How the media and audience frame abortion: a case study of Vietnamese online newspapers and readers' comments

Vietnam is ranked among the countries with the highest abortion rates globally. However, there is limited data on how Vietnamese media and audience frame abortion. To fill the knowledge gap, this study analysed 198 articles about abortion from ten major Vietnamese online newspapers published between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2024; and 888 readers' comments from those articles. Grounded in framing theory and the Health Belief Model (HBM), this study employed content analysis to explore the media and audience frames of abortion and Chi-squared tests to examine the linkage between them. The study found five dominant abortion frames in online newspapers: 'threat', 'cues to action', 'criticism', 'self-efficacy', and 'barriers'. Four dominant audience frames include 'criticism and moral judgement', 'solutions and cues to action', 'sympathy', and 'threat'. While online newspapers have incorporated nearly all HBM constructs into their framing, these frames were not frequently adopted by the audience, suggesting that HBM-related media messages do not have a direct influence on public perceptions of abortion. Practice implications for journalists and health communicators to create a more balanced and positive media framing of abortion are discussed as a means of enhancing reproductive health knowledge and minimising the incidence of unsafe abortion.