Political Communication during COVID-19 in India: Study of Public Support.

Abstract

The research explored the public support towards the political communication carried out during COVID-19 in India. Through the means of a structured questionnaire based on Easton's dimensions of public support, responses were collected from 200 respondents, 100 each from the academic background of journalism and psychology. To determine the support towards the government performance during the crisis times based on the political communication done by the current regime in India. The results suggested that the public support is quite less from the respondents of journalism background. However, the psychology respondents showed relatively high support towards the political communication done by the Indian government in the COVID-19. It suggests that the public support is not one but scattered and also the academic background could play a major role in one's understanding of the political communication and lending of the support. The research demonstrated how respondents from different backgrounds show almost the opposite support towards political communication in the times of crisis. This gives out a good comparison and also concludes the public support. Keywords: COVID-19, pandemic, political communication, crisis communication, public support, India.