INDIAN LANGUAGES NEWSPAPERS 5-Tamil Dominated by Cinema and Politics

Tamil: 'Dominated by Cinema and Politics' THE newspaper industry in Tamil poses tantalising questions about the relationship between print, literacy, politics and a region's 'culture'. Tamil literacy rates have been well above all-India averages. Until the 1970s, Tamil daily newspapers had a higher dailies- per-thousand-people ratio than those of most other languages. Most Tamil newspapers were and continue to be remarkably sensational, similar in appearance to the big Gujarati dailies. Perhaps most striking of all, magazines in Tamil have had remarkably high circulations. Tamil readers prefer magazines or the raciest dailies; the sobriety of the Malayalis in neighbouring Kerala, or even the disciplined professionalism of Telugu dailies, seems surprisingly absent.