How Television Reported COVID–19

The first part of the series examined the correlations between TV coverage on COVID–19 and social media, which showed that television repeatedly reported stories related to PCR tests for an extended period of time, which received huge reactions from Twitter or other social media users. In this Part II, the authors assume that television’s agenda-setting function was exercised for their reports on PCR tests and explore how it started, developed, and produced certain results by analyzing the content of broadcast programs and Twitter posts responding to them. As a result, the following dynamics of addenda setting was observed. In February, as the infection spread in Japan, TV reports focused on the cases where people wanting to take PCR tests could not get tested, which led to the setting of the agenda “expansion of PCR test needed,” and Twitter users one after another posted the addenda. In March, however, quite a opposite “public opinion” against the expansion of PCR test emerged out of fear of overwhelming hospitals. From April through May, triggered by the declaration of a state of emergency, the “agenda” faded into the background. And from June through July when Japan was hit by the second wave, a new frame of agenda “tests for individuals without symptom needed” was set, which rekindled the debate.