“Is it possible that people are so irresponsible?”: Tabloid news framing of the COVID-19 pandemic in Serbia

Starting from the observation that the COVID-19 pandemic is a socio-cultural and health phenomenon, in this paper we analyse the tabloid news framing of the pandemic in Serbia. Our study examines a month-long period following the first identified case, during which the government introduced preventative measures deemed to be some of the strictest in the world. Applying a news framing analysis to front page news of the three tabloid newspapers Alo, Informer, and Kurir (N = 387), our study identifies nine frames employed in the media reporting about the pandemic. Supplementing the framing analysis with an examination of the narrative roles of heroes, victims and villains in which different social actors are placed, we add to the nuanced understanding of the socio-cultural frames of reference in pandemic reporting. Our analysis establishes that the most prominent frames in the tabloid news stories on COVID-19 in Serbia are prevention and human-interest frames. It shows that the attribution of responsibility frame is used to present citizens as villains who undermine successful state measures, while China and Russia are portrayed as the heroes in the fight against are virus.