Tobacco cessation and weight loss: trends in media coverage

OBJECTIVE: To examine time trends in amount of media coverage on tobacco cessation versus weight loss and test whether the 2 topics compete for limited media attention. METHODS: Monthly print and broadcast media coverage from 1995 to 2003 was estimated. RESULTS: Tobacco and weight coverage were uncorrelated. Tobacco coverage peaked in 1997-98, whereas coverage of weight increased linearly between 1995 and 2003. CONCLUSION: Tobacco and weight topics do not appear to compete for media coverage. Interest in weight topics is rising, consistent with its growing public health importance. Coverage of tobacco is declining, suggesting a need to keep tobacco and cessation in the public eye.     

Exploring Coverage of the 2008 Irish Dioxin Crisis in the Irish and UK Newsprint Media

The 2008 dioxin crisis occurred as a result of contamination of Irish pork. The event had significant implications for Ireland’s economy and the reputation of its agricultural industry, as well as raising concerns for human health. This study describes the results of a content analysis of Irish and UK newspaper coverage of the 2008 Irish dioxin crisis, as this is likely to provide insight into how public perceptions of this issue were shaped. Articles from 16 print publications were systematically sampled for the period December 2008 to February 2009. The resulting data set of 141 articles was examined using a coding protocol developed based on previous research and refined during piloting. Results indicated that the dioxin crisis was primarily portrayed by the media as an industry/economic crisis, dominant in 26.9% of articles in the sample. Within this dominant portrayal, the agricultural industry was frequently cited as being in crisis (42.6%); however, the implications of the crisis on the wider economic environment also received attention (17.7%). Differences between Irish and UK-based media were also examined, revealing that while the Irish media most frequently described the crisis in terms of its impact on the industry and economy, the UK media were more likely to portray the crisis as a risk to health. These dominant media messages and message framings have implications for the public understanding of the issue in each country and potential consequences regarding perception of the adequacy of existing food policy and regulatory oversight.     

The good news about smoking: how do U.S. newspapers cover tobacco issues?

Media advocacy, or advocacy seeking media attention, can shape the policy environment, but the relationship between the nature of news media coverage of public health topics and policy outcomes has received insufficient research attention. We present the first large-scale study of news coverage of tobacco to focus on the potential impact for policy outcomes. Through our analysis of 9859 tobacco-focused news articles from ioo leading US daily newspapers between 2001 and 2003 we examined whether tobacco issues are newsworthy, and if so, whether coverage is favorable to policy progress. We found strong evidence for news-worthiness, and a tendency for coverage to highlight policy approaches to tackling tobacco. Coverage emphasized successes rather than setbacks, and newspaper editors lent support to tobacco control positions. There were, however, areas that did not garner sufficient attention to sustain a meaningful policy message. Our analysis of coverage of controversial issues also revealed areas where tobacco control efforts seem to pushing against ideological boundaries.     

Guns,Culture or Mental Health? Framing Mass Shootings as a Public Health Crisis

In recent years, public health scholars and policymakers have been calling for increased research on the public health implications of gun violence. However, scientific research on this issue has been stifled by a 1996 budget rider that eliminated Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) funding for gun research. In this study, we examined newspaper coverage of three mass shootings that took place over a 20-year period before and after the passage of this budget rider. We found that sources and frames provided by news media to contextualize gun violence shifted markedly over time, progressing from episodic and individual-level frames to broader thematic societal-level concerns, with increased discussion of mental health but limited discourse explicitly related to public health.     

Mediatised risk culture: News coverage of risk technologies

In this article, we examine if and how a particular risk culture emerges as mediated and mediatised for a number of diverse technological risks. Modern news reporting is increasingly preoccupied with representing risk events in order to show how technological lifestyles affect our human and natural environments. In this article, we draw on data from project which used a comparative research design to investigate media coverage of four contemporary risks, in order to show how public risk communication contributes to the establishment of a broader mediatised risk culture. The project combined a quantitative content analysis with a qualitative study of a sample (n = 344) of news items across three different Danish media platform. We found that risk reporting varied substantially depending on dominant news themes, cultural resonance and media platform. However, within these variations we also found common elements such as the discursive representations of risk as contested and/or manageable. Based on the aggregate picture of the four risk studied, we argue that the media risk discourse takes a particular form that is different to risk discourse in other social arenas. Media risk discourse, therefore, tends to share certain cultural traits which results in the representation of risks as either (un-)manageable or (un-)controllable according to the level of public or elite disagreement in public debate.     

