the International Communication Gazette 0(0) 1–21 ! The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1748048516640202 gaz.sagepub.com Article Circulating health rumors in the ‘Arab World’: A 12-month content analysis of news stories and reader commentary about Middle East Respiratory Syndrome from two Middle Eastern news outlets Philip J Auter Department of Communication, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, LA, USA Aziz Douai University of Ontario Institute of Technology, ON, Canada Heidi Makady and Chasah West University of Louisiana at Lafayette, LA, USA Abstract The Internet provides great opportunity for news as well as entertainment. One such use is to keep abreast of public health concerns. As news outlets’ websites give the audience the privilege of interacting and posting comments as an ‘anonymous user’ following the posted story, these initial comments trigger further comments—which can lead to speculation, rumor, and inaccurate information. The purpose of the current study was to compare one year of news and comments about the outbreak of Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome from two major Middle Eastern online news outlets from June 2013 to June 2014. All stories and reader comments about this topic were collected from Al Jazeera and Al-Arabiya and reviewed using framing analysis to deter- mine their framing and approach to the outbreak. The research focused primarily on Corresponding author: Philip J Auter, Department of Communication, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Burke-Hawthorne Hall, Room 113A, P.O. Box 43650, Lafayette, LA 70504, USA. Email: auter@louisiana.edu