「新冠記者會」中的疫情政治學：記者提問主題、 框架與策略分析

2020年，新冠疫情席捲全球，由於政府在疫情初期的良好防疫表現，臺灣驕傲一時深植民心，然而，此現象僅止於2020年，隨著疫情爆發與常態化，當國家內部超越黨派界線的團結精神減弱，政治運作回到常規狀態，意識形態重新主導社會輿論風向是可預見的結果。疫情由科學問題逐漸轉變為政治問題，使防疫記者會中的記者提問逐漸「逆時中」的過程，是本研究的關注重點。本研究旨在透過非監督式主題模型BERTopic與人工編碼並行的量化研究方法，探究2020至2022年臺灣中央流行疫情指揮中心舉辦的新冠記者會上，記者提問的主題、框架與策略分佈情形，及三者是否受疫情發展階段、媒體媒介類型與媒體政治立場影響。以聚旗效應與議題互動理論為基礎，檢視記者在新冠記者會上的關注內容，並以提問策略作為記者對抗性的指標，分析記者與政府官員的權力互動情形。研究結果顯示，記者理解議題的角度，以及與執政黨的權力關係隨疫情發展變化，媒介特性會影響記者在解釋與思考議題時採用的結構及追問程度，媒體政治立場影響記者與政府之間的議題互動模式。證實聚旗效應衰退後，政黨政治重新發揮作用，為健康傳播過程產生極大的政治噪音，並模糊記者會焦點。現有國際傳播學界的疫情新聞研究大多集中於框架或再現方面，而較少有學者關注健康傳播和政治學兩個領域的重疊，新冠記者會作為全球獨有的健康傳播管道，恰好成為疫情政治學研究的良好素材，本研究期望探索疫情政治化的問題內涵，提供健康傳播研究的另一種視角，也期望能為政治活動守門人——媒體與政黨，帶來不同思路。

關鍵字

疫情；記者提問；聚旗效應；議題互動；健康傳播；政治傳播

並列摘要

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe. Due to the government's initial successful efforts in containing the virus, Taiwan gained pride and support from its people. However, this phenomenon was short-lived as the pandemic persisted and became normalized. With the weakening of the spirit of unity transcending partisan lines and the return to normal political operations, it was foreseeable that ideology would once again dominate the public discourse. This study focuses on the shifting dynamics of press conferences, where journalists' questions gradually deviated from the progression of the pandemic, becoming a topic of interest. The aim of this study is to employ a quantitative research approach that combines unsupervised topic modeling (BERTopic) and manual coding to explore the topic, frame, and distribution of strategies in the questions posed by journalists during COVID-19 press conferences held by the Taiwan Central Epidemic Command Center from 2020 to 2022. It also investigates the influence of pandemic development stages, media medium types, and media political stances on these aspects. Building upon the rallying-around-the-flag effect and agenda-interaction theories, this research examines the focal points of journalists in COVID-19 press conferences and utilizes question strategies as indicators of journalists' adversarial stance, thereby analyzing the power dynamics between journalists and government officials. The findings indicate that journalists' perspectives and their power relations with the ruling party change with the development of the pandemic. Media characteristics influence the structure and level of follow-up questioning when journalists interpret and contemplate issues. Media political stances affect the interaction patterns between journalists and the government. It is confirmed that after the decline of the rallying-around-the-flag effect, party politics reasserts itself, generating significant political noise in the health communication process and blurring the focus of press conferences. Existing studies in the field of international communication largely focus on framing and representation aspects of pandemic news, with limited attention given to the overlap between health communication and political science. COVID-19 press conferences, as a unique channel for health communication worldwide, provide excellent material for the study of the politicization of the pandemic. This research seeks to explore the implications of the politicization of the pandemic and provide an alternative perspective for health communication research. It also aims to offer different insights to the gatekeepers of political activities—the media and political parties.