Beijing: Apart from "China" and "India", "border" is the most common word used by Indian media in their reports on China as they stepped up coverage on the country, while the official media in Beijing registered a steady decline in its reportage on India, according to a survey.
The report by the Global Times Global Poll Centre showed the number of reports on China increased in six out of 10 surveyed Indian media outlets from 2010 to 2012 increasing Beijing's profile in the country. The reports on India are decreasing yearly in seven Chinese media outlets, the results of the survey carried by the state run Global Times, which is officially hosting a get-together with Indian media professionals and strategic analysts, said.
Observers say that it is a disquieting trend in Chinese media, considering that almost all of it is official, the lack of coverage on India could impair the knowledge of Chinese people about the country and its development paradigm.
The survey was based on reports from 10 influential newspapers and news agencies from China and India over the last three years, the report said. But at the same time, the survey said negative reporting on China is seen more frequently in Indian media than that of on India in Chinese media.
The survey regarded the reportage of Indian media on border disputes, Chinese military incursions and strategic issues as negative. The survey also indicated that border disputes between the two countries have dominated Indian media's reporting on China.
It said that apart from "China" and "India," "border" is the most common word used in headlines of Indian media reports on China, appearing in the headlines of 17.8 per cent of all reports. As many as 9.5 per cent of Indian media reports on China have a negative perspective, and mainly focus on the India-China border disputes and China's geopolitical issues, the survey said.
The survey report came amid continued Chinese army incursions into India, as Indian Ambassador to China S Jaishankar stressed that any disturbance at the border will have an adverse impact on the public perception which is vital for improvement of bilateral ties. The survey also said positive reporting on China only accounts for 4.2 per cent in the Indian media.
According to the survey, about 16.2 per cent of Chinese media's reports on India have a positive perspective, while negative reports on India account for only one per cent. Chinese media often use positive words or phrases such as "cooperation", "hand-in-hand" and "mutual" in reporting on India, the survey said adding that negative words like "aggression", "intrusion" and "provoke" are more commonly used in Indian reports on China-India relations.
The survey said most Chinese media reports on India are about reciprocal visits by Chinese and Indian officials, entrepreneurs and organisations, whereas border disputes are less frequently reported. However, experts noted that some Chinese media reports are also biased, it said.
Due to lack of proficiency in the Chinese language, many Indian media outlets have to depend on reports by Western media and hence tend to view China from a Western perspective, Hu Shisheng, an expert on South Asia research at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times.
"India has been unavoidably affected by the Western media, which often takes a partial perspective when reporting on China. That partly explains why negative reporting on China is so common in Indian media," he said. According to the survey, social issues are the most common topics in both Chinese and Indian media reports on each other.
It also showed that there are wider gaps between the numbers of reports on other topics in Indian media than their Chinese counterparts, with 24.6 per cent of Indian reports on the second most widely covered topic, China's politics, and only 4.1 per cent on the fifth most widely covered topic, China's military.
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