Framing Journalism and Journalists in Popular Culture: A Netnographic and Topic Modeling Analysis of Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah

Abstract

Sitcoms on television have an integral role to play in shaping perceptions of the audience. Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah (TMKOC) is a television show that attracts a large number of audiences in India, raising questions about the representation of journalism in the show and its impact on the audience’s thoughts. Netnography and LDA were used in this study, along with implementing media theories such as Hall’s Representation, agenda-setting, framing, feminist media, parasocial interaction, and cultivation theory. The findings reveal a contrast in representing journalism and journalism based on gender biases, specific physical appearances, gender specific event coverage opportunities. Thus, serials such as these create opinions on a much wider scale, and so when it comes to journalism aspirants, a cultivated image of the profession is injected way before an aspirant can actually practice the profession in reality.