The media is an important source of information for most people who describe and interpret events in public life (Callaghan and Schnell 2005). Distortion of events and media bias can have a major influence on public perception of an issue and even influence (inter)national assistance and aid (Garner 1996; Entman 2004; Tierney et al. 2006; Kolmer and Semetko 2009). It has been argued that objectivity is difficult because, for example: training, education and cultural orientation tend to influence the way people report and analyze events (Severin and Tankard 2001). The importance of the role of the media in times of war, political conflict, crisis and disaster has been the subject of many different studies (Garner 1996; Entman 2003; Entman 2004; Alozie 2005; Tierney et al. 2006; Kolmer and Semetko 2009). ; Lewis and Reese 2009). According to Hesselink et al. (2007), for an agency's messages to reach the general public, the agency must build a strong relationship with the media. The press therefore constitutes an important channel for reaching decision-makers and opinion leaders (GreenCom, 2001). Mass media is often seen as an important means of shaping the expression of political identities and culture (Dittmer, 2005) and influencing the public's perception of one (Boykoff 2008). Conversely, the political agenda also often directly influences the media agenda (Rogers and Dearing, 2007). Although the media is recognized in the literature as a key actor in influencing policy formulation and implementation, the "behind the scenes" battles that determine whether or not an issue gets media coverage and which actors can access the media are often neglected. , obtain and secure coverage (Murdock et al. 2003, Anderson 2006, Boykoff and Boyko...... middle of article ......9; Muter et al.2009). The content analysis study of the human-leopard conflict in Mumbai (Bhatia et al. 2013) found that the level of evidence-based reporting for anything other than episodic; event-focused articles were very weak in all cases. The study also found that the causes or solutions suggested in newspapers for human-wildlife conflicts were not supported by any evidence. Barua, 2010 studied the portrayal of human-elephant conflict in Indian and international media and found that regional media mentioned poor governance as the ultimate cause of human-elephant conflict and that important causes such that population growth and land use change were little mentioned. The study suggests that if the media is to play a role in mobilizing government, institutional and public support to mitigate conflict, then many issues need to be addressed in a more informative manner..