Journalism, public health, and COVID-19: some preliminary insights from the Philippines

Abstract

In this essay, we engage with the call for Extraordinary Issue: Coronavirus, Crisis and Communication. Situated in the Philippines, we reflect on how COVID-19 has made visible the often-overlooked relationship between journalism and public health. In covering the pandemic, journalists struggle with the shrinking space for press freedom and limited access to information as they also grapple with threats to their physical and mental well-being. Digital media enable journalists to report even in quarantine, but new challenges such as the wide circulation of health mis-/disinformation and private information emerge. Moreover, journalists have to contend with broader structural contexts of shutdown not just of a mainstream broadcast but also of community newspapers serving as critical sources of pandemic-related information. Overall, we hope this essay broadens the dialogue among journalists, policymakers, and healthcare professionals to improve the delivery of public health services and advance health reporting.

Learning about COVID-19: a qualitative interview study of Australians’ use of information sources

“…The COVID-19 outbreak began to receive public attention in early January 2020, following reports by Wuhan health officials of a cluster of viral pneumonia cases of unknown cause affecting people in that large Chinese city in Hubei province [12]. The news and public health communication environment responding to the COVID-19 crisis has been fraught, frequently characterised by conflicting or rapidly changing information as health authorities and governments struggled to make sense of this new outbreak and identify the best way to control its spread [13][14][15]. COVID-19 news reporters and creators and sharers of social media content have been subjected to continual criticism for disseminating misleading or false information.…”

Science in the media: the scientific community's perception of the COVID-19 media coverage in Spain

“…However, without disregarding the difficulties the media encounters in carrying out its informative work in this context, it is evident that the relations between the media -and consequently journalists -and healthcare professionals require a reform. It is necessary to strengthen the relations between legislators, journalists and health professionals [Bernadas and Ilagan, 2020] because it would help to identify possible errors in the dissemination of information and combat fake news [Larsson et al, 2003].…”

Extraordinary issue: Coronavirus, crisis and communication

“…In the Philippines, which recorded some of the first cases outside of China in January 2020, an established (albeit controversial) authoritarian mode of governance was similarly available to enforce both comprehensive metropolitan lockdowns and the massive repatriation of a precarious expatriate workforce from across the world. Shifting our attention away from the governance of misinformation to the ‘traditional’ role of journalists as informants and educators, Jan Michael Alexandre Bernadas (2020) comments on the viral role being played by journalists in the Philippines in safeguarding public health, at a time when the relationship between political authority and these agents of civil society has itself been at a point of crisis.…”