International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD)

Volume 4 Issue 3, April 2020 Available Online: www.ijtsrd.com e-ISSN: 2456 – 6470

COVID-19 and Lockdown-1 Situation in India Shows the

Drastic Growth of Science Journalism: A Pedagogic
Case Study of Leading Newspapers of 4 Metro Cities
Ratul Datta1#, Prof. Dr. Tapati Basu D. Litt.2
1Ph.D.Research Scholar, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication,
2Ex Professor and Ex HOD, Journalism and Mass Communication and Ex Dean of Arts,
1,2University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

ABSTRACT How to cite this paper: Ratul Datta | Prof.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has already declared the corona virus Dr. Tapati Basu D. Litt. "COVID-19 and
outbreak as global pandemic of international concern and to curb the scourge Lockdown-1 Situation in India Shows the
of the disease 2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease, Government of India has Drastic Growth of Science Journalism: A
already declared national lockdown-1 for 21 days on 24th March, 2020. Pedagogic Case Study of Leading
Meanwhile, Indian newspapers have already boosted up with this coverage Newspapers of 4 Metro Cities" Published
and have shown the proliferated enhancement of space share of science news. in International
4 major circulated English newspapers were selected from 4 metropolitan Journal of Trend in
cities and space share along with total no of science news were analyzed. 4 Scientific Research
metro cities are Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai and 4 selected sample and Development
newspapers are The Hindustan Times for Delhi, The Telegraph for Kolkata, (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-
The Hindu for Chennai and The Times of India for Mumbai. It has been found 6470, Volume-4 |
that, space share of science news has already raised to 64 percent and is still Issue-3, April 2020, IJTSRD30852
increasing which again has shown the way that, India needs more science pp.1137-1142, URL:
journalists and science news should not be dominated in future. www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd30852.pdf

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INTRODUCTION
In this most timely research work in India, it is not the only from vegetablesellers to doctors-media professionals etc.
intension to find the present scenario of Covid-19 pandemic, Corona epidemic has again proved the fact that sustainable
but also to find out how science communication and science development is closely related to science journalism and
journalism can dominate the whole media market, if needed. every people in every corner should be aware of that for
This study will also help the upcoming and budding media inclusive growth. It is also proves again that science
professionals to show the new way of science journalism journalism is very much needed and the country like India,
jobs and it has again been proved that science journalism political news, crime news, sports news, financial news and
cannot be decayed and wiped off. This study will also show even entertainment news should not dominate science news.
the way how to solve new kind of problems regarding In this regard, to cater scientific news on 2019-nCoV, media
science communication still prevailing including new job of India has become very pragmatic, realistic, timely
openings and communication of global scientific issues to the bounded, updated and also crucial weapon.
remote villages-panchayets. Some remedies have also been
suggested. Background:
If timeline development of Covid-19 in India and globally is
It is to be mentioned that science communication has various considered, it is found that, on (i)11th March, 2020 World
forms like news on science, science graphics, science Health Organization (WHO) declared this epidemic as
features, pictures on science, articles from scientific pandemic (ii) On that very day, under the direction of Prime
institutions, science awareness advertisements, editorials Minister of India, high level ministry group was constituted
and letters to editors etc all have been used in this pandemic to close monitor of this outbreak iii) On 14th March, 2020
period to make updated and informative to the people. totally 84 positive cases were confirmed in India including 2
Everywhere, in every corner of newspapers there has been a deaths. On that day, 13 states have already been reported
reflection to reach science communication to every common with Covid-19 cases. On that day, globally, 1 lakh 32
people from children to students, from farmers to workers, thousand 758 cases were become positive with 4955 deaths.

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(iii) Janata Curfew was already called for and on 22nd day, India had 909 active cases with 19 deaths in 27 states
March,2020 i.e. just before the national lockdown and union territories. On that very day, globally, 20, 834
declaration in the history of India, total figure of India was death figure was confirmed along with 4,46, 684 positive
raised to 360 in total with 7 deaths and 23 states were cases v) After video conferencing and consultation with all
already been affected. iv) For the 1st time in Indian history, chief ministers of every state of this country, Prime Minister
National Lockdown-1 was declared for 21 days under declared the extension of National Lockdown-1 to National
section 6(2) (i) of Disaster Management Act, 2005. On that Lockdown-2, till 3rd May, 2020.

