Once again? - How an upcoming vaccination debate is portrayed in (Swedish) media

• Different kinds of vaccinations are lively discussed in media. This is not a new situation, but has been intensified with break-outs of pandemics or unexpected side effects of a vaccination, such as the swine flu vaccination. The starting point in this project is the vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV). The virus can cause cervical cancer and the vaccination is nowadays a part of the vaccination programme in Sweden and is offered all Swedish girls. During the last year some side effects of the HPV-vaccination have been reported. The decision about the vaccination can in science education be regarded as a socio-scientific issue (SSI). A socio-scientific issue can be described ‘‘to be one which has basis in science and has a potentially large impact on society’’. These SSI’s are often reported in media. The capacity to follow and evaluate discussions about science in media is often emphasized and reported as a deficit in the scientific literacy among students. This study focus media reports in the risk society, since side effects are risks both for the society and the individual. The purpose with this study is to investigate how media reports about the vaccination against HPV. This is the first step in a larger study where the purpose is to investigate how young people deal with the vaccination discourse. A qualitative content analysis was conducted on the six largest daily newspapers in Sweden. The content analysis resulted in eight categories. The categories were facts, scientific knowledge, medical knowledge, risks, worry and alarm, emotional arguments, economy, individual versus society. Even if medical or scientific knowledge are common the media reports demonstrate a wider repertoire of arguments. For instance is emotional arguments a part of how media presents a problem. In this way the use of media reports can broaden the arguments when discussing the subject. In addition, the worries and alarms are interesting from an educational perspective, since these can be critically analysed and discussed in science education. In our presentation we will describe the categories more thoroughly to illustrate the different categories. We will also compare the categories to those texts students meet in their biology textbooks.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Didaktik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Didactics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

vaccination

media analysis

risk

media literacy

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)