The Framing of the COVID-19 Digital Green Certificate Content analysis on the framing of the COVID-19 Digital Green passport by news media channels in Malta compared to Bulgaria

The COVID-19 pandemic caused tremendous negative consequences for both societies and economies. For the purpose to recover from the crisis and resuming the normal way of operating, governments came up with the plan to implement COVID-19 Digital Green Certificates. Moreover, the goal of the certificate was to enable people to engage in social activities, visit venues and resume international traveling. In the last two years, the media channels had extensive news coverage regarding the pandemic and developments around it. Also, numerous studies point out that news can affect the behavior, opinions, and attitudes of the general public, especially in times of crisis. Many countries were successful in implementing the certificate, such as Malta. However, some countries did not achieve the wanted results and have a lower percentage of vaccinated people, like Bulgaria, with 30% of the total population. Therefore, a framing analysis of Maltese and Bulgarian newspapers is conducted. The goal is to find differences between the two countries regarding the framing of the COVID-19 Digital Green Certificate to the general public.