The Blame Frame: Media Attribution of Culpability About the MMR–Autism Vaccination Scare (original) (raw)
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Public Understanding of Science, 2011
When reporting health risks, the news media are often criticized for omitting "mobilizing" information that allows readers to act on existing attitudes. Using American and British newspaper coverage of the autism-vaccine controversy as a case study, this article takes a "behind the scenes" look at normative pressures that may influence whether such information appears in coverage. In particular, can holding health officials accountable for their actions potentially "crowd out" mobilizing information? A content analysis suggests that mobilizing information (at least one of four examples) was present in only 16% of articles, compared to 38% that mentioned accountability messages (at least one of two examples). US newspapers were significantly more likely to mention at least one mobilization example. Finally, although only 11% discussed both, articles were more likely to discuss certain mobilizing and accountability examples together. Implications for journalism ethics and vaccine risk communication are discussed.
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This study examines the news coverage in two different online media outlets, the New York Times and Fox News, in their reporting on two different vaccines, the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR). It uncovers media frames in the respective outlets in order to evaluate if political divides in attitudes towards the respective vaccines can be attributed to the media portrayals in these outlets. Using framing theory and qualitative content analysis to uncover media frames, it explores the circumstances in which a left-leaning contra a right-leaning audience is invited to understand the issue of HPV- and MMR vaccination. The study exposes the complexity of the vaccine debate in media discourse. Further, it demonstrates that media discourse is generally dependent on political actors instilling an issue with political meaning for it to be framed in terms of conflicting interests. Findings show that the media discourse on HPV vaccine is no longer poli...
2016
Delaying or refusing childhood vaccinations can increase a community's risk of vaccine-preventable diseases. Agenda-setting theory demonstrates that media can influence people's attitudes and opinions. One study in 1998 asserted that a vaccine/autism link existed, giving birth to one of the longest held myths in modern medicine. Shortly after its publication, the study was thoroughly discredited, and hundreds of subsequent studies have failed to find any link. Many parents who refuse vaccinations remain unconvinced by traditional science and favor anecdotal, pseudoscientific accounts of the cause of and treatments for autism. Given the recent resurgence of once-eradicated vaccine-preventable diseases, it is possible that the mass media helped introduce and proliferate the false vaccine/autism link ideology. Fear learning can prompt persistent, irrational beliefs and behaviors. Thus, if news reports about autism were perceived as a threat to the health and/or safety of people's children, the media might have been a factor in scaring people about autism, steering them toward the perceived iii safety of refusing vaccinations. Earlier media messages used more fear terminology than did later reports. Language expressing uncertainty about autism and the risk of developing it have remained equal through the years.
The Media Environment and Anti-Vaccination Movements
European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 2013
The newest media (e.g. the internet) allow the spread of conspiracy theories, entirely or partially fictional information at an unprecedented rate. Anti-vaccination movements across the globe currently use the most modern available communications technology to promote their ideology, to attack the public and to attack systematic solutions that individual governments use as parts of their national vaccination programs. This paper wishes to focus on the issue of freedom of information, yet at the same time point out a rift that exists between factual data and factually incorrect reports that are being spread via the internet, a rift that may be the cause of serious public health issues.
the media-driven risk society, the anti-vaccination movement and risk of autismo
Marked changes have been seen in the epidemiological profile of infectious diseases among middle-class families in industrialized countries due to beliefs related to the risks of vaccination. These beliefs are proliferating globally due to internet sites, blogs and the influence of celebrities in the mass communication media. Due to the complexity of a cultural phenomenon of this nature, contemporary concepts aligned to the idea of reflexivity in the risk society are analyzed. The concept of a receptive media-driven society in which the announcement of danger and protection in mutual reference and contradiction are also assessed. The frequent emergence of tensions derived from cycles of utterances and baseless comments construed as symbolic "biovalues" are discussed. The persistent effect of threatening biotechnological and fraudulent utterances has influenced virtual networks for almost three decades, supporting the debate about the connection between autism and vaccines. The conclusion reached is that the processes of production of significance interconnect at various levels in which representations circulate that support communication and group identity based on historical and cultural references.
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Health Informatics Journal, 2008
In light of the mass media coverage that the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine received as a result of questions raised about its safety, a content analysis of mass media articles about the MMR vaccine was undertaken. The analysis examined 227 articles published in five different information sources in a 2 month period. The analysis looked at 94 content-based variables and the key attributes of these articles including word count and date of publication. Descriptive and analytical statistics relating to both article content and format were produced. The analysis showed that the content and format of articles between different information sources varied widely. These differences can be attributed to the information source in which they are published, but the variability in the content of these information sources provides a challenge to parents who were shown to be using the mass media as an information source.
Science Communication, 2013
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Health Education Research, 2013
Controversy surrounding an autism-vaccine link has elicited considerable news media attention. Despite being widely discredited, research suggests that journalists report this controversy by presenting claims both for and against a link in a relatively 'balanced' fashion. To investigate how this reporting style influences judgments of vaccine risk, we randomly assigned 320 undergraduate participants to read a news article presenting either claims both for/against an autism-vaccine link, link claims only, no-link claims only or non-health-related information. Participants who read the balanced article were less certain that vaccines are safe, more likely to believe experts were less certain that vaccines are safe and less likely to have their future children vaccinated. Results suggest that balancing conflicting views of the autism-vaccine controversy may lead readers to erroneously infer the state of expert knowledge regarding vaccine safety and negatively impact vaccine intentions.
Less reliable media drive interest in anti-vaccine information
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As progress on vaccine rollout in the United States slowed down in Spring 2021, it became clear that anti-vaccine information posed a public health threat. Using text data from 5,613 distinct COVID misinformation stories and 70 anti-vaccination Facebook groups, we tracked highly salient keywords regarding anti-vaccine discourse across Twitter, thousands of news websites, and the Google and Bing search engines from May through June 2021, a key period when progress on vaccinations very clearly stalled. Granger causality tests showed that searches for anti-vaccination terms on Google as well as the appearance of these terms on Twitter followed spikes in their appearance in less reliable media sites, but not discussion in the mainstream press.
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Language used to describe measles in the press has altered significantly over the last sixty years, a shift that reflects changing perceptions of the disease within the medical community as well as broader changes in public health discourse. California, one of the most populous U.S. states and seat of the 2015 measles outbreak originating at Disneyland, presents an opportunity for observing these changes. This article offers a longitudinal case study of five decades of measles news coverage by the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, which represented two of the largest news markets in California when the measles vaccine was released, in 1963, and during the 2015 outbreak. Measles reporting during this period displays patterns pointing to an active role for journalists in shaping public understanding of health and medical matters, especially as they recede from public memory, through the employment of available and circulating political and cultural frames. Moreover, j...