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NEW DELHI: At a time when climate change is increasingly reshaping public health risks across the globe, Indian media, including TOI, has quietly carved out a leadership role in linking the two, reports Jahnavi.A new study published in The Lancet Planetary Health has found that Indian news outlets are emerging as global frontrunners in climate-health journalism, surpassing coverage trends in both the US and China. According to the research, Indian outlets – including TOI – recorded the highest proportion of substantive climate-health coverage at 46.4%, compared to 31.3% in the US and 17% in China.The study, titled ‘The evolution of news coverage about climate change as a health issue: a decadal analysis in China, India and the USA’, examined legacy media coverage across the three countries between 2012 and 2023. Researchers conducted a manual content analysis of articles from five mainstream newspapers and one news agency per country, sourced through archival databases. In India, TOI was among the five newspapers included in the sample.Climate-health journalism was defined as news content that substantively connects climate change to human health outcomes or health-related actions.The study noted that Indian media consistently performed better in covering issues that directly affect everyday life like heat, food security, air quality, and extreme weather.