Defining moments in risk communication research: 1996-2005

Ten years ago, scholars suggested that risk communication was embarking on a new phase that would give increased attention to the social contexts that surround and encroach on public responses to risk information. A decade later, many researchers have answered the call, with several defining studies examining the social and psychological influences on risk communication. This article reviews risk communication research appearing in the published literature since 1996. Among studies, social trust, the social amplification of risk framework, and the affect heuristic figured prominently. Also common were studies examining the influence of risk in the mass media. Among these were content analyses of media coverage of risk, as well as investigations of possible effects resulting from coverage. The use of mental models was a dominant method for developing risk message content. Other studies examined the use of risk comparisons, narratives, and visuals in the production of risk messages. Research also examined how providing information about a risk's severity, social norms, and efficacy influenced communication behaviors and intentions to follow risk reduction measures. Methods for conducting public outreach in health risk communication rounded out the literature.     

US Media Coverage of Tobacco Industry Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives

Media coverage of tobacco industry corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives represents a competitive field where tobacco control advocates and the tobacco industry vie to shape public and policymaker understandings about tobacco control and the industry. Through a content analysis of 649 US news items, we examined US media coverage of tobacco industry CSR and identified characteristics of media items associated with positive coverage. Most coverage appeared in local newspapers, and CSR initiatives unrelated to tobacco, with non-controversial beneficiaries, were most commonly mentioned. Coverage was largely positive. Tobacco control advocates were infrequently cited as sources and rarely authored opinion pieces; however, when their voices were included, coverage was less likely to have a positive slant. Media items published in the South, home to several tobacco company headquarters, were more likely than those published in the West to have a positive slant. The absence of tobacco control advocates from media coverage represents a missed opportunity to influence opinion regarding the negative public health implications of tobacco industry CSR. Countering the media narrative of virtuous companies doing good deeds could be particularly beneficial in the South, where the burdens of tobacco-caused disease are greatest, and coverage of tobacco companies more positive.     

The role of the media in construction and presentation of food risks

In this article we examine how and why the media construct food risks, from the perspective of ‘media actors’ (people involved in different types of media) using data from 30 interviews conducted in 2013 with media actors from Australia and the United Kingdom. In modern society, many risks are invisible and are brought to the attention of the public through representations in the mass media. This is particularly relevant for food safety, where the widening gap between producers and consumers in the developed world has increased the need for consumer trust in the food supply. We show the importance of newsworthiness in construction of media stories about food risk using Beck’s ideas on cosmopolitan risk to interpret the data. We note the ways in which the strategies that media actors use to construct stories about food risk amplify the risk posed potentially creating consumer anxiety about the safety of the food system. It is important for food regulators and public health professionals to be aware of this anxiety when presenting information about a food incident so that they can target their message accordingly to decrease anxiety.     

'Trusting blindly can be the biggest risk of all': organised resistance to childhood vaccination in the UK

Sociological interest in vaccination has recently increased, largely in response to media coverage of concerns over the safety of the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine. The resulting body of research highlights the importance of risk and trust in understanding parental and professional engagement with vaccination. To date, only limited attention has been paid to organised parental groups that campaign against aspects of vaccination policy. This paper reports findings from a qualitative study of contemporary groups in the UK, and develops three main lines of argument. First, these actors are best analysed as 'Vaccine Critical groups' and include Radical and Reformist types. Second, Vaccine Critical groups discursively resist vaccination through a reframing that constructs risk as unknown and non-random. Third, trust as faith is negatively contrasted with the empowerment that is promised to result from taking personal responsibility for health and decision-making. Whilst representing a challenge to aspects of vaccination policy, this study confirms that the groups are involved in the articulation and promotion of other dominant discourses. These findings have implications for wider sociological debates about risk and trust in relation to health.     

AIDS and the news media.

News reports on AIDS have appeared at a time of general public concern about health risks, and, like the coverage of risk, the reporting on AIDS has been controversial. Perceptions of this disease have been linked to economic and personal stakes, professional ideologies, administrative responsibilities, and moral beliefs. It is from this perspective that news coverage of AIDS must be understood. The norms and practices of journalism, the technical uncertainties of risk evaluation, and the pressures placed on the media by various interests have influenced the reporting on this disease. However, media reports also shape the social context of the epidemic, affecting public perceptions, personal behavior, and policy agendas.     

