What’s the problem represented to be? A critical analysis of problem representation in news media and public health communication during a hepatitis A outbreak in San Diego, California, USA

Abstract

Discourse regarding public health problems disproportionately affecting marginalized communities may shape and sustain health inequities. Analyses of news media and public health communications in the wake of infectious disease outbreaks provides opportunities to examine how discourse produces dominant public perceptions about the drivers of health emergencies and who is responsible for protecting community health. Guided by Bacchi’s “What is the Problem Represented to Be?” analytic approach, this paper critically examines the discursive construction of problems and solutions in news media (n = 35) and public health communication (n = 18 press releases, n = 1 governmental report) regarding an unprecedented hepatitis A outbreak in San Diego, California, USA (2016–2018) that disproportionately affected people experiencing homelessness. We organize our findings around three elements of problem and solution representation with respect to the outbreak: 1. The inequitable attribution of risk and deservingness; 2. assumptions divorced from socio-structural factors and perspectives of marginalized populations; and 3. political theatre as a means of blame-shifting and (in)action. Overall, our findings suggest that even when structural-level issues were acknowledged within news media and public health communication as undergirding the ‘problem’ of the hepatitis A outbreak, outbreak discourse focused on individual-level responsibility for both the causes of and solutions to it (e.g. vaccines, criminalization of homelessness), and on shifting blame between government actors. These findings have implications for understanding the role that news media and public health agencies play in shaping public perception of the causes, consequences and solutions to infectious disease outbreaks that disproportionately affect marginalized populations.

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