The reporting of the risks from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in the news media, 2003–2004

Lewison, Grant

doi:10.1080/13698570802160962

Cited by 38 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…(Alberta Health and Wellness, 2010) One of the most influential information purveyors, the media, was looked at in an overall favourable light. Unlike previous public health events, such as SARS where the media reaction was sensationalized and disruptive at times (Lewison, 2008;Washer, 2004), participants felt that most of the time the media took a balanced and responsible approach in their reporting by seeking appropriate advice from credible experts.…”

Section: Information and Information Purveyorsmentioning

confidence: 88%

Pandemic H1N1 in Canada and the use of evidence in developing public health policies – A policy analysis

Rosella

Wilson

Crowcroft

et al. 2013

Social Science & Medicine

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When responding to a novel infectious disease outbreak, policies are set under time constraints and uncertainty which can limit the ability to control the outbreak and result in unintended consequences including lack of public confidence. The H1N1 pandemic highlighted challenges in public health decision-making during a public health emergency. Understanding this process to identify barriers and modifiable influences is important to improve the response to future emergencies. The purpose of this study is to examine the H1N1 pandemic decision-making process in Canada with an emphasis on the use of evidence for public health decisions. Using semi-structured key informant interviews conducted after the pandemic (July-November 2010) and a document analysis, we examined four highly debated pandemic policies: use of adjuvanted vaccine by pregnant women, vaccine priority groups and sequencing, school closures and personal protective equipment. Data were analysed for thematic content guided by Lomas' policy decision-making framework as well as indicative coding using iterative methods. We interviewed 40 public health officials and scientific advisors across Canada and reviewed 76 pandemic policy documents. Our analysis revealed that pandemic pre-planning resulted in strong beliefs, which defined the decision-making process. Existing ideological perspectives of evidence strongly influenced how information was used such that the same evidentiary sources were interpreted differently according to the ideological perspective. Participants recognized that current models for public health decision-making failed to make explicit the roles of scientific evidence in relation to contextual factors. Conflict avoidance theory explained policy decisions that went against the prevailing evidence. Clarification of roles and responsibilities within the public health system would reduce duplication and maintain credibility. A more transparent and iterative approach to incorporating evidence into public health decision-making that reflects the realities of the external pressures present during a public health emergency is needed.

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Section: Information and Information Purveyorsmentioning

confidence: 88%

Pandemic H1N1 in Canada and the use of evidence in developing public health policies – A policy analysis

Rosella

Wilson

Crowcroft

et al. 2013

Social Science & Medicine

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“…As noted, news media are said to have avoided panicking the general population and content analyses demonstrate moderately risk‐oriented and fear‐provoking messages verging into facts‐based reporting (Duncan ; Fogarty et al. ; Hilton and Hunt ; Lewison ). Nevertheless, media were figured in interviews and focus groups as problematic and, in particular, as having “hyped” the outbreak, as noted in previous research (Hilton and Smith ; Holland and Blood ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Holland and Blood found news media to be simultaneously “alarming and reassuring” (2010). Content analyses of UK (Hilton and Hunt ) and Europe‐wide news media (Duncan ), found texts to be mainly focused on facts and to have avoided alarmist discourse, or to have initially mobilized the “scariness” of the pandemic until facts regarding its severity came to light (Lewison ). In addition, government reviews give emphasis to the value of providing news media with facts, in the effort to avoid alarmist reporting and moderate undue public reaction (Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing ; Hine ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“We Became Sceptics”: Fear and Media Hype in General Public Narrative on the Advent of Pandemic Influenza

Davis

Lohm

Flowers

et al. 2014

Sociological Inquiry

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In this article, we examine the apparent resistance of publics to messages regarding pandemic influenza. The 2009 H1N1 pandemic was addressed through media: governments used print, broadcast, and digital media to advise publics to enact hygiene practices and comply with social isolation; news media took up the pandemic as a lead story. Publics, however, rated the pandemic as not serious, even before it was widely known that it was mild for most. This problem is presently constructed as complacency: where individuals are seen to lack appropriate motivation to avoid risk. We combine perspectives on media reflexivity on the part of audiences with general public interviews and focus groups in Australia and the UK, to offer an alternative explanation for complacency. Publics endorse public health advice, but are skeptical of pandemic risk communication. They exhibit critical awareness of outbreak narrative and concomitant emotions, such as fear, which are coded into media stories. We, therefore, challenge the view that publics are complacent. Instead, governments must navigate an emerging terrain of ramified and critical media consumption to shape effective risk communication in time of global health emergency.

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“…Nichols and Chase 2005;Lewison 2008). This is not surprising in view of the importance of science to policy-making in all areas, although some politicians still prefer dogma-based evidence-making to an objective appreciation of scientific evidence (Shulman 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

News in brief and features in New Scientist magazine and the biomedical research papers that they cite, August 2008 to July 2009

Lewison

Turnbull²

2010

Scientometrics

Self Cite

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New Scientist is a British weekly magazine that is half-way between a newspaper and a scientific journal. It has many news items, and also longer feature articles, both of which cite biomedical research papers, and thus serve to make them better known to the public and to the scientific community, mainly in the UK but about half overseas. An analysis of these research papers shows (in relation to their presence in the biomedical research literature) a strong bias towards the UK, and also one to the USA, Scandinavia and Ireland. There is a reasonable spread of subject areas, although neuroscience is favoured, and coverage of many journals-not just the leading weeklies. Most of the feature articles (but not the news items) in New Scientist include comments by other researchers, who can put the new results in context. Their opinions appear to be more discriminating than those of commentators on research in the mass media, who usually enthuse over the results while counselling patience before a cure for the disease is widely available.

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The reporting of the risks from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in the news media, 2003–2004

Cited by 38 publications

References 34 publications

Pandemic H1N1 in Canada and the use of evidence in developing public health policies – A policy analysis

Pandemic H1N1 in Canada and the use of evidence in developing public health policies – A policy analysis

“We Became Sceptics”: Fear and Media Hype in General Public Narrative on the Advent of Pandemic Influenza

News in brief and features in New Scientist magazine and the biomedical research papers that they cite, August 2008 to July 2009

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