Graph 1: WHO-India Novel Coronavirus Disease situation report shows states and district reporting COVID-19 as
on 28th March, 2020 after declaration of National Lockdown-1 in India (Source)

Graph 2: WHO-India Novel Coronavirus Disease situation report shows new and cumulative cases of reporting of
COVID-19 as on 12th April, 2020 just before declaration of National Lockdown-2 in India (Source)

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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470

Graph 3: WHO-India Novel Coronavirus Disease situation report shows new and cumulative cases of reporting of
COVID-19 as on 19th April, 2020 just after declaration of National Lockdown-2 in India (Source)

Present scenario of science journalism in India:

Till today, there is a huge difference between very high development indexed countries in the world and mid level development
(India belongs to this group, according to UN Development report, 2018) indexed country in quality and quantity of science
journalism. Here, still, space share of science news is just 3.5-4 per cent, according to last published research, before the
publication of coverage of Covid-19, in India. Also present situation is, 1st page news on science, editorial on science, experts
views from scientific fraternity etc are the rarest cases in India, that has already achieved by Indian media, within Lockdown-1
period.

Research methodology and research design:

It is a formulative as well as applied research work as under different scientific formulation, space share of different science
news on COVID-19 were collected, analyzed, categorized and formulated statistically. It is also a social research as various
factors and variables are very much related to social development. This research is empirical as it is based on different
measurement analysis. It is also a comparative research work as this research shows the comparative study among some
factors.

Time period for this research work was considered as Lockdown Period-1 i.e. from 24th March, 2020 to 14th April, 2020 i.e. 21
days. For sample survey, 4 major metro cities, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai were considered. 4 selected sample
newspapers were The Hindustan Times for Delhi, The Telegraph for Kolkata, The Hindu for Chennai and The Times of India for
Mumbai.

Statistical analysis and theoretical framework of research:

It is always found in almost all newspapers of India, that, on an average, political news, followed by sports news, crime news,
entertainment news, news on administrative decisions etc dominate science news and hence, within this lockdown-1 time
period, all day, all newspapers were analyzed and space share were measured according to colume-cm. Then space share of
science news on Covid-19 were compared with other types of news and were tabulated below in table 1. Also table 2 will show
the comparative percentage of space share of 10 different types of scientific news on Covid-19 in 3 consecutive weeks of
National Lockdown-1 in India.

Table 1: Comparative space share of scientific news on Covid-19 along with other types of news in 3 consecutive
weeks of National Lockdown-1
Crime Political Sports Financial Entertainment Administration News on
News C2 News C3 News C4 News C5 News C6 News C7 Covid-19 C8
1st week of
4.1 6.7 9.5 3.4 6.5 4.6 65.2
Lockdown-1
2nd week of
4.7 4.2 8.1 2.6 5.1 2.5 72.8
Lockdown-1
3rd week of
3.0 3.1 7.6 1.9 4.2 1.4 78.8
Lockdown-1

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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
Table 2: Comparative percentage of space share of 10 different types of scientific news on Covid-19 in 3
consecutive weeks of National Lockdown-1
Graphics on Covid-19 7.2 1st page lead news on Covid-19 91.2
Public understanding of science on Covid-19 34.7 Awareness campaign on Covid-19 17.8
Published research and journal on Covid-19 6.5 Interview of scientists on Covid-19 16.6
Write up/statements of experts on Covid-19 11.1 Editorial on Covid-19 51.6
Pictures on Covid-19 5.6 Letters to the editor and Covid-19 21.3

Graph 4: Vertical cylinder diagram showing comparative space share of science news on
Covid19 during national laockdown period-1
80

60

40

20

0 One-Way Analysis of Variance Report

C8 vs C1
80

75

70

65
1st week of Lockdown-1 2nd week of Lockdown-1 3rd week of Lockdown-1
C1

Box Plot Section Plots of Means Section

Table 3: Analysis of Variance Table and F-Test

Sum of Mean Prob Reject Equal Power
Model Term DF F-Ratio
Squares Square Level Means? (α=0.05) (α=0.05)
Between (C1) 2 92.90667 46.45333
Within (Error) 0 0
Adjusted Total 2 92.90667
Total 3

