Journalistic routines as factors promoting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Pakistan

Abstract

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy has reportedly been rising in polio-stricken Pakistan. Prior research reports a variety of contributing factors including information sources, particularly the newspapers readers generally consult to stay abreast of vaccine roll-out developments. This viewpoint article argues that three commonly practised journalistic routines – as explicated by Tandoc and Duffy – are promoting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among Urdu-language newspaper readers in Pakistan. The first is a distinctive news sourcing routine, in which extracts of news items reporting COVID-19 vaccine campaigns from across the globe are combined in one news story, which is useful to keep readers updated but compromises the journalistic principle of completeness. Second, news values, which may determine the newsworthiness of a vaccine-related event, might reduce public trust in ongoing vaccine roll-outs. Third, an innovative news structure with striking headlines is used to make a newspaper visually appealing but may also support generalised impressions of the adverse effects associated with COVID-19 vaccinations.

Keywords:

• vaccine hesitancy
• COVID-19
• journalistic routines
• news values
• news sources
• news headlines
• Pakistan

Acknowledgements

The authors express their gratitude to the anonymous reviewers and Third World Quarterly’s Founding Editor Shahid Qadir for their constructive feedback on improving this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

This study was not funded by any individual or organisation.

Notes

1 This interviewee is the group executive editor of a daily Urdu-language newspaper.

2 This interviewee is a health correspondent for a daily Urdu-language newspaper.

3 This interviewee is the senior editor for a daily Urdu-language newspaper.

4 This interviewee is the group editor for a daily Urdu-language newspaper.

5 The interviewee is a health correspondent for a daily Urdu-language newspaper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shafiq Ahmad Kamboh

Shafiq Ahmad Kamboh is Senior Lecturer at the School of Communication Studies, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. Currently, he is a doctoral candidate in the Centre for Media, Communication, and Information Research (ZeMKI) at the University of Bremen, Germany. His research focuses on development communication, climate and environmental justice, health communication and the Global South. His recent work has been published in the Journal of Media Ethics, Development Policy Review, the American Journal of Health Education and Psychology & Health. He has worked on several research projects funded by local chapters of international development organisations in Pakistan including UNESCO, WHO and Micronutrient Initiative (MI).

Muhammad Ittefaq

Muhammad Ittefaq is PhD candidate in the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas, United States. He obtained his MA in media and communication science from Technische Universität Ilmenau, Germany. His research focuses on health communication, social media, misinformation, racial minorities and the Global South. His research has been published in various journals including the International Journal of Communication, Journalism, Journalism Practice, Vaccine, Psychology & Health, and Health, Risk & Society. His dissertation focuses on the use of social media by US local health departments during COVID-19 and how they correct health misinformation.

Aoun Abbas Sahi

Aoun Abbas Sahi is Islamabad-based journalist, researcher and media trainer. A former Daniel Pearl/AFPP fellow, he shared The Los Angeles Times’ Pulitzer Prize for breaking news in 2016. Sahi has worked with several global media houses and publications including The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Telegraph (UK), The Sunday Times, Time Magazine, The Australian, Agence France-Presse (AFP), Sky TV, NRK TV and many more. Currently, he is associated with PTV News and PTV World as Executive Producer (Current Affairs).