Ebola Joke? You Probably Won’t Get It—Interreality

Comparison of Ebola Threat and Perceived

Threat Expressed in U.S. Media

Liad Lehavy, Conrad Foreman. and Morgan Cullen

Why we did it?

◈ Ebola epidemic in Africa◈ U.S. media neglect◈ Sudden reporting-burst in news◈ Why and how?◈ News shapes the public’s

perception of the threat of Ebola?

Hypotheses

H1: American news articles about Ebola will be dramatized,

sensationalized, use episodic framing, and exaggerate the threat of Ebola

to the U.S. population.

H2: The reported perceived threat of Ebola will be higher than the actual

threat to individuals in the U.S.

H3: The Ebola crisis in Africa did not receive sufficient coverage in U.S.

news media until a U.S. resident was infected with Ebola.

Methods

◈ Content analysis of 44 randomly selected articles from 3 established newspapers: The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The L.A. Times.

◈ Coded it for episodic framing, dramatization, and geographical bias.

◈ Gallup data to measure public’s perceived threat of Ebola.

Episodic Framing

Overall Avg.◈ 0.86Washington Post Avg.◈ 0.67New York Times Avg.◈ 1L.A. Times Avg.◈ 0.93

Dramatization

Overall Avg.◈ 1

Washington Post Avg.◈ 1

New York Times Avg.◈ 1.13

LA Times Avg.◈ 0.86

SoWhat?

Actual threat of Ebola

Doucleff, M. (2014, October 23). What's My Risk Of Catching Ebola? Retrieved March 29, 2015.

Perceived threat of Ebola

◈ Gallup data to measure public’s perceived threat of Ebola.

◈ 5% Americans Ebola is most important U.S. problem

◈ 17% Americans think Ebola is the “most urgent health problem in the U.S.”

◈ 22% Americans worry about contracting the Ebola virus

McCarthy, J. (2014). Ebola Debuts on Americans' List of Top U.S. Problems. Gallup Poll. Retrieved March 29, 2015.Dugan, A. (2014). One-Fifth of Americans Worry About Getting Ebola. Gallup Poll. Retrieved March 29, 2015.Saad, L. (2014). Ebola Ranks Among Americans' Top Three Healthcare Concerns. Gallup Poll. Retrieved March 29, 2015.

But why?

Geographical Bias

Overall Avg.◈ 1.52

Washington Post Avg.◈ 1.33

New York Times Avg.◈ 1.46

LA Times Avg.◈ 1.79

Summary of Findings

◈ Majority of articles showed episodic framing (24/44)

◈ Majority of articles showed dramatization (29/44)

◈ Majority of articles showed some degree of geographical bias (37/44)o Many scored 1

Implications