Framing of COVID-19 in Newspapers: A Perspective from the US-Mexico Border
The degree to which the media report a health emergency affects the seriousness with which the people respond to combat the health crisis. Engagement from local newspapers in the US has received scant scrutiny, even though there is a sizable body of scholarship on the analysis of COVID-19 news. We f...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-11-01
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| Series: | Healthcare |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/10/12/2362 |
| _version_ | 1797457698819670016 |
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| author | Rifat Afrin Ahasan Harun Gayle Prybutok Victor Prybutok |
| author_facet | Rifat Afrin Ahasan Harun Gayle Prybutok Victor Prybutok |
| author_sort | Rifat Afrin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The degree to which the media report a health emergency affects the seriousness with which the people respond to combat the health crisis. Engagement from local newspapers in the US has received scant scrutiny, even though there is a sizable body of scholarship on the analysis of COVID-19 news. We fill this void by focusing on the Rio Grande Valley area of the US-Mexico border. To understand the differences, we compared such local news coverage with the coverage of a national news outlet. After collecting the relevant news articles, we used sentiment analysis, rapid automatic keyword extraction (RAKE), and co-occurrence network analysis to examine the main themes and sentiments of COVID-19 news articles. The RAKE identified that county-specific news or local regulations are more prevalent among the key terms in The Monitor which are absent in USA Today. The co-occurrence network shows the coverage of the disruption of sports season in USA Today which is not present in The Monitor. The sentiment analysis presents fear emotion is more dominant in USA Today, but trust emotion becomes more prevalent in The Monitor news coverage. These findings show us that, although the subject of the health emergency is the same, local and national newspapers describe it in different ways, and the sentiments they convey are also not the same. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T16:25:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-921831a0749545c0a006bd6a582d5843 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2227-9032 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T16:25:44Z |
| publishDate | 2022-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Healthcare |
| spelling | doaj.art-921831a0749545c0a006bd6a582d58432023-11-24T15:08:38ZengMDPI AGHealthcare2227-90322022-11-011012236210.3390/healthcare10122362Framing of COVID-19 in Newspapers: A Perspective from the US-Mexico BorderRifat Afrin0Ahasan Harun1Gayle Prybutok2Victor Prybutok3Department of Rehabilitation and Health Services, College of Health and Public Service, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203, USADepartment of Information Systems, Robert C. Vackar College of Business & Entrepreneurship, University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, TX 78539, USADepartment of Rehabilitation and Health Services, College of Health and Public Service, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203, USADepartment of Information Technology and Decision Sciences, G. Brint Ryan College of Business, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203, USAThe degree to which the media report a health emergency affects the seriousness with which the people respond to combat the health crisis. Engagement from local newspapers in the US has received scant scrutiny, even though there is a sizable body of scholarship on the analysis of COVID-19 news. We fill this void by focusing on the Rio Grande Valley area of the US-Mexico border. To understand the differences, we compared such local news coverage with the coverage of a national news outlet. After collecting the relevant news articles, we used sentiment analysis, rapid automatic keyword extraction (RAKE), and co-occurrence network analysis to examine the main themes and sentiments of COVID-19 news articles. The RAKE identified that county-specific news or local regulations are more prevalent among the key terms in The Monitor which are absent in USA Today. The co-occurrence network shows the coverage of the disruption of sports season in USA Today which is not present in The Monitor. The sentiment analysis presents fear emotion is more dominant in USA Today, but trust emotion becomes more prevalent in The Monitor news coverage. These findings show us that, although the subject of the health emergency is the same, local and national newspapers describe it in different ways, and the sentiments they convey are also not the same.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/10/12/2362newspapersCOVID-19health communicationcommunity health |
| spellingShingle | Rifat Afrin Ahasan Harun Gayle Prybutok Victor Prybutok Framing of COVID-19 in Newspapers: A Perspective from the US-Mexico Border Healthcare newspapers COVID-19 health communication community health |
| title | Framing of COVID-19 in Newspapers: A Perspective from the US-Mexico Border |
| title_full | Framing of COVID-19 in Newspapers: A Perspective from the US-Mexico Border |
| title_fullStr | Framing of COVID-19 in Newspapers: A Perspective from the US-Mexico Border |
| title_full_unstemmed | Framing of COVID-19 in Newspapers: A Perspective from the US-Mexico Border |
| title_short | Framing of COVID-19 in Newspapers: A Perspective from the US-Mexico Border |
| title_sort | framing of covid 19 in newspapers a perspective from the us mexico border |
| topic | newspapers COVID-19 health communication community health |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/10/12/2362 |
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