Portrayals of Avian and Swine Flus–An Overview of Newspaper Coverage

My Research

The media’s portrayals of the 2005 avian flu epidemic and the 2009 swine flu pandemic were similar in a number of respects. For example, the media covered these two flus, during the main portions of their outbreaks, similarly in terms of amount covered and in references used to discuss the outbreaks such as fear, associations, solutions, and risk. However, these similarities in coverage are surprising in two respects. First, avian flu was an epidemic, never reaching the pandemic level that swine flu reached, never reaching nearly even half the same volume of those affected. Second, the continued coverage after the main outbreaks was much greater in the media’s attention to avian flu, contrary to the expectation of continued attention of swine flu. Ultimately, both influenzas were discussed and portrayed in terms of fear, risk, solutions, and associations. However, it was the media’s framing of these terms in the larger categories of certainty and uncertainty that led to the similar amounts of and then continued coverage of avian flu. Specifically, avian flu was portrayed first in greater certainty than uncertainty that then transitioned throughout the outbreak to great uncertainty while swine flu was portrayed in terms of uncertainty transitioning to certainty.

The following graphs illustrate the media’s handling of the two outbreaks. The first graph shows the amount of coverage for each outbreak over 15-month time spans.

The following graph illustrates the number of headlines displaying content in uncertain terms, demonstrating the evolutions of the media’s coverage of swine flu from uncertainty to certainty and its coverage of avian flu from certainty to uncertainty.

The following graph is a breakdown of how the previous headlines during the 2005 avian flu epidemic exhibited uncertainty. The terms fear, risk, associations, and solutions are defined below.

Similar to the previous graph, the following one illustrates how uncertainty in the 2009 swine flu headlines was exhibited, using the same categories as above.

Key Terms:

Epidemic: to a virus that has been circulating for years in genetic similarity to other viruses ¹

Pandemic: a “new and previously unconfronted [infection] that spreads globally and results in a high incidence of morbidity and mortality” ²

Associations: references an official, country, organization, etc., a headline in “fear” either directly referred to fear or insinuated it

Risk: references what populations were in danger of contracting the flu

Solutions: references to vaccines, funding for research, etc.

Fear: references to fear or insinuated it

Problems in Portrayal

As stated on the previous page, the media’s portrayal largely focused on the outbreaks as a whole. Much of the coverage, if an “association” was made, referred to specific countries or organizations such as the World Health Organization. When a specific person was referenced, it more often than not an official like a president of a country or the head of an organization as a statement was made. Again, much of this was due to governments’ concerted efforts to keep the identities of victims and their families confidential. This is not to say that no disclosure of identities were had. Instead, more victims in the U.S. were identified during the swine flu pandemic than during the avian flu epidemic. The privacy of families and victims is very important, yet it poses the problem of memorializing and remembering the victims. The following pages are meant to be representative of the many victims of both outbreaks as their information was disclosed to the media while many others’ was not. I hope these brief memorials for the Kocyigit family, Conner Woodruff, and Mitchell Wiener will also memorialize others also affected.