Pandemrix- en brytpunkt? : En komparativ studie om nyhetsmedias gestaltning av vaccin under två pandemier

The differential framing of societal concerns within news articles influences the decision makingof the readers which in turn has consequences on a social scale. In light of this it should bedeemed important to analyse how vaccines are portrayed in news articles and that is the purposeof this study. A qualitative content analysis was carried through by comparing how vaccineswere portrayed in news articles in two Swedish news outlets during two largely similar events,namely the swine flu pandemic and the covid-19 pandemic. This was concretized into fourresearch questions which were: ● How does DN and Aftonbladet frame the vaccine against H1N1 before and inconjunction to the launch of Pandemrix? ● How does DN and Aftonbladet frame vaccines against Covid- 19 before and inconjunction to the launch of the vaccines against Covid-19? ● What differences are there between the two vaccination campaigns? ● Are there references to Pandemrix and its vaccination campaign in the reportingof the Covid- 19 vaccines? To answer these questions, framing theory was used to analyse the articles and the termintertextuality was implemented within the theoretical framework to broaden the analytical depthand help explain the use of references during the covid-19 reporting. The used method entails anabductive approach where coding and thematization was based not only on framing theory butalso on empiricism, i.e. open ended. The results showed there are major differences in terms of what was the focal point during thetwo campaigns. During the swine flu most of the articles dealt with logistical concerns as well asthe wary of costs in regards to the vaccine, whereas during the covid- 19 pandemic most articlesdealt with questions relating to possible side effects and the manufacturing process of thevaccines. References to Pandemrix and its consequences was found in 25% of the articlesanalyzed during the covid-19 reporting. Both campaigns however, stressed the importance oftaking the vaccine