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      An Australian newspaper campaign and government vaccination policy

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            Abstract

            News Corp Australia recently initiated a campaign to pressure the Australian government to amend its childhood vaccination policies. In 2015, the government legislated amendments in accord with the campaign's demands despite criticism from experts in children's health and vaccine advocacy, research and surveillance. A narrative review was conducted of newsprint articles which featured during the media campaign between 2013 and 2015. Findings indicate that the campaign focused on moral attributes that stigmatised conscientious objector parents as ‘anti-vaxers’, baby-killers, and hippies and loons. The decision to change vaccination legislation is compatible with the creation of a media-manufactured moral panic concerning conscientious objector parents. When deconstructing moral panics, a careful analysis of the roles of different media sectors is important. The alliance between News Corp Australia and Australian politicians to introduce new vaccination legislation represents an innovation in health policy formation which illustrates how expert opinion on public health policies can be sidelined.

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            Author and article information

            Contributors
            Journal
            10.2307/j50022063
            prometheus
            Prometheus
            Pluto Journals
            0810-9028
            1470-1030
            1 June 2021
            : 37
            : 2 ( doiID: 10.13169/prometheus.37.issue-2 )
            : 137-154
            Affiliations
            School of Social Science, University of Queensland, Brisbane
            Article
            prometheus.37.2.0137
            10.13169/prometheus.37.2.0137
            30ed868b-4b86-41ce-a48c-086e932a0b11
            © 2021 Pluto Journals

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            Custom metadata
            eng

            Computer science,Arts,Social & Behavioral Sciences,Law,History,Economics

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