11. Newspaper coverage of the 2003 SARS outbreak

SARS suddenly emerged in 2003 and became the first global health threat in the modern mass mediated era. A content analysis was undertaken to determine how the media in four different countries covered the SARS outbreak, in order to understand how the media construct a global health threat. Results indicate that the media relied on thematic treatments of SARS, most often utilizing a topic focused on statistical representations of the number of SARS deaths and victims. The media also focused on the isolation and quarantines imposed due to SARS. Other topics varied in frequency depending on how close or remote the media sources were to the SARS outbreak. Government entities were the most frequent sources of information in all coverage of the SARS outbreak.