Spreading the News: Threat Perception and News Coverage of Zika Virus in the United States

Because most people rely on news media for coverage of threats to their community, it is critical that local news organizations communicate risk effectively to their audience. While previous research explains variation in national news coverage of international events, less is known about local variation in coverage of overseas events. In this paper, we argue that local news coverage of international public health epidemics in at-risk communities varies systematically from national news coverage. We conduct content analysis of 1,909 news articles from four national and three major local newspapers across the US from 2014 to 2018 using the LIWC dictionary and software. Through analysis of personal pronoun use, negative emotions, mentions of death, and gendered references as proxy measures of threat perception, we demonstrate that local newspapers featured significantly more self-inclusive pronouns, fewer negative emotions, fewer mentions of death, and fewer gendered references compared to national newspaper coverage of Zika. Collectively, we argue that local news outlets covered the Zika virus outbreak in a less sensationalist way, which could help promote effective risk communication. Our results reflect the public service objectives of local newspapers when facing a localized threat, with implications for public health and risk communication.