IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/glopol/v14y2023i2p247-259.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Politicising pandemics: Evidence from US media coverage of the World Health Organisation

Author

Listed:
  • Jeffrey King
  • Andrew Lugg

Abstract

During the COVID‐19 pandemic, the World Health Organisation (WHO) was politicised in the United States (US) by Donald Trump in an effort to deflect blame as the virus spread. In this paper, we empirically investigate media coverage of the WHO in the US to better understand how negative evaluations of international organisations (IOs) spread. To do so, we perform quantitative text analysis on an original corpus of over 11,000 news articles on the WHO from the New York Times and the Washington Post between 1980 and 2020. Our text‐as‐data analyses yield several noteworthy findings. First, we show that media coverage of the WHO in the US has become more negative over time. Second, we show that negativity increases during global health crises. Third, we provide evidence that explicit criticisms also increase during crises. Fourth, we show that “blame‐shifting” by Trump and allies was clearly observable in the US news media. Finally, we show that negative stories about the WHO are shared more than positive ones on social media. Our results provide unique evidence, suggesting that the WHO has become more politicised in the US, which we argue creates opportunities for politicians seeking to blame IOs during crises.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeffrey King & Andrew Lugg, 2023. "Politicising pandemics: Evidence from US media coverage of the World Health Organisation," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 14(2), pages 247-259, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:glopol:v:14:y:2023:i:2:p:247-259
    DOI: 10.1111/1758-5899.13187
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.13187
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1758-5899.13187?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Grimmer, Justin & Stewart, Brandon M., 2013. "Text as Data: The Promise and Pitfalls of Automatic Content Analysis Methods for Political Texts," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(3), pages 267-297, July.
    2. Liesbet Hooghe & Tobias Lenz & Gary Marks, 2019. "Contested world order: The delegitimation of international governance," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 731-743, December.
    3. Johnson, Tana, 2020. "Ordinary Patterns in an Extraordinary Crisis: How International Relations Makes Sense of the COVID-19 Pandemic," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(S1), pages 148-168, December.
    4. Tim Heinkelmann-Wild & Lisa Kriegmair & Berthold Rittberger, 2020. "The EU Multi-Level System and the Europeanization of Domestic Blame Games," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 85-94.
    5. Dellmuth, Lisa M. & Tallberg, Jonas, 2021. "Elite Communication and the Popular Legitimacy of International Organizations – CORRIGENDUM," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 51(3), pages 1314-1314, July.
    6. Berthold Rittberger & Helena Schwarzenbeck & Bernhard Zangl, 2017. "Where Does the Buck Stop? Explaining Public Responsibility Attributions in Complex International Institutions," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(4), pages 909-924, July.
    7. Julia Morse & Robert Keohane, 2014. "Contested multilateralism," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 9(4), pages 385-412, December.
    8. Weaver, R. Kent, 1986. "The Politics of Blame Avoidance," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(4), pages 371-398, October.
    9. Hanrieder, Tine & Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian, 2014. "WHO decides on the exception? Securitization and emergency governance in global health," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 45(4), pages 331-348.
    10. Thomas Rixen & Bernhard Zangl, 2013. "The politicization of international economic institutions in US public debates," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 8(3), pages 363-387, September.
    11. Dellmuth, Lisa M. & Tallberg, Jonas, 2021. "Elite Communication and the Popular Legitimacy of International Organizations," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 51(3), pages 1292-1313, July.
    12. John Dimmick & Yan Chen & Zhan Li, 2004. "Competition Between the Internet and Traditional News Media: The Gratification-Opportunities Niche Dimension," Journal of Media Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 19-33.
    13. Mark Copelovitch & Jon C. W. Pevehouse, 2019. "International organizations in a new era of populist nationalism," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 169-186, June.
    14. Christian Rauh & Michael Zürn, 2020. "Authority, politicization, and alternative justifications: endogenous legitimation dynamics in global economic governance1," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 583-611, May.
    15. Jonas Tallberg & Michael Zürn, 2019. "The legitimacy and legitimation of international organizations: introduction and framework," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 581-606, December.
    16. Rauh, Christian & Zürn, Michael, 2020. "Authority, politicization, and alternative justifications: endogenous legitimation dynamics in global economic governance," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 27(3), pages 583-611.
    17. Bernd Schlipphak & Paul Meiners & Osman Sabri Kiratli, 2022. "Crisis affectedness, elite cues and IO public legitimacy," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 877-898, October.
