Author: Ramesh Aroli
Author Affiliation: Department of Journalism, Kamala Nehru College, University of Delhi
Abstract: In India, media scholars who worked on the Indian language press and its role in reshaping the regional societies have often looked at the circulation figures and data that is readily available for access. For instance, works of Robin Jeffery (2003), Aravind Rajagopal (2009), Sevanti Ninan (2007) and Tabrez Ahmad Neyazi (2014) have especially brought to light some subtle and theoretical understanding of media in the regional spaces. And the methods suggested by these scholars are quite suitable to study the ‘mainstream-commercial media’ and its political economy. But to conceptually engage with the ‘popular’ or ‘tabloid’ papers like Lankesh Patrike, which is often said to be ‘radical’ ‘progressive’ or ‘yellow paper’, one need to actually look at the diverse dialogue that popular print establishes with the ordinary people and position itself, as an alternative to the issues, forms and audiences of the journalistic mainstream. Apart from tracing the Kannada tabloid history, this personal note on Gauri Lankesh and her tabloid, tries to understand the ways in which she got engaged with the Kannada regional reading in public and broke the gender stereotypes in tabloid journalism.
Keywords: Popular print, Tabloid press, Public Sphere, Kannada reading public.