This document analyzes media coverage of violence against Dalits in Paramakudi, Tamil Nadu in 2011. It finds that coverage was biased, underrepresented Dalit voices, and often portrayed Dalits as violent mobs while downplaying police violence. The study analyzed several Tamil and English newspapers and found stereotypical language used. Official sources dominated while victim perspectives were absent. Overall, the media coverage fostered "Dalitophobia" similar to how some Western media coverage fuels Islamophobia.

1. V.Ratnamala Ph.D
Assistant Professor
Dept of Mass Communication
Mizoram University

2. Introduction
 Six Dalits were shot dead at the Police firing on Sep
11, 2011 in Paramakudi.
 The Dalits were assembled to pay homage to
Immanuel Sekaran, a Dalit leader on his death
anniversary which turned violent following the arrest
of their leader John Pandian.

3. Review of literature
 Media coverage of Dalits
 Under representation
 Stereotyping
 The positive qualities, their demands and the
background of the Dalit’s problems are often absent in
the media

4. Media coverage of violence on
Dalits
 Khairlanji Issue - Proximity
 Tirunelveli Massacre – Media rationalize
 Tsunduru Massacre – Glorifying Dalits violence
 Media & Minorities
 Islamophobia
 Wolsfeld et al study on the coverage of land day protest
by Arab minorities

5. Media & Paramakudi firing
 Parthasarathi
 Anand Teldumde
 Kuffir
 V.Geetha

6. Purpose of the study
 What is the extent of the coverage of Paramakudi
firing in newspapers?
 What are the various types of the Dalit news being
covered and neglected?
 What are the various themes of news on the
Paramakudi firing was reported?
 How are the vocabulary and lexical choice used in the
text?

7. Methodology
 Content analysis
 Universe - Print Medium
 The Tamil dailies namely Dinamalar, Dina Thanthi,
Dinakaran and the English dailies namely The Hindu,
The Times of India and The New Indian Express were
chosen for the study.
 A one week samples of the selected dailies from sep11-
17, 2011

8. Results
 Frequency of the news occurrences
Sl.No Name of the newspaper Total No of news
1. Dinamalar 45
2. Dina Thanthi 39
3. Dinakaran 64
4. The Hindu 28
5. The New Indian 30
Express
6. The Times of India 21

9. Frequency of the themes of the news items
Sl.No Name of the Violence of Dalits filed Violence of Police – Politicians & Special articles
newspaper by reporters statements by NGOs & Bureaucrats
Dalit politicians
1. Dinamalar 22 4 19 0
2. Dina Thanthi 18 6 13 2
3. Dinakaran 36 11 17 0
4. The Hindu 10 10 7 1
5. The New 14 12 8 0
Indian Express
6. The Times of 7 2 6 5
India

10. Sources
 Only official views are present
 Victims views absent
 Second sourcing

11. Vocabulary or Lexical choices
 New Indian Express - Rampaging mob, violent
mob, Miscreants
 The Hindu - stone pelting mob
 The Times of India – angry dalit mobs
 In Dinakaran and Dina Thanthi, they called them as
supporters until the violence started. After that they
called them as mob

12. Findings
 More space and more news reports
 Not followed two source rule
 Second sourcing
 Stereotyping as violent
 Dalit violence glorified & Police violence downplayed

13. Conclusion
 The coverage of Paramakudi firing could be compared
with the coverage of Islam in western media.
 The post 9/11 coverage in American media leads to
Islamophobia. The post 9/11 coverage i.e. the
Paramakudi firing and also the previous incidents of
violence on Dalits coverage in media is biased and
branded.
 The coverage leads to the fear or dread of Dalits in
Tamil Nadu. So it could also be termed as
Dalitophobia.