Emerging Infectious Disease Content in Newspaper Editorials: Public Health Concern or Leadership Issue?

Abstract

We conducted a content analysis of newspaper editorials on the Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak in Korea. Subject matter, social and personal efficacy information, and affective tone were evaluated using a mixed-methods approach. An analysis of 241 publications with the acronym “MERS” revealed that public health was the most salient, followed by leadership/governance, coping, medical system, and economic consequences. Societal efficacy information was more frequent than personal efficacy information, and a negative tone was predominant. However, leadership became the most frequent in the later stages. Personal efficacy information decreased over time and across content with a negative tone.

Keywords

infectious disease newspaper editorials subject matter efficacy action affective tone crisis stage

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Allan

Adam

Carter

(2000). Introduction: The media politics of environmental risks. In Allan

Adam

Carter

(Eds.), Environmental risks and the media (pp. 1-26). London, England: University College London.

Bagdikian

B. H.

(1968). Editorial responsibility in times of urban disorder. In Daly

C. V.

(Ed.), The media and the cities (pp. 13-24). Chicago, IL: Chicago University Center of Policy Study.

Bandura

(2000). Exercise of human agency through collective efficacy. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9(3), 75-78.

Beaudoin

C. E.

(2007). SARS news coverage and its determinants in China and the US. International Communication Gazette, 69, 509-524.

Beck

(1992). Risk society: Towards a new modernity. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Berelson

(1971). Content analysis in communication research. New York, NY: Hefner.

Blake

K. D.

Kaufman

A. R.

Lorenzo

Auguston

E. M.

(2015). A descriptive study of television news coverage of tobacco in the United States: Frequency of topics, frames, exemplars, and efficacy. Journal of Health Communication, 20, 1415-1421.

Boin

Hart

Stern

Sundelius

(2016). The politics of crisis management: Public leadership under pressure. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Bomlitz

L. J.

Brezis

(2008). Misrepresentation of health risk by mass media. Journal of Public Health, 30, 202-204.

10.

Chang

(2015). Inaccuracy in health research news: A typology and predictions of scientists’ perceptions of the accuracy of research news. Journal of Health Communication, 20, 177-186. doi:10.1080/10810730.2014.917746

11.

Chang

T. K.

(1989). The impact of presidential statements on press editorials regarding –U.S. China policy, 1950-1984. Communication Research, 16, 486-509.

12.

Davidson

A. E.

Wallack

(2004). A content analysis of sexually transmitted diseases in the print news media. Journal of Health Communication, 9, 111-117. doi:10.1080/108107304290425268

13.

Deignan

Hoffman-Goetz

(2015). Emotional tone of Ontario newspaper articles on the health effects of industrial wind turbines before and after policy change. Journal of Health Communication, 20, 531-538. doi:10.1080/10810730.2014.999894

14.

Donohue

G. A.

Tichenor

P. J.

Olien

C. N.

(1995). A guard dog perspective on the role of media. Journal of Communication, 45, 115-132.

15.

Dudo

A. D.

Dahlstrom

M. F.

Brossard

(2007). Reporting a potential pandemic: A risk-related assessment of avian influenza coverage in U.S. newspapers. Science Communication, 28, 429-454.

16.

Elyazale

(2014). Characteristics of newspaper editorials: “Chouftchouf” in “Almassae” Moroccan newspaper as a case study. New Media and Mass Communication, 32, 21-43.

17.

Entman

R. M.

(1993). Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43(4), 51-56.

18.

Evensen

D. T.

Clarke

C. E.

(2012). Efficacy information in media coverage of infectious disease risks: An ill predicament? Science Communication, 34, 392-418.

19.

Fink

(1986). Crisis management: Planning for the inevitable. New York, NY: AMACOM.

20.

Frost

Frank

Maibach

(1997). Relative risk in the news media: A quantification of misrepresentation. American Journal of Public Health, 87, 842-845.

21.

Fung

T. K. F.

Namkoong

Brossard

(2011). Media, social proximity, and risk: A comparative analysis of newspaper coverage of Avian Flu in Hong Kong and in the United States. Journal of Health Communication, 16, 889-907. doi:10.1080/10810730.2011.561913

22.

Gerlach

K. K.

Marino

Hoffman-Goetz

(1997). Cancer coverage in women’s magazines: What information are women receiving? Journal of Cancer Education, 12, 240-244.

23.

Griffin

R. J.

Yang

Huurne

Boerner

Ortiz

Dunwoody

(2008). After the flood: Anger, attribution, and the seeking of information. Science Communication, 29, 285-315.

24.

Hansen

(2010). Environment, media and communication. London, England: Routledge.

25.

Hawkins

K. W.

Linvill

D. L.

(2010). Public health framing of news regarding childhood obesity in the United States. Health Communication, 25, 709-717. doi:10.1080/1041 0236.2010.521913

26.

Hoffman-Goetz

MacDonald

(1999). Cancer coverage in mass-circulating Canadian women’s magazines. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 90, 55-59.

27.

Hoffman-Goetz

Shannon

Clarke

J. N.

(2003). Chronic disease coverage in Canadian Aboriginal newspapers. Journal of Health Communication, 8, 475-488.

28.

Jensen

J. D.

(2008). Scientific uncertainty in news coverage of cancer research: Effects of hedging on scientists’ and journalists’ credibility. Human Communication Research, 34, 347-369.

29.

Jensen

J. D.

Moriarty

C. M.

Hurley

R. J.

Stryker

J. E.

(2010). Making sense of cancer news coverage trends: A comparison of three comprehensive content analyses. Journal of Health Communication, 15, 136-151. doi:10.1080/10810730903528025

30.

