Health News Coverage in the U.S. Media
Newspapers, Network TV, Cable Television, Talk Shows, Online
Dec 20, 2008
Millions of Americans look to the news media for information about health every day. This study by the Pew Research's Project for Excellence (PJ E) took a broad look at how the news media covered health and health policy in 2007 and 2008, covering a broad spectrum of health issues and a wide range of news media. It found that health issues are not being addressed as much of a part of the media as it should be.
The findings in the study addresses four questions:
- To what extent has health news been a part of the national news agenda?
- Which health issues get the most coverage?
- How does coverage vary from print to television, radio to online?
- How big of an issue was health coverage in covering the 2008 Presidential primary campaign?
Analysis of Coverage
The findings are based on analysis of health coverage in 48 different news outlets sampled as part of the ongoing News Coverage Index produced by PE J. The time period of the study was for 18 months, from January 2007 through June 2008. The markets covered included:
- Small, medium and large market newspapers.
- Network TV morning and evening news programs,
- Cable television news.
- News and talk radio.
- Online news.
A total 3,513 media outlets were analyzed however it did not include local television news and a front page stories only. It did analyze news coverage every weekday plus the Sunday editions.
The PE J Study Findings
At the end of the study, PE J issued the findings which included:
- Health news comprised 3.6% of all coverage and was the 8th biggest subject in national news with 5.9% of coverage. Although this was more than three times the coverage for education or transportation, it was much less than that about foreign affairs, crime, or natural disasters.
- Network evening news viewers were most likely to find health news in their programming. Nearly 8.3% of airtime was devoted to health-related news with a heavy emphasis on specific ailments such as heart disease or cancer.
- Cable news had just 1.4% of health news in its programming. Of that, specific diseases received the most coverage at 41.7%. Public health news received such as food contamination got about 30.9% of all health coverage with new about health policy getting 27.4%.
Health Stories Getting the Most Attention
Cancer was the disease that got the most attention, 10.1%, partly driven by revelations by two public figures, Elizabeth Edwards and Tony, who had the it. Stories about diabetes/obesity at 5.2% of coverage, followed by heart disease at 3.9% and HIV/AIDS and autism at 2.2% each.
The debate over U.S. health policies was the biggest health-related story with a focus of 16.3% of all health news. Stories that got the most attention were:
- States Children's Health Insurance Program (SSCHP) debate.
- A tuberculosis-carrying traveler into the U.S.
Health Care Coverage during the 2008 Primaries
Health was not a dominant part of the 2008 primary coverage, accounting for less than 1% of coverage of campaign-related news. That included print stories that appeared on the front page of newspapers.
Conclusion of the PE J Study
The indications of the study is that news about health occupies a relatively small amount of American news coverage across all platforms, 3.6% of the news during 2007 and the first half of 2008. Health is not a large part of top-level coverage on cable or the Internet, rarely being used at the beginning of the news shows or in lead stories of online news sites. Even during the presidential primaries, it was largely ignored. However, individuals who are determined to seek out health or medical news now have more resources, going down further down on a website or blog or waiting for the end of a newscast as it is often the last item on the broadcast.
Complete results of the study is available at HealthNewsReportFinal
This study was funded by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Pew Research Center
 |
