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Media Bias and Bollywood: An Untold Story

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Causes and Symptoms of Socio-Cultural Polarization

Abstract

It may not be hyperbole that the news media can create or destroy a celebrity in today’s world. Media bias can influence public opinion and perception towards topics that are critical to our society. When such issues or controversies are related to celebrities followed by millions of people, any distortion of facts to suit a particular agenda engenders a bitter debate on social media, making the society further polarized. Our study identifies media bias in the key Indian news outlets, based on the online articles published on their portals on major controversies in the entertainment domain, particularly Bollywood (Bollywood is the common name given to the Indian Hindi film industry, primarily based out of Mumbai, India). Further, we segment these media outlets based on the sentiments exhibited across these articles to identify ideological similarities between the prominent media houses. Our findings suggest that while a few media outlets don’t display a consistent bias, two distinct clusters of media outlets that have consistently opposing biases emerge. Our observation is essential for the users to understand and consume their news from media houses that display contrasting biases while reporting on Bollywood celebrities’ controversies. Our work helps in understanding that if users follow only the channels exhibiting similar bias; they are likely to unknowingly adopt the same prejudice, making them further polarized towards or against the celebrity.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://www.statista.com/statistics/235837/value-of-the-film-industry-in-india/

  2. 2.

    https://niemanreports.org/articles/blogs-tweets-social-media-and-the-news-business/

  3. 3.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/india-bollywood-republic-tv-times-now/2020/11/06/e2b27256-1ab3-11eb-8bda-814ca56e138b_story.html

  4. 4.

    https://www.news18.com/news/opinion/biased-mainstream-media-carries-grave-consequences-for-indian-democracy-2541333.html

  5. 5.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._M._Nanavati_v._State_of_Maharashtra

  6. 6.

    https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/netaji-subhash-chandra-bose-or-actor-prosenjit-chatterjee-who-played-him-president-ram-nath-kovind-house-portrait-stirs-new-row-2357746

  7. 7.

    https://www.ndtv.com/entertainment/kareena-kapoors-son-taimur-already-twitter-star-for-controversial-name-foreign-media-1640151

  8. 8.

    https://www.bollywoodhungama.com/news/features/2020recap-bollywoods-biggest-shocking-controversies-2020/

  9. 9.

    https://www.news18.com/news/movies/press-club-of-india-supports-boycott-of-kangana-ranaut-by-entertainment-journalists-guild-2229619.html

  10. 10.

    https://www.hindustantimes.com/bollywood/bollywood-drug-probe-deepens-is-this-the-hindi-film-industry-s-worst-phase-ever/story-TFm2J0ekvvNmoQ7c9IlZrL.html

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

    Gaurav Jain, Snehanshu Suman, Samrat Gupta & Amit Anand Tiwari

Authors
  1. Gaurav Jain
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  2. Snehanshu Suman
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  3. Samrat Gupta
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  4. Amit Anand Tiwari
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Samrat Gupta .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Research School of Management, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Israr Qureshi

  2. Research School of Management, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Babita Bhatt

  3. Information Systems Area, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

    Samrat Gupta

  4. Marketing Management Area, Indian Institute of Management Rohtak, Rohtak, Haryana, India

    Amit Anand Tiwari

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Jain, G., Suman, S., Gupta, S., Tiwari, A.A. (2022). Media Bias and Bollywood: An Untold Story. In: Qureshi, I., Bhatt, B., Gupta, S., Tiwari, A.A. (eds) Causes and Symptoms of Socio-Cultural Polarization. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5268-4_9

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