Analyzing salience, themes, and actors in global health: A multinational study

Media Cloud’s global news database was a vital piece of a comprehensive research project examining public attitudes and discourse surrounding global health in early 2024. Funded by the Gates Foundation in service of international global health organizations, the project sought to understand the attention paid to the topic of global health and key subtopics, the frames and themes used to talk about the topic, and the key people and organizations prevalent in coverage of global health. The findings were shared with representatives of key global health organizations, as well as the wider practitioner community, to craft effective messages and programs. 

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Our research team analyzed global health news published between November 2023 and January 2024 from eight different countries: four donor countries funding global health programs and organizations (France, Germany, United Kingdom, and United States), and four Global South countries implementing such programs (Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and India). Given the countries involved, the analysis was conducted in English, French, and German. Key takeaways include the following: 

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1. Global health stories account for between 0.6%-0.7% of all news in nearly all countries of study. In Nigeria, 1.1% of articles pertain to global health. Typically, this is more coverage than the issue of gender equality, but less than climate change, the economy, or a high-stakes current global event (in this case, the war in Ukraine). 
2. Global health stories in donor countries are more likely to be focused on Covid than other subtopics; global health stories in Global South countries are more likely to be focused on HIV and malaria. 
3. The World Health Organization is the most influential entity in global health news across countries. Other influential entities include federal and state government agencies and actors, pharmaceutical companies, and large nongovernmental organizations. 
4. Climate issues emerged from the data as another key subtopic within global health news; though never the most prevalent subtopic, it accounts for around 10% of global health stories across countries of study. Climate is often cross-cutting into other subtopics, cited as a key factor in rising rates of disease and a threat to global health systems. 
5. Inclusion of mentions to children and women is common in global health coverage and subtopics across all countries. This emphasis on the impact to vulnerable populations is a popular and likely salient frame.  
6. There is a significant focus on Africa within coverage of global health. All but one of the non-African countries in the study had Africa/African among the top keywords for global health stories and/or subtopics.  

Many of the key stories that drove coverage to the issue used a risk angle. Risks were specific to the country of publication (water resources in Senegal, travelers health in Germany), and ranged from immediate (higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases) to long term (the next pandemic).