Contemporary Watchdogs Domesticated: Conduct of Punjabi Print Media in Punjab During the Assembly Elections of 2007

The following study provides a close scrutiny of the conduct of Punjabi newspapers during the Punjab Assembly Elections of 2007 and demonstrates, with the help of comparative empirical analysis of three newspapers (namely, Ajit, Jagbani and Punjabi Tribune), that the media has diluted and compromised its role as a watchdog of democracy. The study brings out that several factors have come together to erode the democratic role and function of the vernacular press. These factors include commercial competitiveness, communalization of the media space, changing technologies and a compromise with journalistic ethics on account of business and political rivalries. The most important finding of the study is that democratic political space in the vernacular press has shrunk alarmingly. This has happened at a time when the space of political deliberations should be expanding. _______________________________________________________________