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Politicising pandemics: Evidence from US media coverage of the World Health Organisation

Politicising pandemics: Evidence from US media coverage of the World Health Organisation During the COVID‐19 pandemic, the World Health Organisation (WHO) was politicised in the United States (US) by Donald Trump in an effort to deflect blame as the virus spread. In this paper, we empirically investigate media coverage of the WHO in the US to better understand how negative evaluations of international organisations (IOs) spread. To do so, we perform quantitative text analysis on an original corpus of over 11,000 news articles on the WHO from the New York Times and the Washington Post between 1980 and 2020. Our text‐as‐data analyses yield several noteworthy findings. First, we show that media coverage of the WHO in the US has become more negative over time. Second, we show that negativity increases during global health crises. Third, we provide evidence that explicit criticisms also increase during crises. Fourth, we show that “blame‐shifting” by Trump and allies was clearly observable in the US news media. Finally, we show that negative stories about the WHO are shared more than positive ones on social media. Our results provide unique evidence, suggesting that the WHO has become more politicised in the US, which we argue creates opportunities for politicians seeking to blame IOs during crises. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Global Policy Wiley

Politicising pandemics: Evidence from US media coverage of the World Health Organisation

King, Jeffrey; Lugg, Andrew
Global Policy , Volume 14 (2) – May 1, 2023
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References (86)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 2023 University of Durham and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
ISSN
1758-5880
eISSN
1758-5899
DOI
10.1111/1758-5899.13187
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

During the COVID‐19 pandemic, the World Health Organisation (WHO) was politicised in the United States (US) by Donald Trump in an effort to deflect blame as the virus spread. In this paper, we empirically investigate media coverage of the WHO in the US to better understand how negative evaluations of international organisations (IOs) spread. To do so, we perform quantitative text analysis on an original corpus of over 11,000 news articles on the WHO from the New York Times and the Washington Post between 1980 and 2020. Our text‐as‐data analyses yield several noteworthy findings. First, we show that media coverage of the WHO in the US has become more negative over time. Second, we show that negativity increases during global health crises. Third, we provide evidence that explicit criticisms also increase during crises. Fourth, we show that “blame‐shifting” by Trump and allies was clearly observable in the US news media. Finally, we show that negative stories about the WHO are shared more than positive ones on social media. Our results provide unique evidence, suggesting that the WHO has become more politicised in the US, which we argue creates opportunities for politicians seeking to blame IOs during crises.

Journal

Global Policy – Wiley

Published: May 1, 2023

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