THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Mainstream media in Kerala didn’t encourage conspiracy theories about Covid during the reporting of first six months of the outbreak of the disease, found a new study.
An analysis of reports in two major newspapers for the period could find only one story that can be linked to conspiracy theory.
The report was on the police suspicion of conspiracy behind the unrest among migrant workers at a labour camp in central Kerala during the lockdown.
The study titled ‘Pandemic News Patterns in Kerala: The First Six Months’ was released by veteran journalist and academic MD Nalapat in an online event on Monday.
“Covid changed the world much the way 9/11 did,” said Nalapat, UNESCO Peace Chair at Manipal Academy of Higher Education.
“An early success story was Kerala, and it is the media representation of the pandemic that has been explored in this report. This is essential reading for both media and health professionals,” he said.
The research was undertaken by Bournemouth University, UK, and the Manipal Academy of Higher Education.
“News media have a complex role to play during crises situations,” said Chindu Sreedharan of Bournemouth University, who authored the report together with colleague Prof Einar Thorsen, and Padma Rani, and TK Krishnapriya of the Manipal Academy of Higher Education.
“It needs to balance its watchdog function of scrutinising the government responses to the emergency, with aiding the government in disseminating key information to the public,” he said.
The study found that there is a pressing need for training journalists on reporting health emergencies and other disasters, including accessing scientific sources.
It also found that there was only limited scrutiny or questioning of the government decisions in their reportage and the reliance on government sources was high.
Another pertinent finding of the study is the lack of crisis journalism training opportunities for Kerala journalists, despite the increased health and other crises events the state has faced.
“Most journalists we interviewed had not received any form of crisis journalism training and indicated an interest in capacity-building in this area,” said Krishnapriya.
Need for training
The study found that there is a need to train journalists on reporting health emergencies and other disasters, including accessing scientific sources.
The study titled ‘Pandemic News Patterns in Kerala: The First Six Months’ was released by veteran journalist and academic M D Nalapat.