Framing of the H1N1 Flu in an Indian Newspaper

Abstract

This article analyses the H1N1 flu crisis coverage, in the Ahmedabad edition of The Times of India, the highest circulated English daily in India as well as in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The study aimed to look at the journalism practices followed in the coverage of the crisis and to determine how the newspaper framed the H1N1 issue. Systematic random sampling was used to select 127 from all 381 news stories that appeared in the Times between August and November 2009. The article identified six frames in the coverage: fear and panic, severity, safety, human interest, attribution of responsibility and scientific information It concludes that the article set the agenda for H1N1 crisis as a threat to human life and framed it as a war between humans, where the virus has an edge over humans.