Content Analysis of Environmental Journalism in Indian English Business Newspapers: Pre and During Covid-19 Reporting Patterns and Its Possible Effect on Public Policy

There has been a lot of research on, and consensus regarding, the value of the print and online mass medium as an efficient method of mass communication. In addition to their coverage of other pressing matters, newspapers have been beneficial in reporting topics related to economic development. With time, the environment of Earth has been subject to ongoing shifts and transformations. Environmental preservation and responsible resource use are more important than ever due to both the rapid advancement of technology and the unparalleled consumption of the earth's natural resources. The importance of the role performed by the media, particularly newspapers, in sensitizing the general people and disseminating knowledge about the need to conserve the environment has become indisputable in the face of growing concerns about these issues. This study investigates how well online News media has been meeting its job of drawing attention to the factors causing environmental harm. The business sector can be perceived as a significant stakeholder in policy formation and action to tackle climate change. But the research conducted on how India's business newspapers portray climate change is scarce. This study is undertaken to address this existing gap. The study analyses the environmental issues and subjects related to sustainable development published in three significant English business dailies in India. The objective of this study is to determine how much importance the online business newspapers is paying to these issues. The study also analyses the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the climate change and sustainability reporting done by these newspapers to draw insights on the future action to be taken. To analyze the climate change and sustainability reporting, news headlines from the newspapers are extracted, then further environment-related news are evaluated and categorized into different sustainability development goals in order to figure out the weak links for further policy action.