New Delhi: In the middle of a near-feverish campaign for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has chosen to do something that he rarely did in his five year term — give interviews.
Modi has given as many as 10 print media and four television interviews in a span of just 20 days, since 29 March. These interviews have appeared across the different platforms owned by these groups.
Highly placed sources in the BJP said the idea is to “reach a captive audience” and maximise outreach, while making it more targeted.
This is in sharp contrast to the PM’s approach in the last five years, during which he has not addressed a single press conference and given only a handful of media interviews, relying mostly on social media, his radio show ‘Mann Ki Baat’ and speeches for outreach.
The first phase of polling in the seven-phase general election took place on 11 April while the second phase is due Thursday. Polling ends on 19 May and the verdict will be out on 23 May.
Print interviews
Of all the media, PM Modi has given the maximum interviews to print.
From English dailies like The Times of India, Hindustan Times, Mint and The New Indian Express, to regional press like Eenadu, Daily Thanthi, Sakal, Amar Ujala, Dainik Jagran, Hindustan, Navbharat Times, Sandesh and Vijayavani, Modi’s interviews have appeared in a total of 13 publications in just under three weeks.
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Among these, a common interview was given to a media house but used across sister publications, like in the case of Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd’s English daily The Times of India and Hindi newspaper Navbharat Times, or HT Media’s Hindustan Times, its business daily Mint and Hindi newspaper Hindustan.
Interviews to the regional media have been carefully planned to cover a range of regions. Besides Hindi publications like Amar Ujala and Dainik Jagran targeting the Hindi heartland, Telugu language daily Eenadu, Daily Thanthi in Tamil, Maharashtra’s Sakal, Gujarati daily Sandesh and Kannada newspaper Vijayavani were also picked.
Outreach through TV channels
Among television channels, Modi has given interviews to the recently-launched Republic Bharat, ABP News, Network 18’s CNN News18 and a joint one to state-run DD News and Rajya Sabha TV.
Republic Bharat was the first platform through which the prime minister kick-started this flurry of interviews on 29 March.
The BJP believes the extensive reach of these mediums will help multiply the impact, more so given each interview was telecast across the channels owned by each group.
An interview to Republic Bharat, for instance, meant it was also telecast on Republic TV, the English channel of the same media house. The News18 interview was telecast on all channels owned by the Network 18 group — CNBC Awaaz, CNN News18, CNBC TV18, News 18 India as well as channels in 14 regional languages.
Among the English TV news channels, Republic TV dominates the space with 964 impressions ‘000 (in thousands), according to Broadcasting Audience Research Council (BARC). CNN News18 is in the third spot with 554 impressions ‘000. ABP News is at the fifth position in the Hindi news genre (both urban and rural), but way ahead of its English counterparts with 86,250 impressions ‘000.
‘Captive audience’
The selection of the media outlets was to ensure a wide and varied audience coverage, while also keeping it systematically targeted, said party sources.
“The idea has been to reach out to a captive audience. Sakal, Sandesh, Daily Thanthi, Vijayavani, for instance — all big names in respective states even though they may not generate a buzz nationally,” said a highly placed source in the party who did not wish to be identified.
“Meanwhile, the Hindi channels and publications take care of the heartland and cater to a mass audience. English dailies and channels have national impact,” added the BJP source.
All of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interviews have been archived on his official website.
It is all well planned and arranged. All of them are getting published on eve phase wise elections. It is different version of paid media.
So what is the problem. Atleast he is giving interviews during elections. I don’t see anything weird in that. Iam waiting for Rahul gandhi Interview this election season. Hope we will give one to Republic TV 🙂
Is Republic TV is the most impartial channel, or most respected? Isn’t it true that it is owned by a BJP mp?
The best for Mr Modi or any other politician would be to give press conferences to a mixed crowd of journalists which have scribes from full spectrum of ideologies.