What Gets into the Media

Abstract

This study investigated the coverage of COVID-19 in Vietnam to understand what types of information can be published, how accurate it is, and if media bias exists. The results show that media biases are more clearly presented during the gathering and editing stages of news production. Although COVID-19 received a heightened frequency of reporting, news articles about this topic had limited use of sources, provide mostly general information and statistics, and lack of scientific quality. These results are intended to provide public health authorities and news audience with an understanding of how a health event is presented in the media.