Disappearing Negative Valence: A Content Analysis of HPV Vaccine Newspaper Coverage in China (2000–2018)

ABSTRACT

News coverage of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine grew rapidly in China in 2016 when the vaccine was approved. Drawing upon framing theory, the present study analyzed the content of 491 Chinese newspaper reports on the HPV vaccine published between June 2000 and December 2018 to investigate what and how information and valence about the vaccine was relayed to the public. The results indicated that, while the Chinese media failed to provide comprehensive and accurate information about HPV and the HPV vaccine, they showed a positive evaluation of the HPV vaccine demand and market. In addition, there was a decline in negative coverage after the vaccine was approved. This study extended the literature on HPV vaccine coverage by combining issue-specific framing and valence framing, considering the Chinese-specific vaccine market for presentation and the value of such products, which is rare in previous studies. Practical implications of the findings for health promotion were also discussed.

Acknowledgements

We are deeply grateful to Dr. Juan Chen, Dr. Jian Raymond Rui, and Dr. Lu Tang for reading earlier drafts of the article and providing invaluable feedback on research design, codebook development, and theoretical foundation.

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Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.