ABSTRACT
Health events such as large-scale disease outbreaks naturally attract journalistic attention because of people’s general interest in medical events (Pew Research Center, 2009). News media have closely followed these pandemics year after year and shifted their approaches of doing so throughout the decades (Blakely, 2003; Koteyko, Brown, & Crawford, 2008). The news coverage of public health events is important in that, through these reports, people can develop a concept of a disease and prepare for a potential health risk accordingly (Blakely, 2003; Roche & Muskavitch, 2003).
