Vaccine or no vaccine

Abstract

The current paper analyzed articles on the COVID-19 vaccine as reported and communicated by Namibian newspapers in order to understand the vocabulary, expressions and information sources used by the selected Namibian newspapers when covering and disseminating the COVID-19 vaccine related information. The purpose of this article was to analyze the COVID-19 vaccine information as reported and communicated by Namibian newspapers. The researchers compiled a database of newspaper articles mentioning the COVID-19 vaccine from two local newspapers, The Namibian and the New era, between January and June 2021. In total, 14 articles from the two newspapers were purposefully selected. The articles were analyzed using content analysis. The findings of the current study contributes to the timely needed informed discussion on issues surrounding COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19 vaccines specifically. The study concludes that there is (urgent) need for the Ministry of Health and Social Services to be consistent in issuing hands on statements timeously to the public at every step of the crisis/pandemic development. This should also be done in local languages to ensure that the public is not confused and misinformed by conspiracies, propaganda, fake news and unverified information.