Assignment Task:
Task:
COVERAGE OF COVID 19 PANDEMIC IN NEWSPAPERS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY
ABSTRACT
The global widespread of novel COVID-19 also witnessed fake news being circulated in social media. Dealing with these infodemic and providing authentic information was a big challenge for the government and media professionals. The present chapter is an attempt towards this direction to evaluate the role and initiatives of Indian media in dealing with fake news and providing authentic information to the people. A desktop analysis approach of news channels, news websites will be used to conduct the study. The study also lists various credible sources, myth busters and fact checkers on COVID-19.
1. INTRODUCTION
The global spread of novel COVID-19 coincided with a flood of false information, rumours, fake news, and disinformation, which WHO dubbed an infodemic [1]. According to a PAHO (Pan American Health Organization) study, approximately 361,000,000 videos were uploaded to YouTube with the keywords “COVID-19” and “COVID 19”; 19,200 articles were indexed by Google Scholar on COVID-19; and 550 million tweets were found in March with the keywords “coronavirus,” “corona virus,” “covid19,” “covid-19,” “covid 19,” or “pandemic” [2]. For a pandemic, the overflow of information created on COVID-19, particularly scientific and medical knowledge, and its widespread sharing without being scrutinised is key. Fake information has a tendency to obliterate real information. COVID-19’s uncertainty and fear have created the ideal environment for the rapid and extensive dissemination of false information.
Newspapers, news networks, and news websites are all viable sources of information about current events and subjects. News stories and articles produced on these platforms raise public awareness, provide guidance, and enlighten people in a variety of ways. News coverage, according to Schmidt et al. [3,] attempts to effectively report any event and give diverse viewpoints on the event. In the middle of the present epidemic, news organisations are constantly providing people with information about COVID-19, its prevention measures, government directives, and misleading material being distributed. As a result, a need was created to investigate the role of news organisations in policing false news.
According to WHO [4] myths related with COVID-19 are scattered on various domains. Some of the most common myths are:
Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine used for malarial patients can be used to cure COVID-19.
Masks should be used during exercising also.
COVID-19 can spread through shoes.
COVID-19 is caused by bacteria.
Use of mask for longer duration can cause CO2 intoxication.
Alcohol consumption can prevent from COVID-19.
Thermal scanners can identify COVID-19 infection.
COVID-19 is transmitted through flies.
5G mobile networks are spreading COVID-19.
Sun exposures prevent from COVID-19.
Pneumonia vaccines prevent from COVID-19.As the book COVID-19 became more widely known, bogus news began to circulate on social media. The government and media professionals had a significant problem in dealing with the epidemic and giving accurate information. The current chapter is an effort in this regard, evaluating the role and attempts of Indian media in combating false news and providing people with accurate information. The investigation will be conducted using a desktop analysis of news channels and news websites. On COVID-19, the research also includes a list of reputable sources, myth busters, and fact checkers.
Using saline water to rinse nose prevents COVID-19.
Garlic consumption reduces the risk of COVID-19.
According to Naeem and Bhatti [5] “in such a rapidly changing situation, with millions on lockdown, social media outlets such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and WeChat, have become major sources of information about the crisis.” Another study of Islam et al. [6] points out that “Facebook, Twitter, and online newspapers have been identified as the best platforms for monitoring misinformation and dispelling rumors, stigma, and conspiracy theories among the general people.” A need was therefore felt to analyze the websites of news channels to study the approach adopted to control the fake information. Researcher identified two key roles of media professionals in the current pandemic situation: (a) To generate awareness among the people; (b) To disseminate authentic information and filter fake information.
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, social media has rapidly become a crucial communication tool for information generation, dissemination, and consumption. In this scoping review, we selected and examined peer-reviewed empirical studies relating to COVID-19 and social media during the first outbreak from November, 2019, to November, 2020. From an analysis of 81 studies, we identified five overarching public health themes concerning the role of online social media platforms and COVID-19. These themes focused on: surveying public attitudes, identifying infodemics, assessing mental health, detecting or predicting COVID-19 cases, analysing government responses to the pandemic, and evaluating quality of health information in prevention education videos. Furthermore, our Review emphasises the paucity of studies on the application of machine learning on data from COVID-19-related social media and a scarcity of studies documenting real-time surveillance that was developed with data from social media on COVID-19. For COVID-19, social media can have a crucial role in disseminating health information and tackling infodemics and misinformation.
• View related content for this articleIntroduction
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and the resulting COVID-19, is a substantial international public health issue. As of Jan 18, 2021, an estimated 95 million people worldwide had been infected with the virus, with about 2 million deaths.
