This study explores how the New Zealand news media framed and covered the COVID-19 vaccination mandates that applied to the country’s education and healthcare workers. It aims to identify the key frames and content used by New Zealand news media in its reporting of the vaccination mandates as a potential solution to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study follows a qualitative research approach involving a thematic content analysis of 12 digital news media texts from four established news media organisations in New Zealand. The findings of this study identify three key alternative frames (moral, human-interest and economic) to the public health one in New Zealand news media coverage of the COVID-19 vaccination mandates. The most prominent is the moral frame, followed by the human-interest and economic frames. This discrepancy appears to have been influenced by imbalanced reporting and the considerable variation in reporting that communicated the scientific or technical aspects of vaccines and the vaccination mandates to the public. Together, this may have undermined the efficacy of the New Zealand Government’s public health response to the pandemic.

The study also uncovers that news media practitioners may not have a full grasp of how their use of frames may impact public perception of a health issue. This foundational study provides recommendations for further research and emphasises the importance of adopting scholarly methods by tertiary institutions, news media organisations and government decision-makers to guide clearer and more effective communication to the public during a health crisis.