A content analysis of news coverage of skin cancer in China newspapers

China has the largest population in the world today. Recent epidemiology investigation showed a significant increase in the incidence of skin cancer in China. However, little is known about the content of skin cancer articles in Chinese newspaper coverage. To analyze the skin cancer issues in the newspaper media over an eight-year period from 2000 through 2007 in China, we performed a preliminary search of articles titled by "skin cancer" in Chinese important newspapers database. There were 134 articles about skin cancer in the total 7,643 articles related to cancer in China important newspapers database. The number of reports about skin cancers increased in the main, especially in 2006. The main focus of the articles tended to be about melanoma, accounting for 38.1% of all the articles. The treatment was the overriding subject of the 134 articles, with nearly 41.8%.