Papers by Sowparnika P . K . Attavar
Journal of Children and Media
To contain the spread of COVID-19 disease in the country, the Government of India announced a cou... more To contain the spread of COVID-19 disease in the country, the Government of India announced a country-wide lockdown on March 25 2020 that remained enforced till 31 May 2020. This lockdown was imposed without much notice and was one of the most restrictive lockdowns imposed by any country (Daniyal, 2020). For instance, restrictions during the lockdown included a total ban on people’s movement outside the home, except for availing essential commodities or emergency medical facilities, no transportation, closure of public places and educational institutions with the latter asked to conduct online classes. Besides, all offices (public and private) except those providing essential services were ordered to switch to work-from-home mode. As the country tried to adapt to the new situation, families in India faced several challenges. In this commentary, I focus on the difficulties faced by dual-earner families in urban India. Dual-earner families are those in which both spouses are employed in full-time employment outside homes (D’Cruz & Bharat, 2001). Available data tells that 20.1% of urban households in India have dual-earning members (Shukla, 2010), and nine million urban households have family members employed in knowledge-based jobs (professional, technical, administrative, executive, or managerial work). My family is one such family. I work in academia; my husband works for a global technology company, and we have two young children. In the subsequent paragraphs using personal anecdotes as examples I reflect upon three specific challenges that affected dual-earner families during the lockdown, with implications for parent-child relationships. First, the lockdown increased work pressures for both parents. Jobs in India’s knowledge-based organizations are demanding and involve long working hours and stringent deadlines (Bansal & Agarwal, 2017). As work pressures intensified during the lockdown, parents employed in these organizations faced a hectic work schedule. For dual-earner families, this meant that both parents, working from home, had more office work than usual. For instance, as a university teacher, I had to teach classes online and redesign a qualitative study’s data collection plan because the lockdown had derailed the existing plan. My husband had to attend several lengthy online meetings a day. Office work was so
MICA'S 4TH INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS, 2017
A key element that drives today’s networked society is data; technically known as big data. In th... more A key element that drives today’s networked society is data; technically known as big data. In the field of Journalism and mass communications too, we are witnessing an emerging new field which has its roots in big data. This new form of journalism is known as Data Journalism or Data Driven Journalism. Primarily used in investigative journalism, data journalism is slowly being used to report on social, economic and environmental topics across the globe. Data Journalists dig through a multitude of open data available for public access to identify, probe, establish the cause-effect occurrences, and wherever possible even provide solutions to regional and global problems. Unlike in traditional reporting, data journalists apply the rigors of inquiry-based research writing style to their data stories. For arriving at precise inferences, they use statistical analysis methods and to support their argument, use interactive data visualization techniques and tools
While it is already popular in the west, data journalism in India is just beginning to make its mark. While elsewhere, both mainstream media and collaborative, non-media platforms actively practice data journalism, in India it is only practiced by the latter, with the sole exception of the Hindu, the country’s second most circulated newspaper. Therefore, this paper studied the Hindu’s data journalism section on its website, called the ‘Data tab’. Using content analysis and focusing exclusively on 28 data stories on health and healthcare published between August, 2015 and August, 2016, over one year this study examined the overall nature of data journalism and examined the key structural elements in a data story. The study found that data journalism in India is in many ways similar to what is practiced globally. Multiple data sources and interactive data visualizations are prominently evident. However, the data stories lacked depth in their narrative and were without the access to the data sets used for analysis. Much work must done to enhance overall reporting and data presentation. Therefore, skilled data journalists and exclusive data desks are the need of the hour for mainstream media houses. In general, the study found that as a field that is just developing in India, data journalism immense potential to become a powerful, definitive means of news reporting.
