The Media’s Dose of Duty: Guidelines for Ethical Reporting

“The Media’s Dose of Duty: Guidelines for Ethical Vaccine Reporting” was developed with the aim to assist media practitioners in making proper choices in addressing vaccination issues with specific purposes. Using a grounded theory approach, the guideline was a result of interviews with health experts, media professionals, and government officials, analyses of content related to vaccination, and was later refined through a discussion with the media practitioners in Malaysia. This guideline is unique as it presents a contextual and evidence-based content that is relevant to the Malaysian context. In this guideline, there are four processes that should be undertaken by the media practitioners when handling vaccination reporting starting with consideration of general issues followed by strategies in reporting, verification, and affirmation. This four-step process is followed by the rule-of-four that encapsulates the dos and don’ts of vaccination reporting. Among the advantages of using this guideline are maintaining the media’s credibility because bad reporting undermines media status while reinforcing their credibility to the public. The guideline is hoped to combat vaccine misinformation while increasing vaccine literacy in the community.