Mass media and ethnic relations in Sri Lanka

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Mass media and ethnic relations in Sri Lanka

Amunugama, Sarath

1992

Amunugama, S. (1992). Mass media and ethnic relations in Sri Lanka. In AMIC Seminar onMedia and Pluralism in South Asia : Karachi, Pakistan, Oct 29‑Nov 2, 1992. Singapore: AsianMass Communication Research & Information Centre.

https://hdl.handle.net/10356/92872

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Mass Media And Ethnic Relations In Sri Lanka

By

Sarath Amunugama

Paper No.8

ATTENTION: The Singapore Copyright Act applies to the use of this document. Nanyang Technological University Library

MASS MEDIA AND ETHNIC RELATIONS IN SRI LANKA

Sarath Amunugama

Introduction

This is a preliminary report which deals with one aspect of a broader study of "The media and ethnicity" in Sri Lanka. In this report I will analyse the responses of an urban sample of media users regarding ethnic issues. The responses of a parallel rural sample are not presented here as the information is still being processed.

Background Ethnic issues figure prominently in Sri Lankan media, defined.in.- -

this study as Newspapers, Radio and Television. The reason f or Tpich *. dominance is the ethnic conflict which has affected al^--the communities of the country. A well organised secessionist organisation, the LTTE, is engaged in a protracted military struggle .with the Sri Lankan armed forces in the Northern and Eastern parts of the country. News of these engagements are relayed through the media. Equally newsworthy,*, are the responses of representatives of government as well as/\the different communities to the ethnic question and their attempts to find a 'political solution'.

It must be kept in mind that the period in which these interviews were conducted were ones in which news from the ethnic front predominated largely due to situational factfs such as the unveiling of proposals to solve the crisis by an important Cabinet Minister Mr.Thondaman, a military offensive in the North launched by the state security forces and the death of two popular frontline commanders of the Sri Lankan army.

The Sample For this study it was decided to analyse the responses of two

groups - Urban and Rural in the following manner: E S T

Urban 40 40 40 Rural 40 40 40

The urban sample, with which are concerned in this report, was selected on a random basis. Three localities - Sinhala majority, Tamil majority and mixed, were selected from the Colombo Municipal area. A structured questionnaire was administered by interviewers who were University students, to representatives of randomly selected households in these localities from lists supplied by newspaper vendors.

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Characteristics of the sample (i) Sex Composition

Frequency Percent Male 75 69.3% Female 35 30.7%

(ii) Age Composition Value Label Frequency Percent

< 20 yrs 6 5.2 20-29 yrs 58 50.4 30-39 yrs 16 13.9 40-59 yrs 13 11.3 50-59 yrs 18 15.7 > 60 yrs 3 2.6

(iii)Ethnic Groupinq Frequency Percent

Sinhalese 71 61.7 Tamil 24 20.9 Muslim 18 15.7 Burgher 1 .9

(iv) Educational Qualifications Frequency Percent

GR.8 2 1.8 GCE O/L 26 22.8 GCE A/L 62 54.4 Degree 24 21.1

(v) Occupation Frequency Percent

Professional 23 20.0 Technical 4 3.5 Administrative 14 12.2 Production 3 2.6 Service 14 12.2 Unemployed 6 5.2 Student 36 31.3 Housewife 7 6.1 Others 7 6.1

From the abovementioned classifications we see that our sample broadly correlates with the ethnic distribution of Colombo City. However in terms of sex composition it appears to be male-biased. This may be due to a bias which has been observed in other local studies as well, (e.g., Anura Goonasekera 1987) where males

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dominate. Since sampling was by households it is likely that the males, who usually paid for newspapers, responded. This does not mean that women are lesser media users in terms of numbers. The spread of age and occupation factors broadly correlate to urban averages, especially of we take "Unemployed" and "Student" as not mutually exclusive categories.

Media Use Before we go into details of media use patterns and their

relationship to ethnic issues, it will be useful to broadly outline the way in which our respondents use Newspapers, Radio and TV. Since the sample was selected on the basis of newspaper readership, we need to only correlate it with Radio and TV.

(i) Radio

Never < 1 hr. 1-2 hrs. 2-4 hrs. > 4 hrs.

It is noteworthy that over 25% of the respondents do not listen to radio at all. The main reason for this is the bias towards television which is a comparatively recent phenomenon in the country. TV is still comparatively on urban medium. Also government policy towards TV has been more liberal than Radio. Today while there are 3 TV channels (with the promise^ of another to start broadcasting by the end of the year), Radio has remained unchanged.

(ii) Television Frequency Percent

Never 16 14.2 < 1 hr 35 31.0 1-2 hrs. 40 35.4 2-4 hrs. 18 15.9 > 4 hrs. 4 3.5

What these responses reveal is a high degree of media penetration in urban Sri Lanka. As it has been pointed out by several commentators Sri Lanka is a highly literate, politically oriented society.

