Asian audiences consuming more content related to digital health tech

According to over 40 health editors and journalists across 4 continents, health reporting will change permanently, but conversations around digital healthcare technologies are increasingly taking centerstage across key Asian markets, including India, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and others. These are insights released in a report, titled ‘Global Media Trends on Health Topics 2021’, by SPAG in collaboration with Baird’s CMC.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the news for two years, the report looked at whether this domination will continue in 2022 and with vaccination coverage increasing worldwide, what the health media landscape will be like in the coming years.

As a part of the global network of communications consultancies Baird’s CMC, SPAG worked with firms across the globe to interview 40+ health journalists and editors across Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe to understand health media trends. SPAG along with Alfa Communications, Fundamento, Havas PR and Hyderus conducted these interviews.

A trend that emerged through the report was that at the moment, stories covering health and big themes should be linked to COVID else they do not get the desired reach.The report also highlights how readers, viewers and social media community members increasingly interested in science, epidemiology and R&D.

There was also an obvious split in notions regarding COVID-19 between high vaccine coverage versus low vaccine coverage regions. Such as Singapore, where it is believed that COVID-19 dominance in the media will subside by Q1 of 2022, but in the rest of Asia as well as Latin America and Africa, it is expected to go on for the next year or at least until vaccination rates increase.

As per the findings of this report, Singapore and Asia are expected to see a significant spike in conversations around digital healthcare technologies, global public health, infectious diseases and NCDs. However, other parts of the world will focus on COVID-19 variants, vaccines benefits, impact, accessibility and acceptance as well as universal health coverage.