73 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate how the MMR vaccine debate was framed as a matter of public trust or mistrust on Danish newspaper media. Our results, based on computational analysis of the information dynamics of 231 newspaper articles from 2001 to 2019 and subsequent qualitative framing analysis, provide additional information about MMR vaccination coverage in the three major Danish national newspapers, Politiken, Berlingske and Ekstrabladet. We used a Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model to train article-level dense low-dimensional representations and explored the information dynamics using Nielbo et al.’s [1, 2] approach to change detection in news-based information signals. In addition, we used Entman [3] to identify and analyse frames that related to trust and mistrust of MMR vaccination. We found that the Danish MMR debate followed patterns of novelty and resonance that typify the expected dynamics of news reporting by legacy news media when news is not catastrophic or shocking [2]. Supporting this finding, the framing analysis showed that the three newspapers promoted vaccines as safe and valuable for society throughout the period. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives from cultural studies, science studies, public health, computational humanities and media studies, this study presents a methodologically innovative approach to studying historical and near-real time framing of (mis)trust of vaccination in newspaper articles. Recent debates about the safety of Covid-19 vaccines underline the importance of quantifying and qualifying vaccine discourses and paying attention to legacy media’s overall agenda-setting role.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 6th Digital Humanities in the Nordic and Baltic Countries Conference (DHNB 2022)
Number of pages9
Volume3232
PublisherCEUR-WS.org
Publication dateOct 2022
Pages212-220
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2022
Event6th Digital Humanities in the Nordic and Baltic Countries Conference, DHNB 2022 - Uppsala, Sweden
Duration: 15 Mar 202218 Mar 2022

Conference

Conference6th Digital Humanities in the Nordic and Baltic Countries Conference, DHNB 2022
Country/TerritorySweden
CityUppsala
Period15/03/202218/03/2022
SeriesCEUR Workshop Proceedings
Volume3232
ISSN1613-0073

Keywords

  • MMR
  • Newspapers
  • diachronic approach
  • framing analysis
  • information dynamics
  • trust

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Exploring Trust and Mistrust Relating to the MMR Vaccine in Danish Newspapers Using Computational Analysis and Framing Analysis'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this