1 As a consequence of the pandemic, social media is becoming the platform of choice for public opinions, perceptions, and attitudes towards various events or public health policies regarding COVID-19.
Social media has become a pivotal communication tool for governments, organisations, and universities to disseminate crucial information to the public. Numerous studies have already used social media data to help to identify and detect outbreaks of infectious diseases and to interpret public attitudes, behaviours, and perceptions.
Social media, particularly Twitter, can be used to explore multiple facets of public health research. A systematic review identified six categories of Twitter use for health research, namely content analysis, surveillance, engagement, recruitment, as part of an intervention, and network analysis of Twitter users.
However, this review included only broader research terms, such as health, medicine, or disease, by use of Twitter data and did not focus on specific disease topics, such as COVID-19. Another article analysed tweets on COVID-19 and identified 12 topics that were categorised into four main themes: the origin, source, effects on individuals and countries, and methods of decreasing the spread of SARS-CoV-2.
7 In this study, data were not available for tweets that were related to COVID-19 before February, 2020, thereby missing the initial part of the epidemic, and the data for tweets were limited to between Feb 2 and March 15, 2020.
Social media can also be effectively used to communicate health information to the general public during a pandemic. Emerging infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, almost always result in increased usage and consumption of media of all forms by the general public for information.
Therefore, social media has a crucial role in people’s perception of disease exposure, resultant decision making, and risk behaviours.
As information on social media is generated by users, such information can be subjective or inaccurate, and frequently includes misinformation and conspiracy theories.
Hence, it is imperative that accurate and timely information is disseminated to the general public about emerging threats, such as SARS-CoV-2. A systematic review explored the major approaches that were used in published research on social media and emerging infectious diseases.
12 The review identified three major approaches: assessment of the public’s interest in, and responses to, emerging infectious diseases; examination of organisations’ use of social media in communicating emerging infectious diseases; and evaluation of the accuracy of medical information that is related to emerging infectious diseases on social media. However, this review did not focus on studies that used social media data to track and predict outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases.
Analysing and disseminating information from peer-reviewed, published research can guide policy makers and public health agencies to design interventions for accurate and timely knowledge translation to the general public. Therefore, keeping in view the limitations of existing research that we have previously mentioned, we did a scoping review with the aim of understanding the roles that social media has had since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. We investigated public attitudes and perceptions towards COVID-19 on social media, information about COVID-19 on social media, use of social media for prediction and detection of COVID-19, the effects of COVID-19 on mental health, and government responses to COVID-19 on social media. Our objective was to identify and analyse studies on social media that were related to COVID-19 and focused on five themes: infodemics, public attitudes, mental health, detection or prediction of COVID-19 cases, government responses to the pandemic, and quality of health information in videos.
Methods
Overview
Studies exploring the use of social media relating to COVID-19 were reviewed by use of the scoping review methods of Arksey and O’Malley and Levac and colleagues.
14 We followed the five-step scoping review protocol and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for scoping reviews.
Data Sources
Exploratory searches were done on COVID-19 Open Research Dataset Challenge and Google Scholar in April, 2020. These searches helped to define the Review scope, develop the research questions, and determine eligibility criteria. After such activity, MEDLINE and PubMed, Scopus, and PsycINFO were selected for this Review because they include peer-reviewed literature in the fields of medicine, behavioural sciences, psychology, health-care systems, and clinical sciences. Variations of the key search terms can be found in the panel. Since the start of the current pandemic, COVID-19 articles were reviewed and published at an unprecedently rapid rate, with numerous publications that were available ahead of print referred to as preprints or articles in press. In this Review, we consider peer-reviewed preprints to be equivalent to published peer-reviewed articles, and relevant articles were screened accordingly.
Screening procedure
Mainly, the primary reviewer (S-FT) screened title and abstract for each article to decide whether an article met the inclusion criteria. If the criteria were confirmed, then the article was included; otherwise, it was excluded. Paragraphs in articles were assigned a code representing one of the five themes (eg, I for infodemic), then a code was assigned to the article on the basis of the majority of paragraph codes. Next, quotes were sorted under each code, applying Ose’s method.
Braun and Clark’s thematic analysis method was used and involved searching for the text that matched the identified predictors (ie, codes) from the quantitative analysis and discovering emergent codes that were relevant to either the study objective or identified in the relevant literature review.
