A visual framing analysis of covid-19 pandemic outbreak in India on washington post, India today, and BBC : global journalism in news photographs

Abstract EN

Covid-19 pandemic has been a focusing point for media outlets especially after the negative economic and social consequences on the world and India especially, after reporting personal stories and disastrous photos about the pandemic as India has been struck hard by the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic daily cases and deaths peaked at more than 400000 cases and 4000 deaths respectively, almost four to five times higher than the peak number of cases and deaths in the first wave.

A review of literature shows that western media's coverage has highlighted negative themes when covering the issues about the pandemic in India.

Visual framing research is lacking in existing research in comparison to textual analysis.

This study contributes to a general lack of visual framing research in scholarly literature.

In the context of a pandemic, the media's role becomes even more significant, it can be an important source to identify early outbreaks and it can inform the public about non pharmaceutical interventions to limit the spread of the disease and its impact as the pandemic swept through India at a pace that has staggered scientists and the authorities raced to contain the deadly virus outbreak.

This study explores the way in which American and Indian media visually represented the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in India.

Also, it employs visual framing analysis to interpret and understand the visual frames and messages transmitted through Washington Post and India Today websites.

Data were collected from both American and Indian outlets which was further explored through a content analysis.

The two media outlets were chosen because of their availability of multimedia.

The findings of this study will contribute to existing literature and theories regarding the visual portrayals of the pandemic outbreak in India in the global media.