Journal of Children and Media, 2021
Thanks to COVID-19 restrictions, Indian children, especially those aged below 10-years are not ye... more Thanks to COVID-19 restrictions, Indian children, especially those aged below 10-years are not yet permitted to move around normally. Meanwhile, schools have moved online with regular classes, exams, and even project submissions online. Suddenly, despite their more-hectic-than- normal work schedules, parents have had to double up as teachers. In this short article, I would like to discuss the conflicting roles (parent, academician, and CAM researcher) and accompanying challenges of an Indian working parent during COVID-19 in India. Using personal experience, I reflect upon three such challenges: challenges at home (inability to manage children’s uncontrolled digital media use); challenges at work (conducting online classes that consume more time than normal for preparation and delivery) and, research challenges (difficulty to conducting an Ethnographic study in the midst of surging COVID-19 cases). Drawing parallels between my struggles and other working parents in India, I reason that the pandemic has compelled parents like me to be perpetually absent from our children’s lives even as we are physically around them all the time, working from home, connected to our digital devices. I discuss the prevailing situations in most families where both working parents and school-age children are forever dependent on digital media and its future implications for families.
Global Media Journal Indian Edition , 2018
This is enough proof to establish that Indian adults are vehement users of digital devices. But w... more This is enough proof to establish that Indian adults are vehement users of digital devices. But what do we know about young children, especially those under 10 years of age, and their use of digital media devices.
Therefore, this study examined children’s use of digital devices in the Indian context. Using the in-depth interview method of 17 parents of children aged 1-10 years, this study found that Indian children are introduced to digital media very early in life. The study found that most children have easy access to digital devices though their engagement with those devices varies based on the parental mediation techniques adopted by the parents and the digital media use rules established (and practiced) at home.
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Papers by Sowparnika P . K . Attavar
While it is already popular in the west, data journalism in India is just beginning to make its mark. While elsewhere, both mainstream media and collaborative, non-media platforms actively practice data journalism, in India it is only practiced by the latter, with the sole exception of the Hindu, the country’s second most circulated newspaper. Therefore, this paper studied the Hindu’s data journalism section on its website, called the ‘Data tab’. Using content analysis and focusing exclusively on 28 data stories on health and healthcare published between August, 2015 and August, 2016, over one year this study examined the overall nature of data journalism and examined the key structural elements in a data story. The study found that data journalism in India is in many ways similar to what is practiced globally. Multiple data sources and interactive data visualizations are prominently evident. However, the data stories lacked depth in their narrative and were without the access to the data sets used for analysis. Much work must done to enhance overall reporting and data presentation. Therefore, skilled data journalists and exclusive data desks are the need of the hour for mainstream media houses. In general, the study found that as a field that is just developing in India, data journalism immense potential to become a powerful, definitive means of news reporting.
Therefore, this study examined children’s use of digital devices in the Indian context. Using the in-depth interview method of 17 parents of children aged 1-10 years, this study found that Indian children are introduced to digital media very early in life. The study found that most children have easy access to digital devices though their engagement with those devices varies based on the parental mediation techniques adopted by the parents and the digital media use rules established (and practiced) at home.
While it is already popular in the west, data journalism in India is just beginning to make its mark. While elsewhere, both mainstream media and collaborative, non-media platforms actively practice data journalism, in India it is only practiced by the latter, with the sole exception of the Hindu, the country’s second most circulated newspaper. Therefore, this paper studied the Hindu’s data journalism section on its website, called the ‘Data tab’. Using content analysis and focusing exclusively on 28 data stories on health and healthcare published between August, 2015 and August, 2016, over one year this study examined the overall nature of data journalism and examined the key structural elements in a data story. The study found that data journalism in India is in many ways similar to what is practiced globally. Multiple data sources and interactive data visualizations are prominently evident. However, the data stories lacked depth in their narrative and were without the access to the data sets used for analysis. Much work must done to enhance overall reporting and data presentation. Therefore, skilled data journalists and exclusive data desks are the need of the hour for mainstream media houses. In general, the study found that as a field that is just developing in India, data journalism immense potential to become a powerful, definitive means of news reporting.
Therefore, this study examined children’s use of digital devices in the Indian context. Using the in-depth interview method of 17 parents of children aged 1-10 years, this study found that Indian children are introduced to digital media very early in life. The study found that most children have easy access to digital devices though their engagement with those devices varies based on the parental mediation techniques adopted by the parents and the digital media use rules established (and practiced) at home.