Finally, we categorised the codes into main themes. These codes and themes were compared and clarified by S-FT, ZAB, and YY to draw conclusions around the main themes. S-FT is fluent in English and Mandarin. The secondary reviewer (ZAB) is fluent in English, and the tertiary reviewer and domain expert (YY and HC) are both fluent in English and Mandarin. Any discrepancies among reviewers were discussed with the research team to reach consensus.
The role of the media in communicating pandemics/crisesThe mass media of communication have important roles to play in communicating health information to the general public. Through media messages, people get to know about health issues. Many decades ago, Flora et al., (1989) suggested four roles which the media can play in health communication. The first role according to Flora et al., is known as media as educator role. This role requires the media to provide information that educates the general public on health issues. Within the context of this study, this requires the media to educate the masses on issues related to COVID-19. Information on the virus could include symptoms, causes, prevention as well as treatment. The second role
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according to Flora et al., is media as supporter, Here, the media are expected to support efforts aimed at controlling the negative impact of health issues. Within the context of this study, the media are expected to support efforts aimed at controlling the spread of COVID-19. The third is media as programme promoter, Here; the expectation is for the media to promote programmes that are targeted at combating health issues. From the perspective of the current study, the media are expected to promote programmes that aimed combating COVID-19. The last role, in the view of Flora et al., is media as supplement. This requires the media to augment the efforts of health promoters. The media can achieve this through coverage of health issues.
It is noteworthy worthy that in most instances; the media may not deploy one strategy but a combination of strategies. Kim and Noriega (2019) corroborate that one of the strategies through which the media can play their role in communicating health crisis is combination of education and entertainment. This is sometimes called edutainment. This approach ensures that health messages entertain as well as educate health issues. According to Okim-Alobi and Okpara (2017) the mass media of communication provide health information to the general public thereby serving as a guide for people to adopt life- saving behaviour.
Coverage is one of the leading ways through which the media can fulfill their role to the society. Gever and Ezeah (2020) corroborate that coverage is a key avenue through which the media can carry out their role of communicating health information to the general public. Gever and Ezeah conducted a study to examine media coverage of COVID-19. They divided their study duration into two phases. The first phase was before COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Nigeria. The second phase was after COVID-196
cases were confirmed in Nigeria. The researchers reported that the media in Nigeria did not effectively play their role of communicating health crisis because before cases were confirmed, there were very little stories on the virus, an indication that the media did not provide sufficient warning health messages. Apuke and Omar (2020) investigate Nigerian media coverage of COVID-19 and reported that there were less frequency, less prominence and volume of stories on COVID-19 when compared to other issues reported in the media within the same time frame.
The media and economic progress
There is a significant association between the media and economic development. This is because the media have the capacity to promote economic activities. The relationship between the media and the economy is essential in three ways. First, the media promote commerce through advertising. In this wise, the media can be regarded as tools through people get to know about businesses. Advertisers recognize the important role which the media play in creating awareness about their existence, hence they consistently make use of the media to place marketing messages with a view to educating the consumers about existing products, telling them about new products, or informing them about value addition (Ezeah & Gever, 2017; Gever & Olijo, 2017). In addition, the media have the capacity to report challenges against economic advancements. Such reports could provide warning information with a corresponding possibility of ensuring that such challenges are addressed immediately. Within this context, it can be said that through its watch dog role, the media can monitor dangers to the economy and report same to the society. This may attract attention of the appropriate stakeholders who may rise to address the problem. Researchers (Gever, 2018; Gever et al., 2019) are of the view that media surveillance roleis essential in changing behaviour and drawing the attention of the general public to issues that pose challenges to the society.
The third area through the media can contribute to economic development is through policy. This may come in two ways. First, is the promotion of already existing policies that have implications on economic development. Isu (2019) holds the view that the manner in which the media report economic policies has the possibility of shaping the way people view such a policy. It also has a possibility of influencing people’s attitude to such economic policies. The second aspect is policy advocacy. The media have the capacity to make a case for the formulation of policies that have implications on economic development. Kostadinova and Dimitrova, (2012) conducted a study with an objective to ascertain how the media report economic issues. The researcher made use of different frames that range from economic, to human interest, to thematic as well as episodic. The researchers also targeted election years in Bulgaria with specific attention to seven elections that span from 1990 to 2009. They analysed a total of 543 news stories and found that the reportage of economic issues was determined by the particular issues being reported. In addition, the number of times which an economic issue was reported was greatly determined by the issue reported. The study of Kostadinova and Dimitrova is useful to the current study because it provide empirical evidence regarding the manner in which the media frame issues related to the economy. This information is essential because media framing of the economy has a corresponding implication on public perception and attitudes. This aspect, though not covered by the study of Kostadinova and Dimitrova, it is investigated by Damstra, and Boukes, (2018).
