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Ebola Joke? You Probably
Won’t Get It—Interreality
Comparison of Ebola Threat
and Perceived Threat
Expressed in U.S. Media
Liad Lehavy, Conrad Foreman.
and Morgan Cullen
Why we did it?
◈ Ebola epidemic in Africa
◈ U.S. media neglect
◈ Sudden reporting-burst in news
◈ Why and how?
◈ News shapes the public’s perception
of the threat of Ebola?
Hypotheses
H1: American news articles about Ebola will be dramatized, sensationalized, use
episodic framing, and exaggerate the threat of Ebola to the U.S. population.
H2: The reported perceived threat of Ebola will be higher than the actual threat to
individuals in the U.S.
H3: The Ebola crisis in Africa did not receive sufficient coverage in U.S. news media
until a U.S. resident was infected with Ebola.
Methods
◈ Content analysis of 44 randomly selected articles
from 3 established newspapers: The Washington
Post, The New York Times, and The L.A. Times.
◈ Coded it for episodic framing, dramatization, and
geographical bias.
◈ Gallup data to measure public’s perceived threat of
Ebola.
Episodic Framing
Overall Avg.
◈ 0.86
Washington Post Avg.
◈ 0.67
New York Times Avg.
◈ 1
L.A. Times Avg.
◈ 0.93
Dramatization
Overall Avg.
◈ 1
Washington Post Avg.
◈ 1
New York Times Avg.
◈ 1.13
LA Times Avg.
◈ 0.86
So
What?
Actual threat of Ebola
Doucleff, M. (2014, October
23). What's My Risk Of
Catching Ebola? Retrieved
March 29, 2015.
Perceived threat of Ebola
◈ Gallup data to measure public’s perceived threat of
Ebola.
◈ 5% Americans Ebola is most important U.S. problem
◈ 17% Americans think Ebola is the “most urgent health
problem in the U.S.”
◈ 22% Americans worry about contracting the Ebola virus
McCarthy, J. (2014). Ebola Debuts on Americans' List of Top U.S. Problems. Gallup Poll. Retrieved March 29, 2015.Dugan, A. (2014). One-Fifth of Americans Worry About Getting Ebola. Gallup Poll. Retrieved March 29, 2015.
Saad, L. (2014). Ebola Ranks Among Americans' Top Three Healthcare Concerns. Gallup Poll. Retrieved March 29, 2015.
But
why?
Geographical Bias
Overall Avg.
◈ 1.52
Washington Post Avg.
◈ 1.33
New York Times Avg.
◈ 1.46
LA Times Avg.
◈ 1.79
Summary of Findings
◈ Majority of articles showed episodic
framing (24/44)
◈ Majority of articles showed
dramatization (29/44)
◈ Majority of articles showed some
degree of geographical bias (37/44)o Many scored 1
Implications
