When the regional counters the national: Frames in Press coverage of the Sri Lankan ethnic issue in Tamil Nadu, India

The central role that regional-language identities play in the communicative and cultural settings of South Asia is best reflected in the regional media landscape. The varied influences of regional media on a nation's polity and society in multilingual countries like India have largely been evaluated within the framework of the reconstitution of public space. This paper furthers such studies by arguing that the reconstitution of the Indian public by regional media is, in some instances, effected through a discourse that counters the mainstream, or the national-nodal point. At a time when coalition national governments comprise or depend upon the support of regional political parties for survival, a counter-hegemonic regional discourse can have far-reaching effects, extending the regional media's sphere of influence significantly-from national politics to international relations. Through an analysis of the constructions of the Sri Lankan ethnic issue in the English-and Tamil-language press, I draw out the significance of counter-hegemonic representations in the regional media.