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Dina Thanthi

Dina Thanthi. -Aarthi Chandru. Beginning . Began in 1942 as a daily in Madurai, Tamil Nadu Started by S. B Adityan Adityan- a barrister & a staunch Congressman Lawyer trained in Britain who had practiced in Singapore

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Dina Thanthi

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  1. Dina Thanthi -Aarthi Chandru

  2. Beginning • Began in 1942 as a daily in Madurai, Tamil Nadu • Started by S. B Adityan • Adityan- a barrister & a staunch Congressman • Lawyer trained in Britain who had practiced in Singapore • During his stay in Britain- admired the English tabloid, the Daily Mirror, for its ability to reach a mass audience

  3. Aimed to bring out a Tamil NP that would make ordinary people want to read it • Wanted to introduce the commoner to regular reading • Launched Dina Thanthi • Deliberately aimed at lower class & semi-literate population • Paper indulged shamelessly in sensationalism • 4 pages dedicated to crime & cinema

  4. Wrote in a casual, colloquial style & language used was extremely easy with no ‘high’ words • Did not require much effort to understand the language • Supplied the readers with what they liked & the in turn lapped it up • Paper’s circulation boomed • Brought out more editions, all over TN

  5. Published from over 10 centers, Chennai being one • Meanwhile, the Dravidian parties (Dravida Kazhagam + Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) began to dominate the political scene in post Independence Madras State • Adityan resigned from Congress & joined the Dravidian movement

  6. Tamil Journalism developed a lot during his times • He took the NP to the doorstep of the underprivileged & downtrodden, the rickshawallahs, the factory laborer • Aroused in semi literate workers the desire to read NPs • Inculcated the reading habit in the poorest sections • Over the years, the readership increased • Largest circulated daily today

  7. Dina Thanthi- (The Daily Telegraph) • The path laid down by DT- followed by other Tamil dailies like: • Dominance of crimes & violence related stories • Sex & cinema • News on political warfare • ABC 2005- Circulation of 4,12,000 copies

  8. Evaluating DT • Observers of the Tamil press were both admiring and patronizing when they discussed DT • The admiration stemmed from the way in which Thanthi created a new class of newspaper readers long before such a development was contemplated in other regions of India • But the tactics that made this possible also provoked the ridicule.

  9. Based in a regional town of TN, it used the public bus system to distribute the paper throughout the Tamil region • Until then, if a Tamil daily reached these areas, it had been printed in Madras at least 24 hours earlier. • Adityan brought a fresh paper to Tamil towns each morning-something most proprietors elsewhere in India began to do only 40 years later

  10. Main point reason for the distinctive character of the DT • From the 1920s- the 'anti- brahminism’ tone through Tamil politics • Tamil Brahmins-roughly 3% of the Tamil population • The first Tamil daily, Swadesamitran, began as a weekly in 1882 & became the only Tamil daily from 1899-1917.

  11. Owned and edited by Brahmins, it reflected the concerns of the established elite Brahmin • In 1934, Ram NathGoenka's Indian Express group started Dinamani which - seemed lively and sometimes even frivolous but though still edited by Brahmins (It later on went on to become the 2nd largest circulated daily & a very serious NP)

  12. Adityan, on the other hand, was a non-brahmin • Also, a strong supporter of the DMK, a party founded on anti-brahmin rhetoric • Thanthi therefore had a political message for its potential audience • Anti Brahmanism was subtle undertone of the NP and the non Brahmins, the majority were its target audience

  13. Thanthi also prided itself on its language • Did not use the earlier applied literary language but instead used colloquial Tamil, the Tamil spoken by the masses • Refrained from using chaste Tamil, most commonly spoken by the elite & sophisticated Tamil Brahmins • Took the credit for reforming Tamil prose and making it accessible to large numbers

  14. Emphasized local news • Especially crime, the courts & Panchayats • Used photographs as extensively as technology allowed • Brought the big banner headline to Tamil journalism • Used to take a broadsheet page to tell a single story, mostly in headlines that its newly literate readers could digest

  15. Crime, film stars & politics provoked a fascination for the masses which Adityan understood & from which DT benefited • Most often that not, the Tamil film industry became entwined with Tamil politics • All this spelled success for Dina Thanthi

  16. Source • http://www.indianprinterpublisher.com/aug/publishing/2000/november-robi.htm • Journalism in India- R Parthasarathy

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