University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2018 Spreading News: The Coverage Of Epidemics By American Newspapers And Its Effects On Audiences - A Crisis Communication Approach Yotam Ophir University of Pennsylvania,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Communication Commons Recommended Citation Ophir, Yotam, "Spreading News: The Coverage Of Epidemics By American Newspapers And Its Effects On Audiences - A Crisis Communication Approach" (2018). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2787. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2787 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2787 For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Spreading News: The Coverage Of Epidemics By American Newspapers And Its Effects On Audiences - A Crisis Communication Approach Abstract Launched in 2002 in response to inadequate communications during the anthrax attacks and in preparations to the threats posed by H5N1, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) framework provides health professionals with trainings, tools, and resources to help them communicate effectively during emergencies and public health crises. Since that time, the framework has been used by the organization during outbreaks of infectious diseases. A core argument of CERC is that lack of certainty, efficacy, and trust serve as barriers to compliance with and support in CDC during an outbreak. According to CERC, providing the public with information about health and social risks, as well as information about ways individuals and organizations may ameliorate threats, could counter these perceptions, improve communications, and eventually save lives. However, the dissemination of the organization’s crisis messages depends largely on the mass media coverage.