An investigation of media reports of digital surveillance within the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted a surge in digital public health surveillance worldwide, with limited opportunities to consider the effectiveness or impact of digital surveillance. The news media shape public understanding of topics of importance, contributing to our perception of priority issues. This study investigated news media reports published during the first year of the pandemic to understand how the use and consequences of digital surveillance technologies were reported on.

Methods

A media content analysis of 34 high- to low-income countries was completed. The terms "COVID-19," "surveillance," "technologies," and "public health" were used to retrieve and inductively code media reports.

Results

Of the 1,001 reports, most were web-based or newspaper

SUBMITTER: Comer L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10411532 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature