IJCM_317A: The quality of news reports on violence against health workers in India

Abstract

Background: The Indian Medical Association report from 2015 states that around 75% of doctors had faced violence at the workplace. One of the major contributory factors to such assaults is the public conscience against healthcare workers. An improper understanding of the purpose and functions of emergency care and outpatient facilities also adds to the bitterness. The media, especially online has a great influence over them. Inadequate, unscientific, and very often emotional reporting of medical news will not help the frontline workers in peaceful and resource-effective productivity. Objective: To examine the quality of reporting of news articles on violence against health workers in India. Methodology: A cross-sectional study to examine the quality of news articles on violence against healthcare workers published online in the past three years based on the guidelines from the Independent Press Standards Organisation, UK and Press Council of India’s Norms 2022. Articles in English, Hindi, and other regional languages that the authors had expertise in were selected. The data was collected using Google Forms and analysed in Google Sheets. Results: The majority of the articles did not mention the illness and medical management done, while the chronology of the violent incidents was adequately mentioned. Almost 50% of the articles did not mention any witness interviews. One-third of the articles did not mention the date of incidence. One-fourth of the articles, mostly regional language articles used clickbait keywords in the articles. Most of the articles did not give any follow-up reports on the news. Conclusion: There is a huge gap in adequate and unbiased reporting on the incidents of violence against healthcare workers among the online media.