Defining Moments in Risk Communication Research: 1996–2005

Ten years ago, scholars suggested that risk communication was embarking on a new phase that would give increased attention to the social contexts that surround and encroach on public responses to risk information. A decade later, many researchers have answered the call, with several defining studies examining the social and psychological influences on risk communication. This article reviews risk communication research appearing in the published literature since 1996. Among studies, social trust, the social amplification of risk framework, and the affect heuristic figured prominently. Also common were studies examining the influence of risk in the mass media. Among these were content analyses of media coverage of risk, as well as investigations of possible effects resulting from coverage. The use of mental models was a dominant method for developing risk message content. Other studies examined the use of risk comparisons, narratives, and visuals in the production of risk messages. Research also examined how providing information about a risk's severity, social norms, and efficacy influenced communication behaviors and intentions to follow risk reduction measures. Methods for conducting public outreach in health risk communication rounded out the literature.     

Business and Breakthrough: Framing (Expanded) Genetic Carrier Screening for the Public

A growing body of research has given attention to issues surrounding genetic testing, including expanded carrier screening (ECS), an elective medical test that allows planning or expecting parents to consider the potential occurrence of genetic diseases and disorders in their children. These studies have noted the role of the mass media in driving public perceptions about such testing, giving particular attention to ways in which coverage of genetics and genetic testing broadly may drive public attitudes and choices concerning the morality, legality, ethics, and parental well-being involved in genetic technologies. However, few studies have explored how mass media are covering the newer test, ECS. Drawing on health-related framing studies that have shown in varying degrees the impact particular frames such as gain/loss and thematic/episodic can have on the public, this study examines the frame selection employed by online media in its coverage of ECS. This analysis—combined with an analysis of the sources and topics used in such coverage and how they relate to selected frames—helps to clarify how mass media are covering an increasingly important medical test and offers considerations of how such coverage may inform mass media scholarship as well as health-related practices.     

Media Influence on Alcohol-Control Policy Support in the U.S. Adult Population: The Intervening Role of Issue Concern and Risk Judgments

Data from a national random-digit dial survey (N = 1,272) were analyzed to examine the influence of news media use on alcohol-control policy support, and to test whether risk judgments and concern about alcohol-related risks mediated effects of news media use variables on support for various types of alcohol-control public policies. In so doing, we test the proposition that perceptions influenced by routine coverage of events such as crime or accidents may in part explain news effects on public policy support in the domain of health policy. Analyses indicated that the (positive) influence of attention to news about crime and accidents on support for laws increasing server liability and limiting marketing of alcohol products was mediated by concern about risks of alcohol-related injuries and by perceptions of the alcohol-attributable fraction of homicides and unintended injury fatalities. Tests of model fit suggest that concern precedes the more cognitive risk judgment in the mediation model.     

How Localized Outbreaks and Changes in Media Coverage Affect Zika Attitudes in National and Local Contexts

ABSTRACT

Public opinion researchers often find changing attitudes about pressing public health issues to be a difficult task and even when attitudes do change, behaviors often do not. However, salient real-world events have the ability to bring public health crises to the fore in unique ways. To assess the impact of localized public health events on individuals’ self-reported behavior, this paper examines Floridians’ intentions to take preventative measures against the Zika virus before and after the first locally transmit- ted case of Zika emerged in Florida. We find that local and national media coverage of Zika increased significantly following its first transmission in the U.S. Critically, we also find that Floridians surveyed after this increase in media coverage were more likely to pay attention to Zika-related news, and self-report intentions to take protective action against the virus. These results suggest that behavioral intentions can shift as health threats become more proximate.     

'A healthy lifestyle might be the death of you': discourses on diet, cholesterol control and heart disease in the press and among the lay public

In Australia and other western countries, research on the relationship between dietary intake and coronary heart disease has attracted wide news media coverage. One of the most recent issues to receive media attention is the role of cholesterol control in reducing the risk of coronary heart disease. News reports on cholesterol and diet have vacillated confusingly from supporting health promotional orthodoxy in warning individuals to monitor carefully their intake of certain substances such as fats, salt and cholesterol, to questioning the validity of such dietary control. This paper presents the findings of a study investigating media coverage of and the responses of members of the lay public to recent diet and cholesterol control controversies. Analysis found that while the participants commonly articulated concern about their diet, they also expressed a high degree of cynicism both in the news media's coverage and health promotional advice on diet and cholesterol control. Respondents drew upon discourses relating to the pleasurable nature of indulging oneself in eating, but also expressed moralistic discourses concerning the need to ‘work’ at being healthy, thus juggling the dialectic of health as control and health as release. The adage that ‘everything in moderation’ was the way to live one's life, regardless of official advice concerning dietary regulation, was commonly expressed as a strategy of coping with the confusions around diet.     