Damstra and Boukes, conducted a study to ascertain the link between economic news, public perception and the economy. The researchers made use of a combination of survey research and content analysis to conduct the study. They carried out the study in two broad ways. In the first instance, the researchers determined how economic activities impact on the newspaper contents of Dutch newspapers. In the second phase of the study, the researchers examined how economic news in newspaper influences the perception of media audience. Their result revealed that economic activities influence newspaper contents. They also found that the manner in which newspapers report economic activities significantly influence public perception regarding economic activities.
Boomgaarden et al., (2011) conducted a study to examine how the media report economic crisis and how this influences the expectations that the audience have of economic development. Their result showed that when people are exposed to media messages on economic crises; it influences the expectations that they have regarding the development of nations economies. What this means is that media reportage of the economic impact of COVID-19 may have an influence regarding the expectations that people have concerning the economy of Nigeria.
Health and Economic Development
It is often said that health is wealth. Therefore, when a person has a health challenge, it has a corresponding impact on his or her economic status. Health challenges affect a person’s economic status in two areas. In the first place, health challenges compel a person to spend money on treatment. Such money may have been used for other economic ventures. In the second place, health challenges make a person less productive.
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Such a situation also negatively impacts on their overall income, thus making them vulnerable to poverty.
Schofield et al., (2011) conducted a study to examine the impact of health challenges on the economy of individuals and reported that people who stop going to work because of challenges with their health have a significant lower income of $218 in a week unlike $1,167 for their counterparts who are in full time employment. Okediji et al., (2017) conducted a study to examine the impact of sickness on the income of households and found that a household whose income was $335.84 before illness earns $318.01 after illness. The result further showed that $137.72 was the cost of treating severe sickness while 79% of the respondents spend 10% of their monthly income on health. In addition, 18.9% was the total loss of productivity as a result for health for patients while their caregivers loss 5.1% of productive time. In addition, the researchers reported that 44.7% of respondents reported borrowing because of health challenges, 5.0% sell assets to raise money for treatment.
The second level of impact is on nations. The outbreak of public health emergencies will have significant economic impact on nations. This is because monies that are meant to invest for the development of countries economies will be used for fighting health issues. The World Health Organization (2006) corroborates that health challenges have serious economic implications on nations’ economies. The world health body carried a study to determine the impact of healthcare challenges on economic growth and reported that many countries of the world lose significant amount of money because of deaths that are caused by severe diseases such as stroke, diabetes, heart diseases, among others. W.H.O reveals further that China, for example, lost a huge sumof $18 billion dollars due to health challenges, Russian Federation lost $11 billion for the same reason, India lost $9 billion while Brazil lost $ 2.7 billion. Also, the report reveals that countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Pakistan as well as Nigeria lost varying degrees of amount because of health crises. The implication of the result of W.H.O is that there exists an association between health and economic progress of nations. Som, et al., (2019) conducted a study to determine the link between healthcare and economic prosperity in Africa. The researchers gathered data from 48 African countries from the time frame of fifteen years (2000-2015). The results of the study
showed that healthcare challenges are areas such as childcare and maternal health negatively impact on economic progress in Africa. The result of the study revealed further that where there is a 9.4 year increase in life expectancy, it will result to to 1 per cent increase in real GDP per capita. The researchers also revealed that spending on healthcare limit advancements in economy. They noted that where there is a 10 per cent increase in health spending, it results to an increase of 0.24 percent yearly average real GDP per capita. Earlier studies by Huang et al. (2010); Wilson (2004); Mayer (2001);Mehrara et al., (2011);Elmi and Sadeghi (2012)also reported that a significant association exists between healthcare and economic advancements of countries. The implication here is that COVID-19 is having serious economic impact on nations. Maliszewska et al., (2020) carried out a preliminary study ascertain the impact of COVID-19 on economic development. In doing so, the researchers paid attention to gross domestic product, in addition to trade, utilizing a standard world computable general equilibrium model. Reduction in the use of labour and capital, an increasing cost of in international trade, a reduction in travel services, and less attention to business activities that require human interactions. The result of the study showed that instead of GDP growing by 2. 5 percent, it falls by 2 percent as a result of COVID-19.
