ආර්ථික අර්බුදය පිළිබඳ මාධ්‍ය වාර්තාකරණය

Abstract

During the month of May 2022, several tv primetime news telecasts covered the ongoing economic crisis in Sri Lanka, where different channels adopted different framings and varied in their coverage of the fuel crisis and the inflation. On May 02, Derana, Hiru, ITN, Rupavahini, Sirasa, Swarnavahini, and Siyatha featured the lengthening fuel queues and the ending of the fuel bowser owners' protest in their main headlines. Whilst Sirasa, Derana, and Siyatha mentioned both the negative and positive aspects - lengthening fuel queues and the calling off of the strike, Swarnavahini, ITN, and Rupavahini only covered the positive aspect by mentioning only the calling off of the strike. Thus the latter three did not allow the viewer to get the full comprehension of the ongoing situation. Hiru headlines mentioned that the bowser owners had stopped the strike and that the fuel distribution resumed amongst attacks on them by the people. On May 19, Derana, Hiru, Rupavahini, Sirasa, Swarnavahini and Siyatha featured the news of the price of a loaf of bread being increased by Rs. 30. However, ITN did not give coverage to the news on that day, thus failing report on a news of national importance. On May 23, Derana, Hiru, Sirasa and Swarnavhini reported that an infant had died due not being hospitalised on time to receive treatment, owing to the fuel crisis. ITN, Rupavahini, and Siyatha did not cover the news. On May 26, Swarnavahini headlines mentioned that the fuel queues around the country have not reduced. By contrast, Derana and Rupavahini headlines reported that a reduction, a shortening of fuel queues could be observed. Hiru, ITN, Siyatha and Sirasa did not feature the news in their headlines.