Efficacy Information in Media Coverage of Infectious Disease Risks

Abstract

Communication scholars have argued that print media ineffectively communicate efficacy information about zoonotic infectious diseases. In this study, the authors analyze U.S. newspaper coverage of West Nile virus and avian influenza, focusing on (a) personal efficacy information and (b) actions societal actors (e.g., government officials) can/should take to address disease risks ("societal efficacy"). Their findings indicate an emphasis on societal efficacy (64% of West Nile virus sample; 81% avian influenza) versus personal efficacy (51% and 55%) and disease symptoms (32% and 10%). The authors speculate that scholars potentially underestimate the magnitude and types of efficacy information within mass media coverage and discuss implications for risk communication.

Dynamics of an Infectious Disease Where Media Coverage Influences Transmission

“…Additional research addressing how people's experiences during an outbreak affects their perceptions of health warnings as propagated by the media or the government, what impact this might have on their response to future warnings about a potentially more severe pandemic or how best to ameliorate any scepticism is warranted, informed by evidence-based theories of behavior change [36]. Provision of efficacy information coverage is also viable [47].…”

Evolving germs – Antibiotic resistance and natural selection in education and public communication

“…Second, it was possible to compare results with several studies that focused on newspapers in other countries or contexts (e.g. Desilva, Muskavitch & Roche, 2004;Evensen & Clarke, 2012). Third, according to a nation-wide survey performed in 2011, Swedes ranked newspapers as being more credible than Internet news.…”

“…There is one previous media study on antibiotic resistance that is based on magnitude, causes and risk-reduction measures (Desilva, Muskavitch & Roche, 2004). This study, along with related studies concerning other infectious diseases (Dudo, 2007;Roche, 2003;Evensen, 2012), helped us construct a number of variables. However, in order to ensure that we captured valuable information that was possibly missed by the related studies on other diseases, we performed an inductive coding procedure on all articles published in the five months preceding June 2011.…”

“…The second author then coded 16 % of the total material, which was used to calculate reliability (cf. Evensen & Clarke, 2012). For the newspaper analysis in Paper II, the first author coded all articles followed by the second author initially coding all of the articles found to include any evolutionary explanations and an additional 10 % of the total sample.…”

“…Dudo, Dahlstrom & Brossard, 2007;Evensen & Clarke, 2012;You et al, 2017) and apply theory-based concepts such as magnitude or efficacy to interpret their findings based on risk communication models. Given the subjective nature of risk information and how it could be interpreted, Dudo and colleagues (2007) suggested a conceptual definition of what "quality information" should constitute with regard to media-reported risks.…”