Theoretical Framework
Agenda setting theory was used to anchor study. Agenda setting theory has its origin from a 1922 book that was authored by Walter Lippmann captioned Public Opinion. In the book, Lippmann argued that the media are responsible for the pictures in our head. Although Lippmann did not categorically suggest agenda setting theory, however, he set a stage for the birth of the theory in 1972. In that year, McCombs, Maxwell & Shaw, Donald carried out a study involving 100 undecided voters at Chapel Hill (Griffin, 2012; McCombs, Maxwell & Shaw, Donald 1974; McCombs, 1993). Their result showed that media contents influenced the voting decision of the voters. Consequently, they argued:
In choosing and displaying news, editors, newsroom staff, and broadcasters play an important part in shaping political reality. Readers learn not only about a given issue, but also how much importance to attach to that issue from the amount of information in a news story and its position.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Media Theories and Theories of the Press
This study was initially motivated by the media richness theory (MRT) which was introduced by Lengel and Daft (1989). This theory is mainly used to rank and evaluate the richness of different forms of communication media. However, in the present study, instead of ranking or evaluating different forms of media, comparative perspectives of different newspapers from selected countries were examined. As the basic idea behind the MRT is that the media can be better or worse in transmitting social cues, in resolving ambiguity, or in providing immediate feedback (Hoof and Boell, 2019), this study attempted to evaluate how the selected newspapers presenting experts’ concerns transmitted different aspects related to the pandemic and how they resolved ambiguity.
Different theories of the press argue that state systems, ownership, politics, and economics also shape the concerns of the media ( HYPERLINK “https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2020.557593/full” \l “B36” Ostini and Ostini, 2002). Although the present study was not oriented to the media theory-based analysis of newspapers’ concerns, it attempted to understand how these issues shaped the thoughts published in different newspapers.
HOFSTEDE’S CULTURAL DIMENSIONS THEORY
Furthermore, during this analysis of experts’ views published in the newspapers from the five selected countries, the present study sought to explain the relationships between the cultural differences of these countries and their effects on the eight broad categories of issues. Hofstede (1984) model was used to explore the cultural differences between the selected countries. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory is a framework for cross-cultural communication, developed by Geert Hofstede at the end of the 1970s (Hofstede, 1984). The theory was one of the first quantifiable theories that could be used to explain observed differences between cultures (Hofstede, 1991). Hofstede’s model consists of six dimensions of culture: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism vs. collectivism, masculinity vs. femininity, long-term orientation vs. short-term orientation, and indulgence vs. restraint (Hofstede et al., 2010). Using Hofstede’s model, the similarities and dissimilarities in the highlights of the selected countries’ newspapers were examined. The selected countries had different scores in these six dimensions of culture, with these scores providing some explanation regarding the priority and focus of an issue in a specific country.
Results
Experts’ concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic, published as editorial thoughts or in “Opinion” sections in the leading e-newspapers of five Asian countries in the initial 3 months of the pandemic, were analyzed. The study’s results are presented in this section and organized according to the eight issue categories identified as being associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, under each of the following subheadings.
How the Asian Print Media Shaped the Pandemic COVID-19 Situation
Sue Llewellyn, the famous BBC journalist, advised all media as follows: “[a]t times of crisis, we turn to experts—but news outlets and social media must be careful about the information they share, particularly informally” (Llewellyn, 2020). Her statement indicated the important role played by the media in shaping the news during this kind of health crisis. In the present study, it was noticed that the different e-newspapers from the five Asian countries had their own approach and focus when highlighting aspects of life associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The study’s findings showed that different countries took dramatically different approaches to managing the pandemic. These variations were marked by prior experience and preparation and included early reinforcement of strict vigilance, testing, and isolation vs. late enforcement; strong vs. weak levels of public awareness; self-restraint; commitment; and other factors ( HYPERLINK “https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2020.557593/full” \l “B6” Djalante et al., 2020). These different approaches were reflected in the analysis and concerns of experts as expressed in the leading newspapers of the five studied countries.
2. COVID-19 May Trigger Diabetes In Previously Healthy People, New Study Finds.
2. Scope of study
The scope of study was limited to the websites of Indian news channels. Future studies can be carried on news programmes focusing on mis-information, comparative study of print and electronic media, larger samples can also be considered for study.
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Desktop analysis approach validated in earlier studies of Nash and Churchill, 2020 [7]; Yuvaraj, 2020 [8] was used in the study. WHO has notified some misinformation related with COVID-19. In the present study researcher evaluated the coverage of Indian news channels on the misinformation topics notified by WHO. The official websites of news channels was considered for the study. Each topic notified by WHO was searched on the news websites and the information obtained was subjected to analysis. Table 1 shows the websites considered for study.
