Does the media report on diseases and outbreaks more, or does social media just make us think so?
As coverage of the Hantavirus continues, the news media have begun reporting on another potential outbreak. But this time, it’s in Africa, and it’s a disease you probably have already heard of.
On Friday, Africa’s top public health body confirmed a new Ebola outbreak in Congo’s Iruti province. Thus far, there have been 246 suspected cases and 65 deaths. It’s a story that most major media organizations are reporting on, if only briefly, but it’s adding to an already high-stress environment in the U.S., specifically on social media.
To some, it may be starting to feel like the news media are reporting on health issues and outbreaks a lot more often than they used to. The question is whether it’s true or if social media makes outbreaks seem more common than they used to be.
News media and health
Looking at the news media, health coverage is not new. In a 2008 Pew Research study, health was the eighth most covered topic in the news media. It was 3.6% of all coverage and more than three times the coverage for education and transportation.
Still on top, however, were foreign affairs, crime and natural disasters — topics that are still widely covered today.
Historically, health coverage in the news primarily focused on cancer and U.S. health care policies. However, as other diseases pop up, they can take the spotlight for days, weeks or months at a time. Take the COVID-19 pandemic, for example.
Now, while health has always been covered in the news media, things have definitely shifted since the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the news media and those who consume it may feel a little desensitized to what they’re hearing or reporting. In other situations, any hint of a new pandemic sends readers to the grocery store to buy toilet paper in bulk.
We saw a lot of tuning out during the COVID-19 pandemic, with research showing people were becoming less interested in COVID coverage due to pandemic fatigue.
“As the casualty count climbed, news articles seemingly lost their ability to elicit anxiety among readers,” one study found. “Findings suggest individuals became desensitized to the increased COVID-19 threat and their emotional responses were blunted over time.”
One reason that news organizations will cover occurrences like a hantavirus outbreak and then an Ebola outbreak is one of the most fundamental aspects of journalism: trends.
When news broke that a military helicopter collided with an airliner in Washington, D.C., news organizations suddenly began qualifying near-misses at airports and announcements of aviation safety issues as newsworthy because of a similar event that had happened recently. In the absence of the previous event, those other aviation issues might not have become a headline.
What role is social media playing?
When it comes to feeling like there’s a lot more health coverage these days, social media could be to blame. Another study from Pew Research found that one in five Americans now regularly gets news from TikTok.
Meaning, when the news covers health, most recently the Hantavirus, many are seeing the news on platforms like X, Instagram and most popularly, on TikTok. And with social media algorithms, if you interact with a video or post about health once, you’re going to keep seeing it.
The numbers have jumped rapidly in recent years, with a quarter of adults ages 30 to 49 reporting they use TikTok regularly for news, up from just 2% in 2020.
This additional use of social media to get news, specifically health news, has led some folks to spiral over the severity of what’s being reported.
As Straight Arrow previously reported, recent hantavirus coverage on social media has led to a lot of fear, a lot of misinformation and a lot of misleading information. Meaning, when scrolling through TikTok, and using it to get your news, it’s important to remain mindful of what you’re consuming and where you’re consuming it from.
And always, the best thing you can do is go directly to the source for the latest information: health professionals.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
