Measuring the Coverage of Assembly elections and Covid 19 during the pandemic in India

Abstract

India is still facing the aftermath of the second wave of covid 19. However, in between the first wave and second wave India witnessed long and tortuous assembly elections in four states of Southern India. This paper explores the coverage of covid 19 and assembly elections in the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu in two of the most circulated newspapers Malayala Manorama and Mathrubhumi from Kerala and Dinamalar and Dinathanthi from Tamil Nadu. E-papers from February 26, 2021- April 6, 2021, are collected for analysis. 7466 news articles are analyzed to find out the coverage of Covid 19 and assembly elections. The study questions the social responsibility of media platforms that set the media agenda in favor of assembly elections and hence averting the covid 19 news.