Indian Media and the Struggle for Justice in Bhopal

This article focuses on how movement actors (survivors and activists) interpreted the mass media discourse on Bhopal. They experienced it through four time frames that involved different mediascapes, especially in terms of its limitations and challenges. Within Marxist analyses, the political economy of media is a determining factor in shaping media discourse. Political economists argue that the dominant class determines the nature and power of media messages, but in Gramscian terms there is a dynamic alliance of social classes, instead of a single dominant class. Media, therefore, becomes a site of competition between different social classes; the dominant class tries to set the discourse to suit its terms/interests and the dominated classes attempt to advance their truth claims. The analysis in this article combines the two perspectives. By focusing on how the dominated/subordinate class experiences media discourse, this article reveals the constraints they face and have faced while interacting with a mainstream media that is aligned with the ruling elites.