Democratic Critique of Expert Policymaking: Alternative News Coverage of Canadian Public Health Officials and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Scholars have yet to understand fully how the COVID-19 pandemic politicized health. One understudied aspect is how alternative media covered public health experts, and to what extent such coverage may promote or undermine democratic policymaking. This article examines how public health officials became highly visible nodes of debates about the relationship between health policy and democracy. We use a case study of how an alternative right-wing news outlet, Rebel News, portrayed public health officials in Canada. Our content analysis shows how these officials were portrayed as responsible for alleged undemocratic COVID-19 measures, such as vaccine mandates. We explore when and if the coverage moved into personal attacks focused on individual officials rather than scientific policy. Our framework could be applied to analyze media coverage of other expert-led policymaking issues. Such analysis could reveal similarities and differences between jurisdictions and how expert policymakers become flashpoints for democratic critique.