Evaluating the Role of Media in Averting Heat Stroke Mortality: A Daily Panel Data Analysis

This paper investigates the relative effectiveness of the different media used by the state government of Odisha, India to disseminate Information, Education and Communication (IEC) material to avert heat stroke mortality in the state. The government adopted awareness campaigns as an adaptation strategy for heat waves in the year 2003 and intensified the use of public media from 2007, when multiple newspapers, radio and television channels were used for dissemination. The district level daily death occurrences due to heat stroke is analyzed using count models and examined the role of media use in averting such mortality.