ONCE AGAIN? - HOW AN UPCOMING VACCINATION DEBATE IS PORTRAYED IN (SWEDISH) MEDIA

• An overarching goal in science education is to educate towards science literacy. The ability of students to examine different information critically from diverse sources has been greatly emphasized by policy makers, educators, as well as researchers and is part of media literacy. This paper investigates the diversity of information in newspapers concerning HPV vaccination. A qualitative content analysis was conducted on the six largest daily newspapers in Sweden from a period of 24 months, with focus on articles about the vaccination against HPV. This vaccination is offered all Swedish girls to prevent cervix cancer caused by the virus. The content analysis of 40 articles resulted in seven categories: facts, scientific knowledge, medical knowledge, risks, worry and alarm, economy and individual versus society. The two most common categories were medical knowledge and worry and alarm. The great diversity of the articles, focusing on many different perspectives, shows that they are a good resource to be used in science education to promote scientific and media literacy.

Nyckelord

HPV

newspaper analysis

content analysis

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)