The Deal with Dengue A Comparative Study on the Coverage of Broadsheets, Tabloids and News Websites of Dengue Fever and Public Perception of the Disease
ABSTRACT Madrileño, L.A. (2010). The Deal with Dengue: A Comparative Study on the Coverage of Broadsheets, Tabloids and News Websites of Dengue Fever and Public Perception of the Disease, Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication.
The study focuses on the coverage of dengue fever done by broadsheets, tabloids and news websites. It made an attempt to distinguish each medium from the other via content analysis of articles. The study also took note of public perception of the disease. This is done through survey of 100 college students in Metro Manila. The respondents were asked basic facts about dengue and their response after being exposed to information about the disease. The gatekeeping and framing theories, provides the framework for the analysis on how editorial decisions are made in the newsroom. To acquire the information from the inside, an interview with the news editor of the Philippine Daily Inquirer was conducted. The analysis revealed that nothing much differs in terms of coverage. The characteristics and limitations of each genre greatly affect the way it covers dengue. The public is basically well-informed of dengue but it does not do much action on the information they know. Also, it revealed that people tune more to broadcast medium as a source of information. The researcher recommends a wider analysis of other broadsheets, tabloids and news websites so as to really understand the formation of news in these media. Also, inclusion of the broadcast media, namely TV and radio, can give more depth.