Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Marathi Press and the Politics of Reading in Maharashtra, India

博士生Matthew F.Rosen在Vyjayanthi Rao博士的指导下，将研究印度报纸读者群和民主文化之间的关系。这项研究的目标是了解印度最近的报纸革命与其正在进行的民主热潮之间的关系；政治文化如何塑造印刷品的呈现和接受；以及印刷品如何反过来刺激政治价值观、信仰和制度的变化。这项研究将在印度马哈拉施特拉邦普纳市进行。在那里，罗森将研究普通读者(在公共报纸阅览室)和专业记者(在一家领先的马拉松日报的编辑部)的做法和经验。研究人员将对马哈拉施特拉邦印刷媒体领域的三个领域进行深入研究：报纸的发行和存在(通过观察读者模式)；报纸编辑部的新闻报道和报道的制作；以及读者对报纸的使用和拨款。研究者将运用参与观察、民族志访谈、媒介生产与接受分析等定性研究方法，为新兴的民主社会科学领域和跨文化阅读民族志研究做出贡献。通过关注马拉提市报纸向普纳市读者传播的民主话语和舆论形成，这项研究为分析印度民主的文化特殊性和将阅读作为一种社会和集体活动来考察提供了一种有经验的方法。该项目还有助于社会科学家的教育。

Doctoral student Matthew F. Rosen, under the guidance of Dr. Vyjayanthi Rao, will examine the relationship between newspaper readership and the culture of democracy in India. The goal of the research is to understand the relationship between India's recent newspaper revolution and its ongoing democratic upsurge; how political culture shapes the presentation and reception of print; and how print in turn stimulates changes in political values, beliefs, and institutions.The research will be carried out in the city of Pune, in the State of Maharashtra, India. There Rosen will study the practices and experiences of ordinary readers (in public newspaper reading rooms) and professional journalists (in the editorial offices of a leading Marathi daily). The researcher will undertake intensive study of three domains of the print media field in Maharashtra: the circulation and presence of newspapers (by looking at readership patterns); the production of news stories and representations in the editorial offices of newspaper; and the uses and appropriations of newspapers among members of the reading public. The researcher will employ the qualitative research methods of participant observation, ethnographic interview, and media production and reception analytical techniques.This project will contribute to the emerging field of the social science of democracies, and to cross-cultural ethnography of reading. By focusing on democratic discourse and opinion formation circulated by Marathi newspapers to readers in the city of Pune, this research offers an empirically grounded method for analyzing the cultural specificity of Indian democracy and for examining reading as a social and collective activity. The project also contributes to the education of a social scientist.