Crisis of the dengue outbreak in Spain in 2018: its analysis in the newspapers La Verdad

Abstract

When an outbreak appears on a rare disease in a given country, a crisis situation arises. Citizens do not know well the decisions they must make to deal with the disease and go to the media trying to obtain information. These, in turn, find it in the various sources that can provide them with data, measurements, advice, etc. In the second half of 2018 an outbreak of dengue appeared in Spain, a fact that had media repercussion because there were several people who were affected. In this paper we analyze how was the information treatment of this crisis in three newspapers. Two national, El País and El Mundo, and another regional, La Verdad, given that it was in Murcia where the most relevant cases occurred. In addition to establishing the guidelines that are carried out in a crisis communication, in general, and of a sanitary nature, in particular, the information coverage of the aforementioned media is addressed during a specific period of time. It is about checking how a health risk (dengue) is treated by the media so that citizens have the necessary keys to know how to act.