Media Reports on COVID-19 Vaccinations: A Study of Topic Modeling in South Korea

Early successes in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic have prevented Republic of Korea from implementing a prompt, large-scale vaccine rollout to the public. The influence of traditional media on public opinion remains critical and substantial in Republic of Korea, and there have been heated debates about vaccination in traditional media reports in Korea. Effective and efficient public health communication is integral in managing public health challenges. This study explored media reports on the COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic in Republic of Korea. 12,399 media news reports from May 2020 to September 2021 were collected. An LDA topic model was applied in order to analyze and compare the topics drawn from each study phase using words from the unstructured text data. Although media reports from before the national vaccination implementation focused on the development and rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, diverse topics were reported without any overlap. After the vaccination rollout, the biggest concern was the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine. In sum, Republic of Korea’s major media outlets reported on diverse topics rather than generating a common discourse about topics related to COVID-19 vaccination.