ALICAYA,-Gabriella-Adelyne-&PILIT,-Joyce-Ann BA-J Thesis.pdf

Spillover Vaccine Scare: A Newspaper Coverage Analysis of the 2018-2019 Measles Outbreak in the Philippines

Alicaya, G. A. & Pilit, J. A. (2020). Spillover Vaccine Scare: A Newspaper Coverage Analysis of the 2018-2019 Measles Outbreak in the Philippines, Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication.

This study analyzes how major print media organizations Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippine Star, and Manila Bulletin covered the 2018-2019 measles outbreak in the Philippines. Following the Dengvaxia issue in 2016 that caused a widespread vaccine scare within the country, a measles outbreak occurred on January 2018 and continued until November 2019 despite continuous immunization efforts by the Department of Health (DOH) and the World Health Organization (WHO). And with the media’s ability to influence the public’s perception, being one of their main sources of information, it was expected of the industry to report on the outbreak properly. Using Zadek Lewin’s Gatekeeping Theory (1943) and Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw’s Agenda-setting Theory (1972) as its foundation, this research shows how the three organizations’ outbreak reportage were not able to completely follow health reporting guidelines, but still proved to not have exacerbated the misinformation surrounding vaccines. These were shown through the content analysis results from employing a coding sheet specifically designed by the researchers for this study.

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