Media perception in a pandemic : a descriptive analysis of the newspaper coverage of policies during the covid-19 outbreak

Abstract

During all critical events, media shapes our understanding and creates powerful forces both at the societal and individual levels. The print media is considered a key avenue to convey information to the public. Communicating public policy measures is one such form of information that newspapers undertake through their editorials. The media is the first one to gauge and make sense of policy responses of the government, and their position is transmitted through editorials in the newspapers. Newspapers try to influence the agenda of the political system not only by expressing their opinion on issues but also by assigning relevance and framing events according to their editorial stance. This study seeks to understand whether newspapers meet the requirements of effectively communicating policy.

This study brings to fore the picture of newspaper coverage of policies in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic in India and the way stories were framed in the three leading dailies- The Hindu, Times of India and Dainik Jagran. The research is a thematic analysis of 415 newspaper editorials in six different phases of the pandemic from its emergence to the third wave. The editorials were coded into six different policy themes based on prominent coverage by the newspapers. The findings of the study show that more than 50% of the policy coverage was reported in the first three months of the pandemic. The study highlights the significance of public health reporting in India and adds to the importance of public policy discourse in a democracy.