The Influence of Partisan Media in the Face of Global Pandemic: How News Media Influenced COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy

Abstract

While vaccination against COVID-19 represents a clear path toward resuming “normal life,” attitudes toward vaccination and vaccine uptake has been highly politically contentious. In this paper, we investigate (1) whether or not partisan news outlets covered COVID-vaccination issues in different ways, and (2) whether differences in coverage contributed to the vaccine politicization. We do this by bringing together novel sentiment-scored COVID vaccine stories (N > 17,000) from cable and mainstream news outlets, N > 180,000 vaccine adverse event reports to the Dept. of Health and Human Services (which we validate both here and in past research as a proxy for public vaccine sentiment), and six original surveys (N = 6,499) measuring vaccination intentions and media use behavior throughout the pandemic. We find that Fox News’ vaccine-related coverage was significantly more negative than that of other cable and mainstream sources. Critically, these differences in tone influenced public opinion about vaccines. Adverse event reports tended to increase following heightened periods of negativity on Fox News, which robustness checks suggest is not likely to be a reverse causal effect. Correspondingly, self-reported Fox News exposure in the opinion data is associated with elevated levels of vaccine hesitancy throughout the pandemic. Collectively, the results provide new insights into the persuasive power of partisan media. While some might expect the promise of ending a global pandemic to interrupt conventional media effect processes, we find that differences in covered vaccine-related issues had both predictable and polarizing effects on public opinion.

Quantifying Changes in Vaccine Coverage in Mainstream Media as a Result of the COVID-19 Outbreak: Text Mining Study

“…The news ecosystem accounts for 76% of the information people consume [ 31 ], which can affect people’s behavior, for instance making them more hesitant toward vaccines. This can be exacerbated by circulation of misinformation [ 21 ] and by vaccine reporting along partisan lines [ 19 ].…”

“…However, news is only one facet of the entire media ecosystem, and much information is communicated via social media [ 19 - 22 ]. Social media encourages active participation in the form of clicks, likes, retweets, and shares, which are then readily quantifiable by engagement.…”

“…Major news outlets also play an important role in vaccine discourse [ 17 , 18 ]. Although several text mining studies have covered vaccines within specific regions [ 19 - 22 ], to the best of our knowledge, there are no large-scale text mining studies to date of vaccine front-page news headlines that encompass multiple countries focusing specifically on COVID-19.…”

Is partisan conflict over COVID-19 vaccination eroding support for childhood vaccine mandates?

“…Correspondingly, recent research 15,16 suggests that VAERS data may function as an indicator of public vaccine sentiment. While VAERS data cannot tell us precisely how many Americans hold positive or negative views toward vaccination, increased side effect reporting may be indicative of increased public fears about vaccine safety.…”

Going the Distance for COVID-19: Relationships Among News Use, Psychological Distance, Risk Perceptions, and Behavioral Intentions

“…Those who watched Fox News were also more likely to feel that the news media had exaggerated the risks of the pandemic compared with other news sources. Another study comparing various news sources also found that Fox News shared pandemic coverage that was significantly more negative than other sources and more likely to report on increased public hesitancy and resistance to getting a COVID-19 vaccine (Motta & Stecula, 2021).…”