Welch's Test of Means Allowing for Unequal Variances

Model Term Numerator DF Denominator DF F-Ratio Prob Level Reject Equal Means? (α=0.05)
Between Groups 2 ∞ 0.0000 1 No

Table 4: Kruskal-Wallis One-Way ANOVA on Ranks

Hypotheses
H0: All medians are equal. H1: At least two medians are different.

Test Results
Method DF Chi-Squared (H) Prob Level Reject H0? (α=0.05)
Not Corrected for Ties 2 2.0000 0.3678795 No
Corrected for Ties 2 2.0000 0.3678795 No
Number Sets of Ties 0
Multiplicity Factor 0

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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
Group Detail
Group Count Sum of Ranks Mean Rank Z-Value Median
1st week of Lockdown-1 1 1.00 1.00 -1.2247 65.2
2nd week of Lockdown-1 1 2.00 2.00 0.0000 72.8
3rd week of Lockdown-1 1 3.00 3.00 1.2247 78.8

Table 5: Normal Scores Tests

Hypotheses
H0: All group data distributions are the same.
H1: At least one group has observations that tend to be greater than those of the other groups.

Results
Test DF Chi-Squared (H) Prob Level Reject H0? (α=0.20)
Not Corrected for Ties 2 2.0000 0.3678795 No
Corrected for Ties 2 2.0000 0.3678795 No

Descriptive Statistics
Standard Standard Error
Group Count(ni) Mean Effect Median
Deviation √(MSE/ni)
All 3 72.26667 72.26667
A: C1
1st week of Lockdown-1 1 65.2 -7.066667 65.2 0
2nd week of Lockdown-1 1 72.2 0.5333334 72.2 0
3rd week of Lockdown-1 1 78.2 6.533333 78.2 0

Table 6: Kruskal-Wallis Multiple-Comparison Z-Value Test (Dunn's Test)

1st week of Lockdown-1 2nd week of Lockdown-1 3rd week of Lockdown-1
1st week of Lockdown-1 0.0000 0.7071 1.4142
2nd week of Lockdown-1 0.7071 0.0000 0.7071
3rd week of Lockdown-1 1.4142 0.7071 0.0000

91.2
100
80
51.6
60 34.7
40 17.8 16.6
7.2 6.5 11.1 5.6
20
0

Gr
aph 6: Vertical cylinder diagram showing the percentage of space share of 10 different types of scientific news on
Covid-19 in 3 consecutive weeks of National Lockdown-1

Results and discussion:

From the above table-1 and graph-4 it has been found that, has also been found that, more than 50 percent editorials
there has been a stiff increase of percentage of space share of (51.6 percent space share) were on Covid-19 i.e. science.
science news, only due to Covid-19 and people have Within this national lockdown-1, more than 20 percent
aggressively read all those news based on science and hence letters to the editor (21.3 percent) were on science
all other types of news like crime-political-sports-financial- journalism related and public understanding of science
entertainment-administration related news have shared related articles-materials etc have achieved nearly one-third
very small portion of space in newspapers compared to of space (34.7 percent).
science news. Also, Graph-4 has shown that in consecutive 3
weeks of national lockdown-1, percentage of space share of Then one-way ANOVA Test was done on the table-1 to find
science news has drastically increased and other types of whether the survey or the experimental results were
news have decreased drastically. Graph 6 has shown that, in significant. It has helped to figure out it is needed to reject
almost all day, 1st page lead news was on Covid-19 and the null hypothesis or accept the alternative hypothesis and
science news have reached 91.2 percent of space share. It Graph-5 has shown the normality test with plots of mean

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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
section. Table 3: Analysis of Variance Table and F-Test. Table not been decayed, but situation has shown again that it
4: Kruskal-Wallis One-Way ANOVA on Ranks. Table 5: should be increased.
Normal Scores Tests. Table 6: Kruskal-Wallis Multiple-
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