Patterns of Newspaper usage

Since in this paper I propose to concentrate on the role of newspapers in relation to ethnic problems, I will go into details only of the print segment of the AMIC-ICES study. In restricting the scope of this paper I took note of the fact that Radio and TV in Sri Lanka are, in the main, state monopolies. A plurality of approaches to ethnic issues are best seen in the print media which is comparatively less state controlled.

Frequency Percent 28 25.9 36 33.3 26 24.1 14 13.0 4 3.7

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Respondents, basically newspaper readers, had a similar perception of their sources of information:

Frequency Percent Newspaper 82 71.3 TV 11 9.6 Radio 2 1.7 Books 6 5.2 Journal 2 1.7 Family 3 2.6 Friends 2 1.7 Com. Leaders 2 1.7 Others 3 1.7

Newspapers are published in three languages in Sri iitouca. Sinhala newspapers which command the widest circulation carters to Sinhala ethnic group language readers while Tamil newspapers almost exclusively cater to Tamil speaking readers (among whom are significant number of Muslims). Prestigious English language newspapers cater to readers of all ethnic groups, though the largest readership are Sinhalese in terms of ethnicity.

For this study we selected the following daily newspapers

Sinhala 1. 2. 3.

Divaina Lankadeepa Dinamina

(Privately owned) (Privately owned) (State owned)

Tamil 1. Virakesari 2. Thinakaran

(Privately owned) (State owned)

English 1. Daily News 2. Island

(State owned) (Privately owned)

Sinhala

Regarding the three Sinhala newspapers the focus of attention was the daily readership which was as follows:

Divaina 37.7% Dinamina 33.3% Lankadeepa 30.5% (N.B. Lankadipa does not appear

on Saturdays)

These figures which are broadly comparable to known circulation figures reveal interesting trends. Firstly, the prestigious Lake

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House daily Dinamina has lost a part of its readership notwithstanding the greater resources that this newspaper group could mobilise. This is largely due to this paper becoming the mouth piece of the government and its consequent lack of initiative. Its management has become increasingly politicised and bureaucratised. In ethnic coverage the Dinamina tends to publicise the Government approach to this problem and seeks to justify it. Secondly, the Divaina has emerged as the main opinion maker among Sinhala readers. This view is confirmed by other studies (Goonesekera:1987) and the responses to our secondary question regarding the newspaper read 4-6 times a week, which can be analysed in the following way:

Divaina 20.3% Dinamina 11.1% Lankadipa 18.6%

The Divaina takes an avowedly 'pro-Sinhala' attitude. In Jtts selection of news and features, editorials and selection^- of photographs this bias is clearly seen. In this way they have succeeded in creating a special readership, obviously to the detriment of the longer standing Dinamina.

Of late there has been a new comer on the scene. Lankadipa. a well known title in Sinhala journalism has reappeared and has made a significant impact as our statistics show. Priced more attractively and presenting ironically what the Dinamina could have been under its old owners the Wijewardene family, Lankadipa is a more evenly balanced 'third force'. Our survey shows that its influence is growing.

Tamil

The Independent Virakesari had a daily readership of 54% of the sample while the state owned Thinakaran had a readership of 35%. Here too the non-state paper appears to be more credible.

English

In the case of the two English language dailies the Lake House 'flag paper' the Daily News had a daily readership of 58.7% against the Island which had a daily readership of 42.5%. The Daily News is the newspaper of record in Sri Lanka and its Editor has managed to retain a degree of autonomy not found in the Lake House's Sinhala and Tamil dailies. Nevertheless it is interesting to note that the Island has improved its standing particularly among the younger readers.

Perceptions of Ethnic Reporting

Having established the background to the survey and the media in Sri Lanka, let us look at the specific area of ethnic perceptions.

Respondents were first questioned on the amount of reading

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(interest) in ethnic issues

How often do you read on Ethnic Issues in N'papers? TOTAL

Never Rarely Sometimes Often TOTAL

Sinh. Tamil Muslim Burgher

6 0 0 0

5.4% .0% .0% .0%

15 4 2 0

13.4% 3.6% 1.8% .0%

17 9 3 1

15.2% 8.0% 2.7% .9%

31 11 13 0

27.7% 9.8% 11.6%

.0%

69 24 18 1

TOTAL 6 5.4% 21 18.8% 30 26.8% 55 49.1% 112

While the Sinhalese evinced a 70% interest in ethnic issues the minorities (Tamils 83%, Muslims 77%) showed a greater interest-"— ^

The urban Tamils and Muslims, unlike the Colombo Sinhalese^, fkve a close interest especially in the ethnic war as it was conducted in their traditional areas of habitation-the Northern and Eastern provinces. Nevertheless the approximately 30% disinterest of the Sinhala respondents is noteworthy and needs to be probed further. It will be very interesting to break these responses in correlation to the different age group of the respondents. Equally this lack of interest needs to be matched against the rural sample. I would like to hypothesise here that the Sinhalese may be beginning to tire of this issue as they are recognising their inability to control events.

Let us now look at the depth of involvement of the readers.

