COVID-19 Infodemic and Indian Media: An Evaluative Study

The global widespread of novel COVID-19 also witnessed fake news being circulated in social media. Dealing with these infodemic and providing authentic information was a big challenge for the government and media professionals. The present chapter is an attempt towards this direction to evaluate the role and initia-tives of Indian media in dealing with fake news and providing authentic information to the people. A desktop analysis approach of news channels, news websites will be used to conduct the study. The study also lists various credible sources, myth busters and fact checkers on COVID-19.


Introduction
The outbreak of novel COVID-19 across the world, parallelly witnessed various misleading information, rumors, fake news and misinformation referred as infodemic by WHO [1]. A study of PAHO (Pan American Health Organization) reveals that about 361,000,000 videos were uploaded on YouTube with keyword "COVID-19" and "COVID 19"; 19,200 articles have been indexed by Google Scholar on COVID-19; and 550 million tweets have been found in March with keywords "coronavirus," "corona virus," "covid19," "covid-19," "covid_19" or pandemic [2]. The overabundance of information generated on COVID-19 especially scientific and medical information and its rampant sharing without being vetted is critical for a pandemic. Fake information often dissolves the available authentic information. The uncertainty and anxiety arising from COVID-19 has provided the perfect base for immediate and widespread sharing of fake information.
Newspapers, News channels, News websites are potential medium for people to seek information on latest topics and events. News stories and articles published in these channels generate awareness, guides and inform people in many ways. According to Schmidt et al. [3] news coverage aims to report any event effectively and present various perspectives of the event. Amidst the current pandemic situation news agencies are continuously serving people with information on COVID-19, its preventive measures, guidelines issued by the government and fake information being circulated. A need was henceforth identified to study the role of news agencies in controlling the fake information.
According to WHO [4] myths related with COVID-19 are scattered on various domains. Some of the most common myths are: 11. Pneumonia vaccines prevent from COVID-19.
According to Naeem and Bhatti [5] "in such a rapidly changing situation, with millions on lockdown, social media outlets such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and WeChat, have become major sources of information about the crisis." Another study of Islam et al. [6] points out that "Facebook, Twitter, and online newspapers have been identified as the best platforms for monitoring misinformation and dispelling rumors, stigma, and conspiracy theories among the general people." A need was therefore felt to analyze the websites of news channels to study the approach adopted to control the fake information. Researcher identified two key roles of media professionals in the current pandemic situation: (a) To generate awareness among the people; (b) To disseminate authentic information and filter fake information.

Scope of study
The scope of study was limited to the websites of Indian news channels. Future studies can be carried on news programmes focusing on mis-information, comparative study of print and electronic media, larger samples can also be considered for study.

Methodology
Desktop analysis approach validated in earlier studies of Nash and Churchill, 2020 [7]; Yuvaraj, 2020 [8] was used in the study. WHO has notified some misinformation related with COVID-19. In the present study researcher evaluated the coverage of Indian news channels on the misinformation topics notified by WHO. The official websites of news channels was considered for the study. Each topic notified by WHO was searched on the news websites and the information obtained was subjected to analysis.

Findings
The findings of the study are summarized below. Table 2 and Figure 1 shows the coverage of news by the news channels where Aaj Tak channel webpage had more news articles or post (38) than other channels followed by ABP News (35).
It can be seen from the analysis that Aaj Tak covered 38 issues followed by ABP News 35 issues, 33 issues by Zee News, 29 issues by News 18 and Republic Bharat out of 28 major misinformation topics identified by WHO. These channels covered 2-3 news stories on a misinformation related with COVID-19. At times when print media is also suffering, as most people have stopped subscribing to print newspapers due to fear of COVID-19, Indian media is responding through electronic media and news websites to cater to the information needs of the people.

Conclusion
The current study found the active role played by the News channels in combating fake news and making people aware about authentic information. Media has to play an important role in pandemic situation as there is no any proper vaccine or drug to treat COVID-19. Only awareness and following preventive measures is the key to overcome the current health crisis. The study also validates that the key role identified by researcher (a) to generate awareness among the people; (b) to disseminate authentic information and filter fake information is actively being carried by the Indian media. Also, tackling infodemic is a big challenge. In order to control the rapid spread of fake information through social media there is a need to monitoring or regulatory body to filter information on the web. Also, government should authorize institution or organization who can issue information so that people can also identify credible, authentic information and easily figure out fake information. Similar research can be carried to evaluate the role of media. The present study was limited to the websites of news channels. It would be interesting to conduct a study of news programmes focusing on fake information and carrying a comparative study of print IFLA guidelines on fake news [9].  and electronic media. One can follow the recommendations below to evaluate the information and overcome infodemic.

Guide to identify fake news
Global library association IFLA has released an infographic to spot fake news shown in Figure 2.
Alternatively, WHO mythbusters website (Figure 3) can also be used to get authentic information related with COVID-19.
News Guard (Figure 4) can also be used to get trusted information from the Internet.
Some of the trusted information sources on COVID-19 are: