Cover page of both the Hindu and People’s Daily highlights the important
national news. Where terrorism related news draw attention in today’s Hindu,
the Nanjing Massacre is the focus of People Daily. A sensitive issue in
China-Japan relations, Nanjing Massacre and a visit to Yasukuni
Shrine by any Japanese politicians, is repeatedly written and telecast by
Chinese Print and Television.
If one carefully assesses the distribution of news in the Hindu, will be
surprised to see that there is no coverage of North-East region under any
heading. People’s Daily consider to be mouth piece of Communist Party of China,
have edge over the Hindu in the sense that it does not divide news in region-wise
and ignore some regions in the news covering.
It also strikes to mind that the Hindu being a left and poor oriented newspaper
in India has no exclusive page on rural life. A very impressive feature of People’s
Daily is coverage of social and agricultural transformation and environmental
awareness in the villages. The Hindu ironically, has four pages covering City
only.
Another striking feature of People’s Daily is weekly page on defence
which brings forth the various aspects of the life and work of defence
personnel, thereby educating civilians on these issues.
Both the newspapers are left oriented.
However, it is argued that the Hindu has more editorial freedom over news
selection than the People’s Daily. Nevertheless, it can be
contended as this freedom is not reflected in its news coverage.
1. The Hindu has 18 pages with extra 4 pages of Sunday Magazine while People’s Daily has altogether 12 pages.
2. Besides the cover page, The Hindu dedicates three pages to city news ‘City’ (p.2 and 3), City/NCR (p.4) focusing on Delhi and NCR. The fifth page covers ‘State’ where again focus is on Delhi exclusively. Subsequent pages bring news region-wise: Northern (p.8), Southern (p.9) National (p. 11) and again mix news under ‘News’ (p.10) heading. International News (p.14) is regular feature. Whereas People’s Daily covers news under Important News (要闻) (page 2,3,4) and International News (p.7).
3. The Hindu has regular pages on Business (15) and Sports (p. 16-17).
4. The Hindu has special ‘Sunday Anchor’ (p.12), Open Page (p. 13), Variety (p. 18) and also have special ‘Sunday Magazine’(4 pages) : covering different perspectives like art and culture, talking points on everyday lives and food. People’s Daily has special features on (Party) Theory (p.5), Defence (p.6), Holiday Life/Travel (p.8), New Village Weekly (p.9) , New Village (p.10-11), and one regular page ‘Supplement’ (p.12).
5. The Hindu has Classified Pages (p.7-8) for Matrimonial and other advertisements; People’s Daily prints no such page.
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