Does political distance spur populist reportage? media framing of a geopolitical conflict

In 2019, the Indian government revoked Article 370 of its Constitution that accorded special status to Jammu and Kashmir – a state within India and the subject of dispute between India and Pakistan. It became a political hot potato, with both the Indian and foreign media vigorously covering it for months – quite often, exhibiting conflicting views. While the Indian mainstream media are proximal to the political establishment and – thanks to their habitual coverage of the decades-old Kashmir conflict – have an outstretched understanding of political players and diverse discourses, the geographical distance of foreign media could embolden an unschooled standpoint affording political-ideological variations. To examine the relevance of political distance and differences in media narratives, a content analysis was performed on 162 news articles, using five factors – sources, topics, tone, literary-rhetorical devices and frames. Study results indicate that geopolitical distance inspirits populist reportage characterized by an anti-establishment view and advocacy of rights and privileges of the people, with statistical differences exhibited in terms of topic and source selection (filtering through gatekeeping) and employment of frames and devices (as a part of wider discourses). While the Indian media was more pro-abrogation to preserve national interests, the foreign media substantially defended protest and violence.