JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Amplification of federal risk communication by news media during multi-jurisdictional enteric illness outbreaks can increase message reach to rapidly contain outbreaks, limit adverse outcomes, and promote informed decision-making by the public. However, amplification of risk communication from the federal government to mass media has not been evaluated.

Objective:

Describe and assess the amplification of federal risk communication by news media outlets during multi-jurisdictional enteric illness outbreaks in Canada.

Methods:

A comprehensive, systematic search of two databases, Canadian Newsstream and Canadian Business & Current Affairs, was run using search terms related to the source of enteric illnesses, general outbreak characteristics, and relevant enteric pathogen names to retrieve news media articles issued between 2014 and 2023, corresponding to 46 Public Health Notices (PHNs) communicating information about multi-jurisdictional enteric illness outbreaks during the same period. A codebook comprised of three sections: general characteristics of the article; consistency and accuracy of information presented between PHNs and news media articles; and 3) presence of Health Belief Model (HBM) constructs was developed and applied to the dataset. Data were tabulated and visualized using RStudio.

Results:

News media amplified communication about almost all PHNs (n=44, 93.6%). News media commonly developed their own articles (n=320, 60.6%) to notify the public about an outbreak and its associated product recall (n=131, 37.8%), but rarely communicated about the conclusion of an outbreak (n=12, 3.8%). News media communicated most outbreak characteristics, such as the number of cases (n=237, 74.3%), but the number of deaths was communicated less than half the time (n=114, 43.8%). Benefits and barriers constructs of the HBM were infrequently present (n=50, 20.6%, and n=15, 6.2%, respectively).

Conclusions:

Canadian news media amplified communication about most multi-jurisdictional enteric illness outbreaks. However, the level of amplification can be improved to address the differences in coverage of multi-jurisdictional enteric illness outbreaks by news media. Future risk communication of multi-jurisdictional enteric illness outbreaks along the PHAC-news media amplification pathway should address variation in the extent of amplification, ensure consistency and accuracy of information, facilitate timely communication, and integrate all HBM constructs.