Getsova Zhivka, Rangelova Vanya
National Center of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Sofia, Bulgaria.
Medical University Plovdiv, Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
Heliyon. 2024 Aug 20;10(17):e36575. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e36575. eCollection 2024 Sep 15.
Social forces, in conjunction with biological variables, play a crucial role in shaping the overall health of a community, particularly in the context of infectious disease outbreaks. Mass media calibrates risk perception among the public. The present study's aims are to review risk framings in the Bulgarian National Television in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and to compare results with the communication strategies employed when Ebola was exported outside of Africa. The research seeks to provide a quantitative and qualitative understanding of how the media communicated risk during the two crises. It also aims to determine the extent to which messages altered based on the distinct epidemiological characteristics of the two epidemics.
We used interdisciplinary analysis, combining methods from the social sciences and epidemiology. It is based on a controlled study of media content comparing the share and presentation of information on infections during two different outbreaks caused by newly emerging pathogens (in 2014 and 2020), as well as during periods with no specific concern for novel public health threats (JAN 2019 and OCT-NOV 2019). A content analysis was carried out.
The findings of the study indicate that during the Ebola crisis, medical frames were used in 92 % of the cases, whereas the majority of the analyzed media coverage of COVID-19 focused on the socio-political frame (97 %). During control periods, the extent of coverage using a medical framework varies between 100 and 86 %. In terms of geographic coverage, the presentation of content followed the principle of proximity. In non-emergency circumstances, clinical practitioners are often preferred candidates for interviews. However, during health crises, the media tends to highlight individuals holding administrative positions and authoritative functions.
The present research confirms the hypothesis that public health emergencies increase the volume of infectious disease content on the news. The most frequently selected speaker categories should be briefed timely on outbreak developments in order to feed the media with accurate information.
社会力量与生物学变量共同作用，在塑造社区整体健康方面发挥着关键作用，尤其是在传染病爆发的背景下。大众媒体校准公众的风险认知。本研究的目的是回顾保加利亚国家电视台在新冠疫情早期阶段的风险框架，并将结果与埃博拉疫情蔓延至非洲以外地区时所采用的传播策略进行比较。该研究旨在对媒体在两次危机期间如何传播风险提供定量和定性的理解。它还旨在确定信息根据两种疫情不同的流行病学特征而改变的程度。
我们采用跨学科分析，结合社会科学和流行病学的方法。它基于对媒体内容的对照研究，比较由新出现病原体引发的两次不同疫情（2014年和2020年）期间以及对新型公共卫生威胁无特定关注时期（2019年1月和2019年10月至11月）有关感染信息的份额和呈现方式。进行了内容分析。
研究结果表明，在埃博拉危机期间，92%的案例使用了医学框架，而分析的大多数关于新冠疫情的媒体报道聚焦于社会政治框架（97%）。在对照时期，使用医学框架的报道范围在100%至86%之间。在地理覆盖方面，内容呈现遵循接近原则。在非紧急情况下，临床医生通常是首选的采访对象。然而，在健康危机期间，媒体倾向于突出担任行政职务和具有权威职能的个人。
本研究证实了公共卫生紧急情况会增加新闻中传染病内容量的假设。应及时向最常被选中的发言人类别通报疫情发展情况，以便为媒体提供准确信息。
