Yogendra Yadav – a Senior Fellow and Professor at Centre for the Study of Developing Societies – presents the results of a survey describing the make up of key decision makers in India’s media.

• India's 'national' media lacks social diversity, it does not reflect the country's social profile
• Hindu upper caste men dominate the media. They are about 8 % of India's population but among the key decision makers of the national media their share is as high as 71 %.
• Gender bias rules: only 17 % of the key decision makers are women. Their representation is better in the English Electronic media (32 %).
• Media's caste profile is equally unrepresentative. 'Twice born' Hindus (dwijas comprising Brahmins, Kayasthas, Rajputs, Vaishyas and Khatris) are about 16 % of India's population, but they are about 86 % among the key media decision makers in this survey. Brahmins (including Bhumihars and Tyagis) alone constitute 49% of the key media personnel.
• Dalits and adivasis are conspicuous by their absence among the decision makers. Not even one of the 315 key decision makers belonged to the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes.
• The proportion of OBCs is abysmally low among the key decision makers in the national media: they are only 4 % compared to their population of around 40 % in the country.
• Muslims are severely under-represented in the national media: they are only 3 % among the key decision makers, compared to 13.4% in the country's population.
• Christians are proportionately represented in the media (mainly in the English media): their share is about 4 per cent compared to their population share of 2.3 %
• Social groups that suffer 'double disadvantage' are also nearly absent among the key decision makers: there are no women among the few OBC decision makers and negligible backwards among the Muslims and Christians.
• These findings are based on a survey of the social background of 315 key decision makers ( up to top 10 persons  involved in taking news and editorial decisions of any news organisation) from 37 'national' media organizations (newspapers, magazines, news channels and news agencies) based in Delhi. The survey was carried out by volunteers of Media Study Group between 30 May and 3 June 2006.