title: The Evaluations of Swine Flu Magnitudes in TV News: A Comparative Analysis of Paired Influenza Pandemics.
abstract: This study examined how major TV news networks covered two flu pandemics in 1976 and 2009 in terms of news frames, mortality exemplars, mortality subject attributes, vaccination, evaluation approaches, and news sources. Results showed that the first pandemic was frequently framed with the medical/scientific and political/legal issues, while the second pandemic was emphasized with the health risk issue in TV news. Both flu pandemics were regularly reported with mortality exemplars, but the focus in the first pandemic was on the flu virus threat and vaccination side effects, while the vaccination shortage was frequently revealed in the second outbreak.
authors.affiliation: a College of Media and Communication , Arkansas State University , Jonesboro , Arkansas.
authors.forename: Po-Lin
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Meng
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D053118:Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype; D007252:Influenza Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000600:supply & distribution; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology; D033181:Information Dissemination; D008402:Mass Media; D058873:Pandemics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013690:Television; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D007252:Influenza Vaccines
keywords: evaluation approach; mortality exemplar; news frame; risk magnitude; swine flu