    18. Hanrieder, Tine, 2014. "Local orders in international organisations: the World Health Organization's global programme on AIDS," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 106692, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    19. Henning Schmidtke, 2019. "Elite legitimation and delegitimation of international organizations in the media: Patterns and explanations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 633-659, December.
    20. Lake, David A. & Martin, Lisa L. & Risse, Thomas, 2021. "Challenges to the Liberal Order: Reflections on International Organization," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 75(2), pages 225-257, February.
    21. Michael Zürn, 2018. "Contested Global Governance," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 9(1), pages 138-145, February.
    22. De Vries, Catherine E. & Hobolt, Sara B. & Walter, Stefanie, 2021. "Politicizing International Cooperation: The Mass Public, Political Entrepreneurs, and Political Opportunity Structures," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 75(2), pages 306-332, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kovanic, Martin & Steuer, Max, 2023. "Fighting against COVID-19: With or without politics?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 337(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tobias Lenz & Besir Ceka & Liesbet Hooghe & Gary Marks & Alexandr Burilkov, 2023. "Discovering cooperation: Endogenous change in international organizations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 631-666, October.
    2. Greg Chih-Hsin Sheen & Hans H. Tung & Chien-Huei Wu & Wen-Chin Wu, 2023. "WHO approves? Relative trust, the WHO, and China’s COVID-19 vaccines," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 499-521, July.
    3. Bernd Schlipphak & Paul Meiners & Osman Sabri Kiratli, 2022. "Crisis affectedness, elite cues and IO public legitimacy," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 877-898, October.
    4. Alexander Kentikelenis & Erik Voeten, 2021. "Legitimacy challenges to the liberal world order: Evidence from United Nations speeches, 1970–2018," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 721-754, October.
    5. Maria J. Debre, 2022. "Clubs of autocrats: Regional organizations and authoritarian survival," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 485-511, July.
    6. Ryan Brutger & Richard Clark, 2023. "At what cost? Power, payments, and public support of international organizations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 431-465, July.
    7. Fuß, Julia & Kreuder-Sonnen, Christian & Saravia, Andrés & Zürn, Michael, 2021. "Managing regime complexity: Introducing the interface conflicts 1.0 dataset," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Global Governance SP IV 2021-101, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    8. Rauh, Christian, 2022. "Clear messages to the European public? The language of European Commission press releases 1985–2020," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue Latest Ar, pages 1-19.
    9. Maria J. Debre & Hylke Dijkstra, 2023. "Are international organisations in decline? An absolute and relative perspective on institutional change," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 14(1), pages 16-30, February.
    10. Yoram Z. Haftel & Tobias Lenz, 2022. "Measuring institutional overlap in global governance," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 323-347, April.
    11. Sina Özdemir & Christian Rauh, 2022. "A Bird’s Eye View: Supranational EU Actors on Twitter," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 10(1), pages 133-145.
    12. Jonas Tallberg & Michael Zürn, 2019. "The legitimacy and legitimation of international organizations: introduction and framework," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 581-606, December.
    13. Matthias Ecker-Ehrhardt, 2023. "Public Legitimation by “Going Personal”? The Ambiguous Role of International Organization Officials on Social Media," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 11(3), pages 213-225.
    14. Daniel Finke, 2020. "At loggerheads over state aid: Why the Commission rejects aid and governments comply," European Union Politics, , vol. 21(3), pages 474-496, September.
    15. Börzel, Tanja A. & Zürn, Michael, 2021. "Contestations of the Liberal International Order: From Liberal Multilateralism to Postnational Liberalism," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 75(2), pages 282-305.
    16. Taiwo Adeagbo, 2024. "Taking Populism Seriously: A Focus on Global Economy and the International Organizations," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(3), pages 49-67, March.
    17. Henning Schmidtke, 2019. "Elite legitimation and delegitimation of international organizations in the media: Patterns and explanations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 633-659, December.
    18. Berthold Rittberger & Helena Schwarzenbeck & Bernhard Zangl, 2017. "Where Does the Buck Stop? Explaining Public Responsibility Attributions in Complex International Institutions," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(4), pages 909-924, July.
    19. Lipps, Jana & Jacob, Marc S, 2022. "Undermining Liberal International Organizations from Within: Evidence from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe," Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, Working Paper Series qt6fg0093j, Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, University of California.
    20. Lucio Baccaro & Björn Bremer & Erik Neimanns, 2021. "Till austerity do us part? A survey experiment on support for the euro in Italy," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(3), pages 401-423, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:glopol:v:14:y:2023:i:2:p:247-259. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.