How much do you read on Ethnic Issues in N 'papers? TOTAL

Headlines Part of Report

Whole Report

Sinh. Tamil Muslim Burger

10 5 1 0

8.8% 4.4% .9% .0%

17 4 3 1

14.9% 3.5% 2.6% .9%

44 15 14 0

38.6% 13.2% 12.3%

.0%

71 24 18 1

62.3% 21.1% 15.8%

.9%

TOTAL 16 14.0% 25 21.9% 73 64.0% 114 100.0%

The Sinhala (61.%) and Tamil (62.5%) respondents were closely matched in reading the whole report, while the Muslims scored a higher 77%. In general this suggests that majorities in all communities show a keen interest in the ethnic issue. It is also an indicator of newspaper readership in Sri Lanka (and also South Asia) where the newspaper is looked upon as a 'Source of learning' and must be read in detail.

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'Fair' Reporting

We then looked at the crucial question of how the different communities view the "fairness" of the coverage of ethnic issues by the different language newspapers. First let us tabulate the responses in terms of English, Sinhalese and Tamil language newspapers

Eng papers give fair report on Ethnic Issues ? TOTAL

Fair Not fair Don't know


37 11 7 1

33.6% 10.0% 6.4% .9%

21 7 5 0

19.1% 6.4% 4.5% .0%

11 5 5 0

10.0% 4.5% 4.5% .0%

69 23 17 1

62.7% 20.9% 15.5% ^-9%-

TOTAL 56 50.9% 33 30.0% 21 19.1% 110 106. 0%

Sin papers give fair report on Ethnic Issues: ? TOTAL

Fair Not fair Don 't know


18 2 3 0

17.1% 1.9% 2.9% .0%

37 6 9 1

35.2% 5.7% 8.6% 1.0%

11 15 3 0

10.5% 14.3% 2.9% .0%

66 23 15 1

62.9% 21.9% 14.3% 1.0%

TOTAL 23 21.9% 53 50.5% 29 27.6% 105 100.0%

Tam papers give fair report on Ethnic Issues ? TOTAL

Fair Not fair Don' t fair


0 11 4 0

.0% 10.9% 4.0% .0%

3 11 8 1

3.0% 10.9% 7.9% 1.0%

57 2 4 0

56.4% 2.0% 4.0% .0%

60 24 16 1

59.4% 23.8% 15.8% 1.0%

TOTAL 15 14.9% 23 22.8% 63 62.4% 101 100.0%

Firstly, we see a recognition among respondents of all communities that English language newspapers are the most fair in reporting ethnic issues. Sinhalese (53.6%) Tamils (47.8%) and Muslims (41.1%) felt that the English reporting was fair. This has to be understood

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in the light of a substantial number of respondents of all communities who felt that they "did not know. " However when we come to the 'language papers' the picture is quite different. All communities including the Sinhalese felt that the Sinhala newspapers did not give a fair coverage. While the Tamil and Muslim respondents obviously felt that Sinhala papers were biased against them and for the Sinhalese, we have to investigate further as to the reasons for the feeling among the majority Sinhalese that their newspapers are not fair. Do they feel that the Sinhala interests are not adequately represented? This matter will be further investigated in our study.

Another possible conclusion from this data is the chasm which exists between Sinhala and Tamil readers. While a large number of Sinhala respondents have no idea of what appear in the Tamil language papers a large number of Tamils do not know what is published in the counterpart Sinhala press. This isolation leadfcta" .£» a lack of dialogue and shutting out of the views of one commujBty from the other. In such a situation newspapers address only "%heir particular constituency and are rarely exposed to an alternative -particularly the opposing communities - view point. Such a meeting ground is available only through the English language press.

Through this preliminary study we can recognise some major problems in regard to media and pluralism. The first is that in pluralistic societies the language media tends to cater to its own cultural constituency. While this undoubtedly emphasises the 'cultural identity' of each ethnic or linguistic group they seem to do so in opposition or contradistinction to the other groupings with their own cultural identities in a pluralistic and democratic society. Thus language media tends to emphasise ethnic differences rather than commonalities.

On the other hand English language media which have no such fixed ethnic constituency and carry within its professional staff representatives of all ethnic groups, seem to be recognised as more objective and fair by all communities.

Given a response that a large number of Sinhala and Tamil readers felt that both their own language papers and the other ethnic groups language papers were not fair, we wanted to explore this phenomenon in greater depth.

Before we go onto a statistical analysis it can be confirmed impressionistically that many local language readers seem to be alienated from the 'mainstream media' . This can be deduced from the large number of "alternate newspapers" (Vikalpa) particularly weeklies that have emerged in the last four years. These papers, which have growing circulations, appeal particularly to youth and higher educated categories. In the larger AMIC-ICES study an attempt will be made to analyse in depth the preferences of these two categories of respondents.

Confirmation of alienation from the language papers also came from responses to our question as to whether the respondent 'ever thought of writing to the papers? As much as 45% responded that they had contemplated such a move. However it is significant that only in the case of 12% was this intention followed through. This

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too is an aspect of the ethnic question in Sri Lanka wherein the average citizen is reluctant to convert fhis intentions into practical action.

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Documents

Mass media and ethnic relations in Sri Lanka