S. No News channel URL
1 AAJ TAK https://www.aajtak.in/2 ABP NEWS https://www.abplive.com/3 ZEE NEWS https://zeenews.india.com/4 Republic BHARAT https://bharat.republicworld.com/livetv5 NDTV India https://www.ndtv.com/6 NEWS18 https://www.news18.com/Table 1.
Websites of news channels.
Researcher used the fake news segments enlisted on WHO myth busters [4] webpage to evaluate the fake news covered by the news channels. The criteria are listed below:
5G Mobile networks
Alcohol
Antibiotics
Bleach
Cold weather, snow
Drugs
Garlic
Hand dryers
Holding your breath
Hot and humid climates
Hot baths
Hot peppers
Houseflies
Hydroxychloroquine
Masks, CO2 intoxication
Masks, exercise
Medicines
Methanol, ethanol
Mosquitos
Older people, younger people
Pneumonia vaccines
Recovery
Saline
Shoes
Sunny and hot weather
Thermal scanners
Ultra-violet (UV) lamps
Viruses, bacteria, antibiotics
FINDINGS
The findings of the study are summarized below.
Table 2 and Figure 1 shows the coverage of news by the news channels where Aaj Tak channel webpage had more news articles or post (38) than other channels followed by ABP News (35).
S. No Segments AAJTAK ABP NEWS ZEE NEWS Republic Bharat NDTV News 18
1 5G Mobile networks 3 2 2 2 2 2
2 Alcohol 5 4 3 2 4 3
3 Antibiotics 1 1 0 0 0 0
4 Bleach 0 0 0 0 0 0
5 Cold weather, snow 0 0 0 0 0 0
6 Drugs 1 2 1 2 1 1
7 Garlic 2 2 2 2 2 1
8 Hand dryers 0 1 1 0 0 1
9 Holding your breath 0 0 0 0 0 0
10 Hot and humid climates 1 1 1 1 1 1
11 Hot baths 2 2 2 1 1 1
12 Hot peppers 0 0 0 0 0 0
13 Houseflies 2 2 2 2 2 2
14 Hydroxychloroquine 2 2 2 1 1 1
15 Masks, CO2 intoxication 0 0 0 0 0 0
16 Masks, exercise 1 1 1 1 1 1
17 Medicines 2 1 1 1 1 2
18 Methanol, ethanol 2 2 2 2 2 2
19 Mosquitos 1 0 0 0 0 1
20 Older people, younger people 2 2 2 2 2 2
21 Pneumonia vaccines 2 2 2 2 1 1
22 Recovery 1 1 1 1 1 1
23 Saline 1 1 1 1 1 1
24 Shoes 1 1 1 1 1 1
25 Sunny and hot weather 2 2 2 1 2 1
26 Thermal scanners 2 1 2 1 1 1
27 Ultra-violet (UV) lamps 1 1 1 1 1 1
28 Viruses, bacteria, antibiotics 1 1 1 1 1 1
38 35 33 28 29 29
Table 2.
Coverage of news post on fake news.
Figure 1.
An overview of coverage of each channel.
It can be seen from the analysis that Aaj Tak covered 38 issues followed by ABP News 35 issues, 33 issues by Zee News, 29 issues by News 18 and Republic Bharat out of 28 major misinformation topics identified by WHO. These channels covered 2–3 news stories on a misinformation related with COVID-19. At times when print media is also suffering, as most people have stopped subscribing to print newspapers due to fear of COVID-19, Indian media is responding through electronic media and news websites to cater to the information needs of the people.
CONCLUSION
The current study found the active role played by the News channels in combating fake news and making people aware about authentic information. Media has to play an important role in pandemic situation as there is no any proper vaccine or drug to treat COVID-19. Only awareness and following preventive measures is the key to overcome the current health crisis. The study also validates that the key role identified by researcher (a) to generate awareness among the people; (b) to disseminate authentic information and filter fake information is actively being carried by the Indian media. Also, tackling infodemic is a big challenge. In order to control the rapid spread of fake information through social media there is a need to monitoring or regulatory body to filter information on the web. Also, government should authorize institution or organization who can issue information so that people can also identify credible, authentic information and easily figure out fake information. Similar research can be carried to evaluate the role of media. The present study was limited to the websites of news channels. It would be interesting to conduct a study of news programmes focusing on fake information and carrying a comparative study of print and electronic media. One can follow the recommendations below to evaluate the information and overcome infodemic.
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