Spreading the News: Threat Perception and News Coverage of Zika in the US

• In Event: I Second That Emotion: Perceptions & Emotions in Political Communication

Abstract

Because most people rely on local news media for coverage of threats to their community, it is critical that local news organizations communicate risk effectively to their audience. While previous research explains variation in national news coverage of international events, less is known about regional and local variation in coverage of oversees events. In this paper, we argue that local news coverage of international public health epidemics is driven by the frequency and location of known cases. Through content analysis of news articles from over 50 newspapers across the United States from 2014 to 2018, we demonstrate that the frequency of coverage was broadly responsive to the outbreaks across Latin America, and to local cases of Zika. Using personal pronoun use and time orientation as proxy measures for threat perception, we also find a distinct shift in the nature of the coverage after cases emerged in the US – where the coverage started to emphasize the public health threat presented by the virus for the local audience. Collectively, the paper has implications of the understanding of international news flows, and the prospect of learning from the suffering of distant communities to mitigate risk.

Authors

• Juve James Cortes-Rivera, Pablo De Olavide University

• Thomas Jamieson, University of Nebraska, Omaha