Paid News : Packaged Journalism- Coverage of the 2009 Elections in Telugu Dailies

The phenomenon of paid news has become a serious dimension in political communication especially in the print media. From individual journalists it has reached the organizational level as it is being practised by the managements of organizations themselves. Earlier the line between advertisements of contesting candidates during election time were completely market-oriented but now paid news is an intricate and interesting combination of news, views and advertisements. To promote their candidature in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, many candidates and their parties got the paid news published. The coverage of election news in three Telugu newspapers was studied using content analysis. Political parties resorted to the practice of getting paid news items published to promote their chances of winning in elections.