On Wednesday 13 January 2016, The Australian newspaper published a news story by journalist Kylar Loussikian titled “Uni accepts thesis on vaccine ‘conspiracy’.” It provides an illuminating example of how to construct an article casting its subject in a negative light. It also happened to serve as a vehicle for a longstanding campaign of denigration.
Here, I offer a critique of Loussikian’s story, pointing out a number of the techniques used in it. I first give some context about journalistic practices and about my own involvement. After providing some background about the vaccination debate, I go through Loussikian’s text, presenting information about its frame and about some of the statements made and quoted. In the conclusion, I summarise several aspects of framing involved and comment on how readily they can be detected.[1]
