How does the news media respond to health emergencies abroad? Between 2015 and 2018, Zika virus spread rapidly throughout Latin America before arriving in the continental United States. Despite the risks to adults and newborns, it is unclear how media coverage developed and framed the threat for its audience. In this paper, we argue that while the frequency of coverage was responsive to infections, its content failed to promote proactive health behaviour. To assess these claims, we analyse each of 442 articles dealing with Zika virus published by The New York Times from 2015–18. We find that the amount of coverage reflected infections but did not change once the disease emerged in the US. Furthermore, content analysis using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software reveals that coverage emphasised differences between communities (those affected and those at home) and that present and past time orientations dominated coverage as opposed to future time orientations.

中文翻译：

---

我们的问题还是他们的问题？寨卡病毒流行的媒体报道和框架

新闻媒体如何应对国外突发卫生事件？2015 年至 2018 年间，寨卡病毒在到达美国大陆之前迅速传播到整个拉丁美洲。尽管成人和新生儿面临风险，但尚不清楚媒体报道是如何发展并为受众构建威胁的。在本文中，我们认为虽然覆盖频率对感染有反应，但其内容未能促进积极的健康行为。为了评估这些说法，我们分析了《纽约时报》发表的关于寨卡病毒的 442 篇文章中的每一篇从 2015-18 年。我们发现，覆盖范围反映了感染情况，但在美国出现疾病后并没有改变。此外，使用语言查询和字数统计软件的内容分析表明，覆盖强调社区（受影响的社区和在家的社区）之间的差异，并且现在和过去的时间方向主导了覆盖范围，而不是未来的时间方向。