Women stay away from Indian politicians online

An analysis of some of the popular Twitter accounts of Indian politicians, political parties and journalists show that women voters do not follow them, finds USHA M RODRIGUES

Indian news media : from observer to participant

This book makes a new and significant argument that Indian news media is no longer just an observer but an active participant in the events that direct the nation. It explores the changing role of Indian news media and their performance in the past 25 years by closely examining media coverage of some landmark events within the context of India’s globalising polity, which has led to privatisation, widespread engagement with new communication technologies, and the rise of individualism. The challenges of globalisation have caused significant changes in news processes and procedures, which this volume details by examining media’s coverage of events and issues such as paid news, anti-graft movement, sting journalism, Delhi gang-rape protest, politics-media nexus and neo-liberalism’s impact on the industry’s performance.
The book places Indian media’s evolution in the context of economic, political and sociological developments in the country. It takes a multi-disciplinary approach to evaluate reportage in a multitude of media platforms. The theoretical exploration of the changes in the Indian media landscape draws from academic disciplines of ‘media studies’, ‘journalism,’ ‘cultural studies’ and ‘sociology’. This book follows the authors’ earlier work, titled Indian Media in a Globalised World (SAGE/2010).

Melbourne’s Indian Film Festival needs to strengthen its ties

 The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) kicked off last night with Bollywood’s cult classic curry-western Sholay in 3D format. This year IFFM is screening 46 films from four countries in 17 languages, including Urdu, Nepalese, Himachli, Sinhala, and Sherdukpen. It’s the biggest film festival of its type in the southern hemisphere – but it’s attracted criticism from some in the Indian community in Melbourne for its failure to nurture ties between local filmmakers and the industry in India.

The Indian public sphere in social media era

The media in a number of Western countries, including Australia, could be forgiven for envying the growth of the Indian media in recent decades. In contrast to more mature media markets in Australia and elsewhere, the Indian media is surviving the onslaught of new media technologies including social media platforms available to news audiences as an alternative to traditional news media. However, despite the omnipresence and diversity of over 800 television channels, over 94,000 publications and hundreds of radio stations, the ‘commercial’ imperative of Indian news media has raised doubts about their capacity to meet the ‘ideals’ of the public sphere. This paper examines the Indian public sphere in terms of citizens’ increasing use of various social media platforms to express their anger, frustration and protest against the system of governance and corruption. It analyses the use of social media platforms by mainstream media, socio-political organisations and audiences alike during recent events such as the Mumbai terror attack in 2008; the anti-corruption movement in 2011; protests against a lack of safety for women in 2012–13; and the federal elections in 2014; to understand the implications for the public sphere in India. The paper outlines interplay between the mainstream media’s coverage of some of these significant events, and the audience conversations pertaining to these news events on various social media platforms. It explores the increased utilisation of social media platforms by youth and the middle class, who have often remained disengaged with governance in the country, as a sign of deepening democracy and widening public sphere in India, despite the ‘digital divide’ that still exists in the country.

How profitable is the Indian stock market?

In this paper, using a range of technical trading and momentum trading strategies, we show that the Indian stock market is profitable. We find robust evidence that investing in some sectors is relatively more profitable than investing in others. We show that sectoral heterogeneity with respect to profitability is a result of the gradual diffusion of information from the market to the sectors. Specifically, we show that while the market predicts returns of sectors, the magnitude of predictability varies with sectors. Our results are robust to a range of trading strategies. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.