Webinar on Development Communication in India – Siddharth Jindal

Siddharth Jindal is a student of Manipal Institute of Communication. The title of his research
paper was “Infodemic during COVID Times: A reality check on the credibility of
Information Source”. 
His objective was to find out the type of information provided by the government to spread
COVID-19 awareness among the public understand the role of sources that carry information
to the target group, examine the role of sources that bring in the desired changes. 
The methodology used by him was a mixed method which includes content analysis and
quantitative analysis. The study is being framed on the theoretical framework of the
Transtheoretical model and Diffusion of Innovation. The first stage focused on the content
analysis of the newspaper articles, advertisements produced by the government and the
second stage involved Google forms, and online semi-structured survey conducted with 120
respondents. 

Through this survey his findings were; people understood the importance of wearing a mask,
using hand sanitizers frequently and washing hands, the importance of physical distancing,
not using public transportation during COVID times, isolating oneself when caught with mild
fever or cough, people came to know about the COVID symptoms.

On a concluding note, he talked about how the advertisements created by the government
were successful and effective and how the articles in the newspaper played a major role in
awaking the people. The role of the Prime Minister was crucial at the early stages of COVID-
19 and he acted with perfection.