A Content Analysis of News Coverage on SARS Epidemic: A Comparison between China Times and The Liberty Times

• Main Authors: Chang Chien Weie, 張謙韋
• Other Authors: Dr.Amy Hsu-Chung Chu
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/30512496665514548480

碩士 === 玄奘大學 === 資訊傳播研究所 === 96 === Sever Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) has been one of the most serious diseases in modern times, and received a great amount of public’s anxious attention. News media, on the other hand, has played a vital role in informing the public on the development of SARS. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate and compare the coverage of SARS in different newspapers during the SARS epidemic in the year of 2003. A content analysis was performed on news articles sampled with the keyword “SARS” from China Times and The Liberty Times during the period from March to July 2003, and a total of 1456 entries was collected. China Times provided a larger proportion of SARS coverage than The Liberty Times. Among all the articles, government agencies contributed to the majority of news articles as the source of information, and most articles were written either by medical correspondents or medical experts themselves. The research finding suggested that as major sources for health information, news media should include various information sources and viewpoints from different perspectives other than government agencies. Therefore, the public will be able to obtain more diverse, as well as professional information, and form a more accurate and comprehensive understanding toward major medial and health issues.