A media pandemic: Influenza A in Portuguese newspapers

Abstract

On April 2009, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic alert as a consequence of the appearance of a new influenza virus, named 'Influenza A, H1N1'. In Portugal, media coverage on this disease was intense. However, as the number of deaths within Influenza A patients turned out to be much lower than the foreseen statistics of national authorities, the hypothesis of a 'media pandemic' was suggested by national opinion makers. Looking for a better understanding of the phenomenon, we conducted a study on media coverage and news sources on Influenza A in Portugal. The study of news sources on health issues is a way of understanding health information and it has been a neglected area on Health Communication. This investigation stood on the examination of 655 articles of three national newspapers, with distinct editorial criteria. The analysis considered six variables: number of sources, geographic location, genre, identification, status, and medical expertise. This task followed a quantitative methodology. The findings confirmed previous noticed trends on health information research: the power of official sources, the complexity of access to medical sources, and the lasting misunderstandings between journalists and the medical community.

The Mediated Amplification of a Crisis: Communicating the A/H1N1 Pandemic in Press Releases and Press Coverage in Europe

“…In the aftermath of the A/H1N1 pandemic, health authorities were criticized for failures in crisis communication efforts and the media were accused of amplifying the pandemic . Considering these criticisms, A/H1N1 provides a suitable case for examining risk‐amplification processes that may occur in the transfer of information from press releases to print news media during a health crisis.…”

“…Scott Ratzan, the editor of the Journal of Health Communication , described communication efforts as a “communicable chaos” (p. 413) leading to a “swine conflusion” (p. 413) . In the aftermath, the media were accused of causing a “media pandemic” and “overhyping the pandemic.”…”

Power to Health Reporters: Health Literacy as a Tool to Avoid Pressures from News Sources

“…Contrary to other outbreaks that were intensely covered by the media, like influenza A or Escherichia coli , this outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease increased the publication of news features (Table 1) and strengthened the use of news sources (Tables 2, 3). This brought the patients and the common citizen, who are seldom quoted in Portuguese health news as shown in our previous research [26, 27], into focus.…”

Why has a large Legionnaires’ disease outbreak been absent from public debate?

“…We even referred to a media pandemic, a pandemic that took place in the media rather than in the real life events. These results are shown in a research in which we analyzed 655 news published in three Portuguese newspapers 12,13 . When it comes to the Legionnaires' disease outbreak, the news wave suddenly vanished due to several factors.…”

“…There are only two pharmaceutical sources from a sample of 287 quoted sources. This shows the lack of economic interests that could struggle for visibility in the public space, as it was the case during the Influenza A pandemic in 2009 12,13 . Back then, pharmaceuticals had a genuine interest in promoting the need for a vaccine.…”