Published Paper Details:

Coronavirus first emerged in a man on December 31, 2019, in Wuhan, China. Authorities identified the virus as being transmitted through a seafood market in Wuhan. As the virus spread to nearly all countries worldwide, the World Health Organization classified COVID-19 as a pandemic on 11 March 2020. This contagious virus caused severe distress among people globally. During this time, effective risk communication became the utmost significant challenge for health officials to contain and prevent the virus's spread. Many believe that newspapers in India play a crucial role during such crises. Therefore, newspapers should provide facts and figures and information on how to prevent infection and avoid spreading the virus. This research explores how Telugu newspapers in Telangana covered the news about the coronavirus pandemic and whether they provided preventive measures to help prevent its spread. We analysed the coverage of the coronavirus pandemic in Telugu newspapers using content analysis of 1,633 articles published in two Telugu newspapers between 25 March 2020 and 14 April 2020. The articles consistently published facts and figures about coronavirus-positive cases, deaths, and active cases. These newspapers often used government authorities as sources of information and published significant news on preventive and control measures. This content analysis revealed that Telugu newspapers published many articles on preventive and control measures. However, they tended to focus more on the activities of officials, politicians, and celebrities rather than emphasising the impact on marginalised sections of society.