.56 .19 6.13 0 0 .06 2.44 .10 5.68

Nuclear/ Atomic Energy

.05 1.63 .02 0.65 .01 .82 0 0 .05 2.84

Media Technology

.11 3.58 .29 9.35 .02 1.64 .14 5.69 .17 9.66

Cybercrime .01 .33 .08 2.58 .04 3.28 .06 2.44 .02 1.14

Cosmos & General Science

.58 18.89 .61 19.68 .06 4.92 .30 12.20 .23 13.07

Total 3.07 100 3.1 100 1.2 100 2.46 100 1.76 100

For Times of India, it is seen that Health and Medical has the highest percentage which is more than any other category (39.35%). Cosmos and General Science is placed in the second position with 19.68% closely followed by Environment with 18.06%. It is followed by items published on Media Technology with 9.35%. Rest of the items has meager percentage. Information Technology, Veterinary and Cybercrime have got 6.13%, 4.19% and 2.58% respectively. While Nuclear/Atomic Energy have got .65%, TOI is the only newspaper among the five to have no topic on Agriculture published.

In Nagaland Post, Health and Medical has the highest percentage with 57.38% and Environment has the second position (18.85%). Closely following is Veterinary with 12.30%


which is also the highest in Veterinary section by any newspapers. Cosmos and General Science, Cyber Crime and Media Technology have 4.92%, 3.28% and 1.64% respectively. Nuclear/Atomic Energy and Agriculture have got the same as .82%. Nagaland Post is the only newspaper to have no publication in IT.

In The Morung Express, Health and Medical section has the highest coverage with 41.06%. Second is Environment with 29.67% followed by Cosmos and General Science (12.20 %). While Media Technology has 5.69%, Agriculture and Veterinary have same percentage of 3.25%. Cyber Crime and Information Technology have also same percentage of 2.44%. Unlike other newspapers, it has no publication in the Nuclear/Atomic Energy section.

Health and Medical has the highest coverage in Eastern Mirror with 42.05% followed by Environment (21.20%). Cosmos and General Science has the third highest coverage with 13.03% followed by Media Technology with 9.66%. Information Technology, Veterinary and Nuclear/Atomic Energy have 5.68%, 3.98% and 2.84% accordingly. Towards the bottom, we can see Cyber Crime and Agriculture have got the percentage of 1.14% and .57% respectively.

If we observe from the point of different categories of science items, then it is evident from the table that out of all newspapers, The Morung Express has the highest percentage of items for agriculture (3.25 %). Surprisingly, The Hindu is in second position with 1.63% but Times of India has no publication of any item on agriculture.

All of the newspapers have given ample coverage in Environment and Health/ Medical category. While Times of India, Nagaland Post, The Morung Express and Eastern Mirror have given highest coverage in Health/Medical section followed by Environment, in The Hindu Environment has got the highest coverage than any other section with Health/Medical in second position.

Nuclear/Atomic Energy and Cybercrime are the least covered topics than any other section in most of the newspapers.


Fig. 6: Distribution of subject area of science items according to newspaper

Table 7 depicts distribution of treatment of science items in two categories: Interesting and Just Informative. The topics are categorised as Interesting if they contain image, graph or photograph and have a good intro. On the other hand absence of these is categorised as Just Informative when there is no attractive feature and it is plain writing.

From the table we can observe that in most of the newspapers except one, majority of the topics are covered under Just Informative category. Only in Times of India majority science items are Interesting, whose coverage under Interesting category is 57% and under Just Informative category is 43%.

The Hindu has 76% coverage as Just Informative category and 24% as Interesting category. While Nagaland Post has 64% as Just Informative and 36% as Interesting, The Morung Express has 72% as Just Informative and 28% as Interesting category. Under Just Informative, Eastern Mirror has 75% and 25% is under Interesting category.

From the distribution, it is clear that The Hindu has the highest share in comparison to other newspapers in Just Informative section with 76%. It is closely followed by Eastern Mirror with 75% and The Morung Express with 72%.


Table 7: Distribution of treatment of science items of selected newspapers

Treatment

The Hindu

Times of India

Nagaland Post

The Morung Express

Eastern Mirror

No. (Mean)

% No. (Mean)

% No. (Mean)

% No. (Mean)

% No. (Mean)

%

Interesting .71 24 1.71 57 .4 36 .66 28 .45 25

Just Informative

2.29 76 1.26 43 .81 64 1.65 72 1.34 75

Total 3 100 2.96 100 1.21 100 2.31 100 1.78 100

Fig. 8: Distribution of treatment of science items of selected newspapers

Table 8: Distribution of number of context/level of reporting of science items in selected newspapers in numbers

Context/Level of Reporting

Newspapers

The Hindu (Mean)

Times of India

(Mean)

Nagaland Post (Mean)

The Morung Express (Mean)

Eastern Mirror (Mean)

International 1.51 2.27 .72 1.02 .82

National 1.51 .53 .21 .73 .59

Regional 0 .02 .18 .33 .24

Local 0 00 .13 .21 .12

Total 3.02 2.82 1.24 2.29 1.77

Table 9 depicts the number of Context/Level of reporting of science items in selected newspapers with mean values. It is evident from the table that all the newspapers have maximum Context/Level drawn from international platform.


The Hindu has got equal share from both International and Local Context of reporting (mean value of 1.51). There is no Context/ Level of reporting at Regional and Local level in The Hindu.

The Times of India has mean values of 2.27 and .53 at International and National level. At Regional level, it has .02 as mean value while there is no Level/Context of reporting in Local level.

Like others, Nagaland Post also has highest mean International level (.72). Second is the National level with .21 followed by Regional (.18) and Local level (.13).

The Morung Express has International and National mean values of 1.02 and .73 respectively. It has .33 in Regional and .21 in Local level of reporting.

The same pattern is seen in Eastern Mirror. It has highest from International level with .82 and 2nd highest from national at .59 mean values. At Regional and Local level, it has got mean values of .24 and .12 respectively.

Fig. 8: Distribution of context/level of reporting of science items in selected newspapers in numbers

Discussion

In terms of qualitative analysis it is seen that national newspapers have published more science items with illustrations than local newspapers. More illustrations means the science items are communicated with better


understandability by the national dailies for the readers than the local dailies. It is observed that while national The Hindu and Times of India have more than half of the science items with illustrations which are 64% and 57% respectively, the other local newspapers Nagaland Post, The Morung Express and Eastern Mirror have 44%, 30% and 24% respectively.

It is also seen that most of the newspapers have majority coverage under Just Informative category with 65.13%. Under Interesting category there is 34.87%. It also implies that majority science coverage in the newspapers is without proper diagram, image or good intro where attention should be given.

Of the selected newspapers, The Morung Express has a very good coverage of science items. In terms of science space, it even surpasses newspapers like The Hindu and Times of India. The Morung Express has the highest coverage with 731.80 sq cm which is more than national newspapers The Hindu and Times of India.

Times of India is known for its huge business enterprises with its commercial approach. Being the highest circulated newspaper in India, it is also at the top of the list with highest space devoted to advertisements (42162.30 sq cm).

Same is the case with Nagaland Post which is also the highest circulated newspaper in Nagaland. Among the local dailies it is also at the top of the list in advertisement space, with 15453.47 sq cm.

While comparing the percentage of science space with edit space, The Morung Express is at the top among the five. The Hindu on the other hand is highest in national newspapers.

News is the most appeared format for the science items. Of all the selected five newspapers, news is the highest appeared format for science coverage. Within the three months time, The Hindu publishes 183, Times of India 178, Nagaland Post 53, The Morung Express 120, Eastern Mirror 74 science items in news format. Items like Letters to the Editor, Queries, Scientoons and Science Fiction have the least numbers. Out of the total science items of all the newspapers, 62.30% items are news items. The second highest used format is Article with 31.05%.


In comparison to National vs Local newspapers, national newspapers are giving more coverage to news than the local newspapers. But the opposite is seen in Article category where local newspapers are giving more coverage in article format than the national newspapers.

Local newspapers do not have much variety in different science formats. There is almost nil publication in Editorial, Letters to the Editor and Interview format in local newspapers. However, we see some publications in national newspapers in these categories.

Science fiction and Scientoons are the least explored area in all the newspapers with nil publication.

Health and Environment are the two most covered topics in the majority newspapers except The Hindu. As newspapers give due coverage based on readers’ interest and relevance, these two topics have become widely discussed topics because of the recent debates on climate change, pollution as well as safety and precautions for people with newly occurring diseases.