From complacency to panic: AIDS and heterosexuals in the Australian press, July 1986 to June 1988

AIDS is a disease which has received a great deal of attentionfrom the popular media, which in turn has attracted the interestsof those who analyse media. The health information conveyedto the general public by the popular press is a topic of specialinterest to health educators. This paper documents the Australianpress' coverage of the AIDS threat to heterosexuals. The preliminaryfindings of a content analysis of all Australian articles mentioningAIDS published between June 1986 and July 1988 is reported.An overview of the issues gaining most attention in the pressduring that time is given and major narrative themes discussed.It is shown that the focus of the popular press' reporting ofAIDS changed in that time from representing AIDS as a risk toonly homosexuals and intravenous drug users, to generating panic-strickenarticles suggesting that everyone was now threatened. The pressgenerally lent their support to a major public health informationcampaign designed to warn heterosexuals of their risk of contractingAIDS (the ‘Grim Reaper’ campaign), although manyatricles exaggerated the threat and disseminated confusing informationabout the risk. Health educators need to have a good knowledgeof press accounts of health issues, and be aware of the potentialfor support of coinflicting information in the press both ofhealth education campaigns and of the health issue itself.     

Print media coverage of environmental causation of breast cancer

Given the growing concern with breast cancer as a largely unexplained and common illness of our time, we would expect considerable print media coverage. An accurate portrayal of breast cancer would also include a good amount of attention to the potential environmental factors since many women with breast cancer and activists are pointing to such potential causes. Our examination of daily newspapers, newsweeklies, science periodicals, and women's magazines showed that there was little coverage of possible environmental causation. There was also scant attention paid to corporate and governmental responsibility. Articles often focused on individual responsibility for diet, age at birth of first child, and other personal behaviours. Articles also emphasised genetic causation, even though this explained only a small fraction of breast cancer incidence. These factors combine to place personal responsibility on women for preventing the disease. Despite gains in understanding possible environmental causation and much scientific dialogue about it, especially in light of the endocrine disrupter hypothesis, and despite growing social activism, the print media have not paid much attention to environmental causation of breast cancer. Because the media have significant influence over public understanding and social action, this lack of attention may hold back scientific and activist pursuit of environmental causes of breast cancer.     

Mass Media, Secular Trends, and the Future of Cardiovascular Disease Health Promotion: An Interpretive Analysis

Mass media roles in promoting cardiovascular health in the context of lessons learned from major U.S. community studies, changing media technology, and emergent models of media-community partnerships are discussed. Three principal issues are explored: (1) implications of the current expansion, convergence, and harmonization of mass media technology;(2) recent trends in media coverage of heart disease and population practices; and (3) implications for the future relationship between the media and public health in cardiovascular health promotion. It is concluded that classic campaign models focusing on individual-level change have evolved to recognize environmental-level influences on behavior. Emergent public health campaign models have moved toward “agenda-building,” in which the focus is on a more unified approach to influencing public and community agendas for social, behavioral, and policy change. Recent developments among the commercial mass media may offer new opportunities for public health partnerships to promote cardiovascular health.     

Stability of children’s insurance coverage and implications for access to care: evidence from the Survey of Income and Program Participation

Even as the number of children with health insurance has increased, coverage transitions—movement into and out of coverage and between public and private insurance—have become more common. Using data from 1996 to 2005, we examine whether insurance instability has implications for access to primary care. Because unobserved factors related to parental behavior and child health may affect both the stability of coverage and utilization, we estimate the relationship between insurance and the probability that a child has at least one physician visit per year using a model that includes child fixed effects to account for unobserved heterogeneity. Although we find that unobserved heterogeneity is an important factor influencing cross-sectional correlations, conditioning on child fixed effects we find a statistically and economically significant relationship between insurance coverage stability and access to care. Children who have part-year public or private insurance are more likely to have at least one doctor’s visit than children who are uninsured for a full year, but less likely than children with full-year coverage. We find comparable effects for public and private insurance. Although cross-sectional analyses suggest that transitions directly between public and private insurance are associated with lower rates of utilization, the evidence of such an effect is much weaker when we condition on child fixed effects.