Malaysian Newspapers’ Coverage of Anti-vaxxers: Implication on Vaccine Intakes

ABSTRACT

@#Introduction: The World Health Organization (WHO) named anti-vaxxers as one of the top ten public health hazards in 2019. Anti-vaxxers are a health danger since they are mostly responsible for the re-emergence of deadly contagious diseases such as measles, which has increased in recent years. The media such as newspapers, are responsible for disseminating messages and public knowledge about health issues, particularly health hazards. To particularly combat anti-vaccine views online, newspaper must provide critical information, such as scientific and verifiable facts. Newspapers need to also take a clear stand against anti-vaccine sentiments. Method: A quantitative content analysis was conducted on four newspapers (Harian Metro, Berita Harian, New Straits Times, and The Star) over a three-year period beginning 1 January 2019 and ending 30 September 2021. The 43-month period offered adequate data for analysing reporting trends. Result: The findings suggested that newspapers do significantly report about the antivaxxers with 247 news were focused on them. Conclusion: However, the newspapers tend to only publish generic information about the antivaxxers and rarely make compelling arguments against them.