How to coverage of health news content on Iranian and German television: period of COVID-19

This article aims to "designing a model for how to cover Iranian television news with the aim of promoting public health" and aims to analyze the content of health news on television with emphasis on the Corona pandemic, comparing two Iranian and two German television channels. In order to conduct content analysis, first the important dimensions and related topics of health news coverage were defined. A total of 62 news broadcasts from the four networks were reviewed and analyzed in the period of February 18 to March 22, 2020 including 749 pieces of news related to health. The results show that the two German networks paid more attention to the coverage of health management than the two Iranian channels (ZDF with 96.8% and ARD with 64.9%), while the share of content about hygiene and health products in the two Iranian news programs was higher. Regarding material capacities and deficits, Iranian networks show higher coverage (>15%) than the two German networks (<15%). There is no systematic difference in terms of human capacities and deficits in the field of health. The amount of Iranian news in the field of health services and consulting is much higher than the two German news programs. Coverage of physical health dimensions in ZDF network (94.2%) and channel two of Iranian Television (72.3%) is higher than the other two networks. In evaluating health news across all themes, the two Iranian networks follow a similar pattern, but the patterns of the two German networks are mostly not similar.