An Evaluation of Whether the Newspapers Amplifies or Attenuates the Uncertainty of the Covid-19 Vaccines Compared with the Government: A Case Study of Hongkong and Norway

Abstract

The media has been found to amplify the risk during the H1N1 and H5N1, considering the uncertainty of Covid-19 vaccines, this research conducted a case study of Hongkong and Norwegian newspapers to examine whether they amplified or attenuated the uncertainty of Covid-19 vaccines compared with the government information. Based on the collected data, it is seen that both Hongkong and Norwegian newspapers indeed amplified and attenuated the uncertainty of vaccines which varies on specific themes of the news reports. Compared with Hongkong newspapers play the traditional role of watchdog, Norwegian newspapers are the sheepdog. Consequently, there is more obvious and stronger evidence for the Hongkong newspapers.