The Evaluations of Swine Flu Magnitudes in TV News: A Comparative Analysis of Paired Influenza Pandemics |
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| Authors: | Po-Lin Pan Juan Meng |
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| Affiliation: | 1. College of Media and Communication, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, Arkansasppan@astate.edu;3. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia |
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| Abstract: | This study examined how major TV news networks covered two flu pandemics in 1976 and 2009 in terms of news frames, mortality exemplars, mortality subject attributes, vaccination, evaluation approaches, and news sources. Results showed that the first pandemic was frequently framed with the medical/scientific and political/legal issues, while the second pandemic was emphasized with the health risk issue in TV news. Both flu pandemics were regularly reported with mortality exemplars, but the focus in the first pandemic was on the flu virus threat and vaccination side effects, while the vaccination shortage was frequently revealed in the second outbreak. |
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| Keywords: | swine flu news frame mortality exemplar risk magnitude evaluation approach |
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