Media news on vaccines and vaccination: The content profile, sentiment and trend of the online mass media during 2015–2020 in India

ABSTRACT

Background The immunization coverage progress in India is relatively slower than anticipated. The rising internet and media penetration and online news contents are likely to shape the public vaccine sentiments and attitude. The measles-rubella immunization campaign in India experienced challenges in some states due to the social media and messaging. This study studied the profile and vaccine sentiments of the online media news in India. Methods We retrieved the online news on immunization and vaccines published in English during November 2015 to May 2020. The news were analysed for contents and categorised as positive, negative and neutral sentiments. Results Out of 2626 news retrieved, 1788 eligible ones were analysed. The news focused on immunization program in 59.1% and vaccine hesitancy in 7.7% items. While 42.5% news originated from national level, 33.2% were from six states. Measles-rubella was the leading vaccine in the news (23.2%) followed by coronavirus (12.8%), poliomyelitis (10.4%) and rotavirus (5.1%) vaccines. While 71.4% news conveyed positive sentiment, 23.8% and 4.7% had negative and neutral sentiments, respectively. The negative sentiments focused on adverse events, vaccine hesitancy and resistance. The news volume and negative sentiments were largely linked to the measles-rubella vaccination campaign phases in India. Conclusions Negative vaccine news constitute a sizable proportion of the online news and can influence the public vaccine sentiment and attitude. The experiences of public response towards measles-rubella, pentavalent and human papillomavirus vaccines suggest necessity of comprehensive media mapping and tracking to guide appropriately to sustain the public vaccine confidence and improve coverage.