Playing Reporter Small-town women journalists in north India

This article presents the findings of a study on women reporters in mofussil (small towns), in semi-rural or newly urban India. Through in-depth face-to-face interviews with women reporters in four north Indian states, the study documented and analysed the experiences of women reporters outside the metro cities, including a small numbers of women from marginalised castes, of their work environments and policies that inhibit women from entering or staying in the profession. Even in an environment where media was seen to be highly commercial, partisan, political and a dirty business, women were knowledgeable about how to navigate this sphere, how to challenge its norms and how to make their place in it. Findings show that by engaging in media production-knowing fully well the deeply embedded class, caste and gender conventions of this institution-they placed themselves in a position to challenge the status quo, in the private and public spheres, and play out the notion of lived, engaged citizenship.