Environment is the second highest published science item in most newspapers except The Hindu. In The Hindu, Environment is the highest published topics among. Other newspapers Times of India, Nagaland Post, The Morung Express and Eastern Mirror have given adequate space to environment issues in comparison to other category.

Cosmos and General Science has got the third most covered topics with 15.32%. Rest of the items has got average coverage. Media Technology has got 6.28% while Veterinary and Information Technology have got almost same percentage of 4.65% and 4.22% respectively.

Agriculture, Nuclear/Atomic Energy and Cybercrime have got least coverage in the selected five newspapers. While Agriculture has got 1.29%, Nuclear/Atomic Energy have got 1.12% and Cybercrime has got 1.81%.

Of the five newspapers, the Nagaland Post publishes highest number of science items in front page. It is followed by The Hindu.


Except Times of India, most of the science items published by other newspapers are just informative and not interesting. It means that the other newspapers are carrying more science items without any image, graph/chart or photograph and have plain writing without an interesting intro.

Photographs are mostly used as illustrations in all newspapers rather than graphs or charts.

The local newspapers have more variety in terms of types of Illustrations. The national newspapers publish only photographs and chart as illustrations as seen in The Hindu and Times of India. But in local dailies Nagaland Post, The Morung Express and Eastern Mirror, apart from photographs and chart, they are also using graphic/cartoon as illustration.

However, in numbers of illustrations The Hindu has the highest percentage of Illustrations in science items with 64.02%. It is followed by another national newspaper Times of India which is 56.77%. Local newspapers Nagaland Post has 43.97%, The Morung Express and Eastern Mirror have 29.52% and 24.38% respectively which is far below as compared to the national counterpart.

Except The Hindu, no other newspapers have any dedicated space for science. Out of the total items of each newspaper published, Nagaland Post has highest percentage published on the Front page (21%) followed by Eastern Mirror (17%) and The Morung Express (13%). The Hindu has 9% and Times of India has 8% of the science items published in front page.

All the newspapers are drawing maximum information from the International context in reporting science items. It is followed by information from national context. In national newspapers, context from regional and local front is either nil or almost negligible.

Local dailies are giving due coverage to the regional and local level of reporting unlike the national newspapers. Since national dailies have a wide range of audience from the entire nation, they are giving least importance to the local level of reporting as they need to cater to the wide range of audiences at national forum.


Conclusion The study reveals that the local newspapers are publishing

science news at par with national newspapers, which is a good sign. Though it was assumed that local newspapers may not provide much space due to infrastructural problems, lack of trained journalists for science communication, etc. they are also not far behind in presenting science items from the quantitative point of view. Interestingly, The Morung Express has the highest space of science coverage surpassing the national dailies.

However, the opposite is seen if it is analysed from individual newspapers’ publication pattern. It is evident from the analysis that there is significant variation between the newspapers in terms of number of science items published during the period. The Hindu has the highest number of science items followed by Times of India. In local newspapers The Morung Express has the highest mean followed by Eastern Mirror. Nagaland Post has the least.

But interestingly, in presentation of science items only Times of India publishes more items which are interesting in nature rather than just informative. All other newspapers including The Hindu are covering science topics which are just informative in nature. This is a point where emphasis needs to be given because unless and until newspapers make science interesting in presentation, it will be difficult to percolate science message down to the masses.

Packaging of information is also important. Most of the newspapers do not have any professional science communicator. Moreover, they just consider science as any other information without any substantial importance given to it.

Communicating science brings certain important aspects to be understood. Apart from the information coming from verified source, it also needs good presentation with proper illustrations, and a language without jargon. While communicating, cultural aspects should also to be taken into consideration so that it does not hurt any sentiments. Only authentic information should be delivered since any wrong scientific message has serious negative consequences.

For effective science communication, we also need to sensitize the reporters and journalists so that media give due


coverage to science issues. With increased and quality science content there will be more awareness among the masses which will lead to development of scientific understanding.

Though print media has a stiff challenge from other interactive media, the only way that it can contribute to the society is to use the medium for delivering attractive science messages. Unlike other media like Internet, print media like newspaper is enjoying more trust than others. It can be used as strength and can play a more deliberate active role in bringing scientific understanding to society. References: Antilla L (2005). Climate of scepticism: US newspaper coverage of the science

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