India More Lenient Towards Media's Coverage of Economic
Downturn
India|July'2009: While the world
is blaming the media for keeping them blindsided to the severity of the
economic crisis, about a third of Indian respondents surveyed in the
recent 52-nation online survey conducted by The Nielsen Company, do not
rest all blame on media. India figures 9th on the list of countries who
disagree with the view that news media did not do a good job of informing
them of issues that led to the economic downturn in India.
The general consensus among consumers across much of the world is that the
media did a poor job informing the public about the issues leading up to
the current financial crisis. In India too 45 percent of the respondents
agreed that media coverage was inadequate but the number of people who
disagree is also quite large.
The two regions where consumers were most dissatisfied were Europe and
North America. Not surprisingly, these were the areas hit the most by the
current economic crisis. On the other hand, consumers in many Asia Pacific
nations, where the impact on the economy hasn’t been as harsh, were
generally less critical of the media.
In the recent Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence study India was ranked
third on confidence levels. The comparatively high level of confidence
that Indians have in their economy might be a reason why Indians have
shown more mercy towards media coverage during the downturn than the rest
of the world. Also the fact that India didn’t face a full blown downturn
helped the media to save itself from consumers’ ire,” said Vatsala Pant,
Associate Director, Consumer Research, The Nielsen Company, India.
Not only does India refrain from blaming media for its past coverage of
the downturn, but with 70 percent votes India is ranked third in the list
of countries who think that the current media is doing a good job in
helping them understand the issues affecting the global economy. Indian
respondents also agree that media is helping them to better understand
what the governments are doing to solve the economic problems at hand (61%
- 6th highest globally).
Attitudes about early media coverage were most positive in the
Philippines, Pakistan, Indonesia, Venezuela and India, all of which scored
above the global average.
Factors that drove the failure to communicate were varied.
Some critics have argued that the financial media was too close to those
it covered. More over, the speed of negative events following the Lehman
Brothers bankruptcy filing caught not only journalists by surprise, but
also economists and government officials.
Globally, many of the 25,000-plus consumers polled believe media
performance has improved over time. In much of the Asia Pacific region,
the public thought the media was doing a good job in providing information
about what the issues are and what governments are doing to address them.
57 percent Indian respondents think that the amount of current news
coverage of the global financial crisis is just about right for them, 23
percent think it’s not enough for them, and 20 percent think there is too
much coverage.
Reachout's News Bureau
July' 2009
