Cancer in the mass print media: fear, uncertainty and the medical model

Cancer is increasing in incidence and prevalence in North America and around the world. The mass print media play an important role in information provision about prevention, diagnosis and treatment of this disease, as well as informing health policy and personal experience. This paper reports on a content analysis of the portrayal of cancer in the highest circulating magazines available in Canada and published in Canada or the USA in 1991, 1996, 2001. It includes both manifest and latent analysis of the framing and content of cancer stories. Manifest analysis documented the dominance of the medical as compared to the lifestyle and political economy frames and the predominance of articles on breast as compared to other cancers. Latent themes included: an emphasis on fear of cancer in that: (1) cancer and fear are frequently conflated; cancer is said to grow outside of awareness; cancer is portrayed as (almost) inevitable; cancer is associated with normal experiences; early detection is associated with diagnosis; and scary statistics are emphasized; (2) contradictions and confusion exist within and between articles; and (3) metaphors of war and battle are used frequently. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the linking of fear with cancer in the context of medicine as the solution.     

Framing pub smoking bans: an analysis of Australian print news media coverage, March 1996-March 2003

OBJECTIVE: To investigate framing strategies used by the Australian Hotels Association (AHA) and tobacco control groups to (respectively) resist or advocate laws providing smoke free bars. METHODS: Online archives of Australian print media were searched 1996 to 2003. A thematic analysis of all statements made by AHA spokespeople and tobacco control advocates was conducted. Direct quotes or journalistic summaries of statements attributed to named people were coded into four broad themes and the slant of articles coded. RESULTS: More than three times as many articles reported issues that were positive (n = 171) than negative (n = 48) for tobacco control objectives. The AHA emphasised negative economic issues and cultural/ideological frames about cultural identity, while tobacco control interests emphasised health concerns as well as cultural/ideological frames about threats to inequitable workplace policies. CONCLUSIONS: Smoke free bars have now been secured, suggesting that health advocates' position prevailed. The inability of the AHA to avoid the core health arguments, its wildly exaggerated economic predictions, and its frequent recourse to claiming smoke bans threatened nostalgic but outmoded vistas of Australian day to day life were decidedly backward looking and comparatively easily dismissed as being out of touch with views held by many in contemporary Australia. Health groups' emphasis on the unfairness in denying the most occupationally exposed group the same protection that all other workers enjoyed under law was powerfully and consistently argued. Australia's recent success in securing dates for the implementation of smoke free pubs is likely to have owed much to the enduring media advocacy by health groups.     

Being female: the portrayal of women's health in print media

In this article, we examine the portrayal of women's health issues in two of Melbourne's print media: The Age and the Herald Sun. In particular, we aim to examine the patterns of coverage of women's health and the underlying message in articles on women's health issues. We employed an unobtrusive method, and the study was conducted over a three-month period: May to July 1998. We found that many of the articles and public reactions centred on women and reproduction. This implies that women are still seen in relation to their reproductive role in Australian society. In addition, there are many issues regarding women and their health missing from the media's publication during the research period. The message emerging from the analysis implies that if women do not fit into the "ideal women" framework of the society, their health needs are given little attention by the print media and, therefore, their health is likely to suffer. This can be interpreted as one form of women's oppression in Australian society.     

Suicide reporting in the Swiss print media: Frequency, form and content of articles

All the Swiss newspapers were screened for the target words‘suicide’ and ‘attempted suicide’ andall relevant articles were analysed for form and content overa period of 8 months. In 151 out of 208 articles suiclde/attemptedsuicide was the major topic. Large differences between the newspapersregarding the frequency and format of the articles (e.g. placementon front page) were found. In a few newspapers with a largecirculation suicide is clearly treated as a major topic of newssensation. The majority of articles reported cases of completedsuicide, mainly shooting and hanging by young persons. Attemptedsuicide was only reported for persons with celebrity status.This survey shows that there is reason for concern in view ofthe danger of imitation effects.     

The stigmatisation of abortion: a qualitative analysis of print media in Great Britain in 2010

The media play a significant part in shaping public perceptions of health issues, and abortion attracts continued media interest. Detailed examination of media constructions of abortion may help to identify emerging public discourse. Qualitative content analysis was used to examine if and how the print media in contributes to the stigmatisation of abortion. Articles from seven British and five Scottish national newspapers from 2010 were analysed for overall framings of abortion and emergent themes, including potentially stigmatising discursive constructs and language. Abortion was found to be presented using predominantly negative language and discursive associations as ‘risky’, and in association with other ‘discredited’ social practices. Key perspectives were found to be absent or marginalised, including those of women who have sought abortion. Few articles framed abortion as a positive and legitimate choice. Negative media representations of abortion contribute to the stigmatisation of the procedure and of women who have it, and reflect a discrediting of women's reproductive decision-making. There is a need to challenge the notion that abortion stigma is inevitable, and to encourage positive framings of abortion in the media and other public discourse.     

