Giving Compass' Take:

• Yotam Ophir shares the findings of his research into media coverage of epidemics which showed that news outlets often neglect the most important advice for the public. 

• How can philanthropy support the spread of helpful, science-backed advice? 

• Find out why the world is at risk of losing control of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. 

In any outbreak or public health crisis, health organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention need to deliver accurate and timely information to the public about risks and treatments. For most people, this information comes mainly from the news media.

But does the news provide the information the public needs during outbreaks of infectious diseases? My study suggests that probably not. Looking at the coverage of epidemics from the past few years, I found that the media often focused on what may have seemed interesting, but not what is necessary for people to make educated decisions.

During epidemics, the public needs to know about the risks and ways to cope. Individuals’ behavior can impact an outbreak’s development.

My automated analysis identified three broad themes which I labeled based on manual content analysis: “scientific” information, focused on health risks and medical facts; “social” stories, dealing with the impact on markets, politics and cultural events; and a “pandemic” theme, focused on attempts to stop diseases abroad from entering the U.S.

Almost half of the coverage focused on the social consequences of diseases, such as their effect on the economy, politicians or athletes.

What’s more, I found that articles tended to focus on only one theme at a time.

The fact that different articles focus on different aspects is not problematic by itself. People could still collect bits of information from different sources. But no matter which articles people read, there was a good chance for them to miss some important information.

On average, one in five articles analyzed included any practical information about steps individuals could take to avoid infection – for example, washing hands, avoiding travel or using repellents. Those that did were largely “scientific” articles. Only about one in eight “pandemic” articles included such information. None of the 120 “social” articles included practical information.

Read the full article about media coverage of epidemics by Yotam Ophir at The Conversation.