Agenda Building, Source Selection, and Health News at Local Television Stations

Abstract

This nationwide study of local television news health reporters examined health and medical newsgathering from the reporters'perspective. Data from this study revealed significant insight into how these health reporters receive ideas for their health stories and what motivates a health reporter to cover a particular topic. The findings suggest a link between agenda building and health reporting, suggesting that a health reporter's reliance on sources is exacerbated by the technical nature of health and medical news. For example, more than half of respondents received ideas for their health reports directly from a health source who personally contacted them. Sixty percent said that they must frequently find a health expert to explain technical information and agreed that health sources often affect the health content making air.

Frequently cited sources in cancer news coverage: a content analysis examining the relationship between cancer news content and source citation

“…One explanation for this dominance of cancer treatment coverage may be the sources health journalists cite. Journalists are dependent upon their sources [28][29][30], and sources can help shape and influence the content of news reporting [30][31][32]. Journalists reporting about health issues are particularly dependent upon sources because of the often complex scientific information at the center of their work [30].…”

Science related information in European television: a study of prime-time news

“…For example, network news coverage of breast cancer (Cho, 2006); agenda building and source selection in health news (Tanner, 2004); coverage of cloning (Holliman, 2004); biological ideas on sexuality (Wilcox, 2003); coverage of research in network news (Kierman, 2003); depictions of physicians in network news (ChoryAssad and Tamborini, 2001); the role of reporter gender in news about sensitive gender-specific cancer (Corbett and Mori, 1999); the potential impact of television news stories about global warming (Nitz and Jarvis, 1998); reporting of the "gay gene" (Miller, 1995); television news viewing and depression (Plotts and Sánchez, 1994); sensationalism in coverage of the Chernobyl accident (Gorney, 1992); coverage of environmental risk by network television (Greenberg et al, 1989); and scientific sources' perception of network news accuracy (Moore and Singletary, 1985). Some of these provide methodological clues and background information which will be useful for our study, as we will see later on.…”

Community Service

“…Other work has broadened the scope to explore the influence of protesters on coverage of social movements (Smith et al, 2001), health sources on medical news (Tanner, 2004) and corporate public relations on financial news (Kiousis et al, 2007).…”