Using process evaluation for program improvement in dose, fidelity and reach: the ACT trial experience

Background  

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate how formative program process evaluation was used to improve dose and fidelity of implementation, as well as reach of the intervention into the target population, in the "Active by Choice Today" (ACT) randomized school-based trial from years 1 to 3 of implementation.     

Gifts, bribes and solicitions: print media and the social construction of informal payments to doctors in Taiwan

The Taiwanese practice of patients giving informal payments to physicians to secure services is deeply rooted in social and cultural factors. This study examines the portrayal of informal payments by Taiwanese print news media over a period of 12 years-from prior to until after the implementation of national health insurance (NHI) in Taiwan in 1995. The goal of the study was to examine how the advent of NHI changed the rationale for and use of informal payments. Both before and after the introduction of NHI, Taiwanese newspapers portrayed informal payments as appropriate means to secure access to better health care. Newspaper accounts established that, although NHI reduced patients' financial barriers to care, it did not change deeply held cultural beliefs that good care depended on the development of a reciprocal sense of obligation between patients and physicians. Physicians may have also encouraged the ongoing use of informal payments to make up revenue lost when NHI standardized fees and limited income from dispensing medications. In 2002, seven years after the implementation of NHI, the use of informal payments, though illegal, was still being justified in the print media through allusions to its role in traditional Taiwanese culture.     

Introducing a means of quantifying community reputation: the print media as a data source

A community's reputation may have implications for self-esteem, morale, or other health outcomes of residents. In this study, we introduce a means of quantifying the reputation of communities in Calgary, Canada based on their portrayal in the daily citywide newspaper. Publication dates were selected from an 8.5-year period using constructed week sampling. For communities designated as high or low in well-being, sampled references were rated as positive, negative, or neutral in topic, by two independent raters who were blind to community identity. Findings suggest that the print media represent a convenient and discriminating data source for characterising some aspects of community reputation.     

Governing childhood obesity: Framing regulation of fast food advertising in the Australian print media

Childhood obesity is widely constructed as reaching epidemic proportions with consumption of fast food viewed as a contributing factor. This paper analyses media reporting of the regulation of fast food consumption to children. A media search of five Australian newspapers for the period January 2006 to June 2008 elicited 100 articles relating to the regulation of fast food advertising to children. Content and thematic analysis of the articles reveal conflicting perspectives on the role of the state; the level of accountability of the food and advertising industries; and responsibilities of parents for regulating fast food consumption in children. The Federal Government, food and advertising industries and free to air broadcasters favour industry self-regulation and personal responsibility for fast food consumption while the proponents of government regulation include consumer groups, state government health ministers, nutrition and public health academics and medical and health foundations. The regulation of fast food advertising to children is discussed in relation to ideas about governance and the public health strategies which follow from these ideas. The paper argues that all proposed solutions are indicative of a neoliberal approach to the governance of health insofar as the responsibility for regulation of food marketing is viewed as lying with industry and the regulation of lifestyle risk is viewed as an individual responsibility.     

Coverage of beverage alcohol issues in the print media in the United States, 1985-1991.

OBJECTIVES: This study assessed the portrayal of alcohol-related issues in the print media in the United States during the 7-year period bracketing implementation of the US alcohol warning label act in November 1988. METHODS: All articles that appeared from 1985 to 1991 in 5 national newspapers and that were indexed as dealing with beverage alcohol were identified. Content analysis of a 15% sample of these articles allowed an in-depth assessment of the conceptualization of alcohol in the US print media. RESULTS: A slight decrease in articles related to alcoholism was offset by an increase in articles about the more general health-related effects of alcohol. The warning label act received little attention. Most articles portrayed alcohol neutrally or negatively, using information from government sources. CONCLUSIONS: Portrayal of alcohol in the US print media has changed in recent decades. A general shift noted as early as the 1960s has increasingly emphasized public health issues and deemphasized clinical aspects of alcoholism. This has been accompanied by a continuing shift away from a biopsychological definition of alcohol-related behavior to a definition stressing external environmental factors.     

Nonfatal heroin overdoses in Queensland,Australia: an analysis of ambulance data

In the past decade, the utilization of ambulance data to inform the prevalence of nonfatal heroin overdose has increased. These data can assist public health policymakers, law enforcement agencies, and health providers in planning and allocating resources. This study examined the 672 ambulance attendances at nonfatal heroin overdoses in Queensland, Australia, in 2000. Gender distribution showed a typical 70/30 male-to-female ratio. An equal number of persons with nonfatal heroin overdose were between 15 and 24 years of age and 25 and 34 years of age. Police were present in only 1 of 6 cases, and 28.1% of patients reported using drugs alone. Ambulance data are proving to be a valuable population-based resource for describing the incidence and characteristics of nonfatal heroin overdose episodes. Future studies could focus on the differences between nonfatal heroin overdose and fatal heroin overdose samples.