Reporting New Telemedicine Impediments in Indian Print Media: Will Solutions Journalism Improve Tele-Medical Discourse?

Abstract

The media being the primary source of information for the public has an important role in reporting and framing health promoting news updates. The news frames suggested by the media should explore solutions for existing impediments in medical and health practices to improve healthcare delivery at the time of the pandemic. This study aims to show how the challenges in telemedicine were reflected in mainstream Indian print media through Framing Analysis. The results revealed that news highlighting telemedicine challenges and real-time barriers was barely reported, restricting the frames to slue toward a high adoption rate in telemedicine rather than focusing on its long-standing challenges. Obstacles faced by physicians and patients who used telemedicine during this period were largely ignored. By reporting them in the prime mainstream media could have enlightened the necessity for facilitating clinical and structural reformation and in edifying workable telemedicine guidelines at this time of its increasing acceptance. Through this analysis, the study proposes that embracing ‘Solution Journalism’ in health and medical news may promote a favourable environment to create a sustainable telemedicine ecosystem in India.