Print Media Coverage of ISRO Missions/Launches: A Ten Year (2011-2020) Study of Selected English Dailies

Abstract

The reporting of research and development is very important for any organisation as it is not only simple reporting to keep the general public updated on the developments but as it also involves critical evaluation of different programmes and activities. The present study is the quantitative analysis of 2382 unique news items, related to 59 ISRO missions launched during the period 2011-2020, retrieved from the Bangalore edition of four popular English print newspapers namely Deccan Herald, The Hindu, The New Indian Express, and The Times of India. The collected data was further categorised into different missions based on their applications for analysis. By applying one full credit for each mission covered in the news items, a total of 3729 news items were found. Of all the ISRO missions launched during the period of study, GSLV-MkIII-M1/Chandrayaan-2 had the highest news coverage with 742 (19.89 per cent) news items followed by PSLV-C25/Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan) with 601 (16.12 per cent) news items. The study further observed that there is no uniformity in reporting and coverage among the selected newspapers.