What mechanism is working when news is being recognized as having influenced society and a social policy? This paper aims to find an answer to this question by analyzing news reporting on a specific case. For the analysis, insights from previous studies such as “media framing” and “agenda-setting model” were referred to.
The case covered in this paper involves the news on medical workers under the coronavirus pandemic, especially on those dubbed “unpaid doctors.” “Unpaid doctors” mean overworked young doctors treating patients at university hospitals with no guarantee of salaries and appropriate working conditions. Although they are playing a significant role, their existence has been much overlooked.
In April 2020, while hospitals were overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic, “unpaid doctors” had no choice but to treat coronavirus-related patients with safety and payment not guaranteed. Having found out these facts, multiple TV stations reported their plight. It is revealed that, the policy authorities swiftly took action to improve their working conditions in response to the news. The author analyzed the news programs and found that those stories shared the same media frame (cognitive frame) of “it is important to support medical workers, and this should apply to those called “unpaid doctors,” who must also be properly supported.”
The author also analyzed news stories on “unpaid doctors” aired not only during but also before the coronavirus pandemic, which revealed that the power of news in unison had been contributing to gradually improving the working conditions of “unpaid doctors,” albeit insufficient. It is to the extent that not paying for these doctors is regarded as illegal now. These analyses tell that news reports may have an impact on society and social policies through the following mechanism.
The mechanism works as (1) multiple media share a frame on what the issue is, (2) this generates concentrated reporting, and (3) these reports question the justification of the policy and advocate the policy authorities to make changes.