Jones

S. C.

(2004). Coverage of breast cancer in the Australian print media: Does advertising and editorial coverage reflect correct social marketing messages? Journal of Health Communication, 9, 309-325.

31.

Kim

I. C.

(2016, November 25). A slower reduction in the circulation of the national dailies. Yonhap News. Retrieved from http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/bulletin/2016/11/25/0200000000AKR20161125118200033.HTML?input=1195m

32.

Kim

S.-H.

Willis

(2007). Talking about obesity: News framing of who is responsible for causing and fixing the problem. Journal of Health Communication, 12, 359-376. doi:10.1080/10810730701326051

33.

Kimmerle

Flemming

Feinkohl

Cress

(2015). How laypeople understand the tentativeness of medical research news in the media: An experimental study on the perception of information about deep brain stimulation. Science Communication, 37, 173-189.

34.

Krippendorff

(2004). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

35.

Lawrence

R. G.

(2004). Framing obesity: The evolution of news discourse on a public health issue. Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 9(3), 56-75. doi:10/1177/108 1180X04266581

36.

Lee

Len-Rios

M. E.

(2014). Defining obesity: Second-level agenda setting attributes in Black newspapers and general audience newspapers. Journal of Health Communication, 19, 1116-1129. doi:10.1080/10810730.2013.864729

37.

Lee

W. S.

(2010). An analysis of the relationship between the editorials and the outsourced-columns. Journal of Communication Science, 10, 421-469. [In Korean]

38.

(2007). Stages of a crisis and media frames and functions: U. S. television coverage of the 9/11 incident during the first 24 hours. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 51, 670-687.

39.

Luther

C. A.

Zhou

(2005). Within the boundaries of politics: New framing of SARS in China and the United States. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 82, 857-872.

40.

Marino

Gerlach

K. K.

(1999). An analysis of breast cancer coverage in selected women’s magazines, 1987-1995. American Journal of Health Promotion, 13, 163-170.

41.

McCombs

Llamas

J. P.

Lopez-Escobar

Rey

(1997). Candidate images in Spanish elections: Second-level agenda setting effects. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 74, 703-717.

42.

Mercado-Martinez

F. J.

Robles-Silva

Moreno-Leal

Franco-Almazan

(2001). Inconsistent journalism: The coverage of chronic diseases in the Mexican press. Journal of Health Communication, 6, 235-247. doi:10.1080/108107301752384424

43.

Muschert

G. W.

(2009). Frame-changing in the media coverage of a school shooting: The rise of Columbine as a national concern. Social Science Journal, 46, 164-170.

44.

Pickle

Quinn

S. C.

Brown

J. D.

(2002). HIV/AIDS coverage in black newspapers, 1991-1996: Implications for health communication and health education. Journal of Health Communication, 7, 427-444. doi:10.1080/10810730290001792

45.

Reynolds

Seeger

M. W.

(2005). Crisis and emergency risk communication as an integrative model. Journal of Health Communication, 10, 43-55.

46.

Roche

J. P.

Muskavitch

M. A. T.

(2003). Limited precision in print media communication of West Nile Virus risk. Science Communication, 24, 353-365.

47.

Salmon

Atkin

(2003). Using media campaigns for health promotion. In Thompson

T. L.

Dorsey

Parrott

Miler

(Eds.), Handbook of health communication (pp. 449-472). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

48.

Shin

M. H.

(2003, October 29). Let’s drop it . . . It’s too early. Ohmynews. Retrieved from http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=102&oid=047&aid=0000038049

49.

Sinclair

(1982). British press editorials on leadership during 1979 campaign. Journalism Quarterly, 59, 230-234.

50.

Slater

M. D.

Long

Bettinghaus

E. P.

Reineke

J. B.

(2008). News coverage of cancer in the United States: A national sample of newspapers, television, and magazines. Journal of Health Communication, 13, 523-537. doi:10.1080/10810730802279571

51.

Sobkow

Traczyk

Zaleskiewicz

(2016). The affective bases of risk perception: Negative feelings and stress mediate the relationship between mental imagery and risk perception. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1-10.

52.

Sturges

D. L.

(1994). Communicating through crisis: A strategy for organizational survival. Management Communication Quarterly, 7, 297-316.

53.

Taylor

K. R.

(2003, July). Promise or peril: How newspapers frame stem cell research. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Kansas City, MO.

54.

Thrasher

J. F.

Kim

S. H.

Rose

Craft

M. K.

(2015). Media coverage of smoke-free policies after their innovation. Journal of Health Communication, 20, 297-305. doi:10.1080/10810730.2014.925017

55.

van Asselt

M. B. A.

Renn

. (2011). Risk governance. Journal of Risk Research, 14, 431-449.

56.

Van Dijk

T. A

. (1995, December). Opinions and ideologies in editorials. Paper presented at the 4th International Symposium of Critical Discourse Analysis, Language, Social Life and Critical Thought, Athens, Greece.

57.

Västfjäll

Peters

Slovic

(2008). Affect, risk perception and future optimism after the tsunami disaster. Judgment and Decision Making, 3, 64-72.

58.

Wallack

(1999). The California Violence Prevention Initiative: Advancing policy to ban Saturday night specials. Health Education & Behavior, 26, 841-857.

59.

Zeng

Zhou

(2015). Framing strategies at different stages of a crisis: Coverage of the “ July 5 th” Urumqi event by Xinhua, Reuters, and AP. International Communication Gazette, 77, 51-73.