<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Dear friends</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Please come to this presentation by Dr Ursula Rao from UNSW hosted by the Sydney South Asia Seminar Group/Trans/forming Cultures Research Centre. </DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I would also be grateful if you could pass it along through your networks</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Thanks</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Devleena</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Day Friday</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Date 2nd May</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Time 6 pm</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Venue UTS Bldg3, rm210, enter via 755 Harris St</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13.3px/normal Courier New; min-height: 15px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13.3px/normal Courier New; min-height: 15px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#D91E35" face="Times New Roman" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">News strategies for Indian Big Men.</SPAN></FONT></DIV><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#D91E35" face="Times New Roman" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> </SPAN></FONT></P><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#D91E35" face="Times New Roman" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">This paper is set against the background of a profound transformation of the Indian news making business that among other things has let to a rapid expansion of local news making since the 1990s. The growing availability of space for local information has supported the emergence of a 'news culture', by which I mean the willingness and desire of citizens to actively engage with editorial personnel and push their concerns, hopes and achievements. into the newspaper.</SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#D91E35" face="Times New Roman" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">In this paper I will explore one dimension of this activity. I look at the way ambitious personalities at the local level use newspapers for building their political career. I argue that a politics of importance traditionally associated with the public arena and realised in public performances is carried into the newspaper through news that display importance rather than give information. The multiplication of such 'news', especially during media events, creates a public sphere of a particular character: it is a collage of competitive expressions of alliances, connections and eminence, rather than a rational debate of public concerns.</SPAN></FONT></DIV><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#002080" face="Times New Roman" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"> </SPAN></FONT></P><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13.3px/normal Arial; color: rgb(0, 32, 128); min-height: 15px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#002080"><BR></FONT></DIV><DIV style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Times New Roman" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;">URSULA RAO, Dr. is Senior Lecturer in Sociology & Anthropology at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. Her fields of expertise are Media Anthropology and Religious Anthropology. She has worked in India for over 15 years and has written on Hinduism, Hindu-Muslim communalism, the caste system, Hindi- and English journalism as well as more generally on ritual and questions of research method. Some of her recent English language publications are </SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Times New Roman" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;"><I>Negotiating the Divine: Temple Religion and Temple Politics in Contemporary Urban India</I></SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Times New Roman" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;"> (2003, Delhi: Manohar) and </SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Times New Roman" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;"><I>Celebrating Transgression. Method and Politics in the Anthropological Studies of Cultures</I></SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Times New Roman" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;"> (2006, Oxford: Berghahn, co-edited with John Hutnyk). Next year she will be publishing </SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Times New Roman" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;"><I>News as Culture. Journalistic Practices and the Remaking of Leadership Traditions in India </I></SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Times New Roman" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;">(Oxford: Berghahn).</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV><P style="text-align: auto;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#002080" face="Arial" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px;"> </SPAN></FONT></P><BR><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Times New Roman; font-family: Times New Roman; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times New Roman; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times New Roman; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times New Roman; ">(Dr) Devleena Ghosh</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Times New Roman; font-family: Times New Roman; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times New Roman; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times New Roman; ">Associate Professor</SPAN><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times New Roman; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times New Roman; ">, Social Inquiry Program</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Times New Roman; font-family: Times New Roman; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times New Roman; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times New Roman; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times New Roman; 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