From #MeToo to #MeTooIndia: News Domestication in Indian English Language Newspapers

Abstract

This study examines news domestication in an Indian context by analyzing the press coverage of the global #MeToo movement in India. The findings were based on the textual analysis of 641 news articles from five prominent English language newspapers published between October 2017 and October 2018. Accordingly, this study reveals that the press domesticated the global #MeToo movement by highlighting similar concerns in the Indian entertainment industry. It also filtered the stories through a local media logic, which included market/commercial and cultural logic. The news which passed through this media logic resulted in the selection of certain types of celebrity stories over others. While this helped to raise the issue of sexual harassment among educated middle-class Indians, it also trivialized it by focusing on celebrity scandals and ignoring problems faced by ordinary and less organized women in marginalized communities.