Challenges in Covering Health Disparities in Local News Media: An Exploratory Analysis Assessing Views of Journalists

Abstract

News coverage of health topics influences knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors at the individual level, and agendas and actions at the institutional and policy levels. Because disparities in health often are the result of social inequalities that require community-level or policy-level solutions, news stories employing a health disparities news frame may contribute to agenda-setting among opinion leaders and policymakers and lead to policy efforts aimed at reducing health disparities. This study objective was to conduc an exploratory analysis to qualitatively describe barriers that health journalists face when covering health disparities in local media. Between June and October 2007, 18 journalists from television, print, and radio in Boston, Lawrence, and Worcester, Massachusetts, were recruited using a purposive sampling technique. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted by telephone, and the crystallization/immersion method was used to conduct a qualitative analysis of interview transcripts. Our results revealed that journalists said that they consider several angles when developing health stories, including public impact and personal behavior change. Challenges to employing a health disparities frame included inability to translate how research findings may impact different socioeconomic groups, and difficulty understanding how findings may translate across racial/ethnic groups. Several journalists reported that disparities-focused stories are “less palatable” for some audiences. This exploratory study offers insights into the challenges that local news media face in using health disparities news frames in their routine coverage of health news. Public health practitioners may use these findings to inform communication efforts with local media in order to advance the public dialogue about health disparities.

Influences on the Construction of Health News: The Reporting Practices of Local Television News Health Journalists

“…As the ratio of public relations workers to journalists has grown significantly as newsrooms have cut staffers (Pew Research Center, 2013;Sullivan, 2011), commercial entities are having increasing success in getting their persuasive messages into the press (Pew Research Center, 2013). Due to the complex nature of health and medical related topics, coupled with overworked health journalists who lack specialized medical training (Corbett, 1998;Corbett & Mori, 1999;Schwitzer, 2009;Tanner, 2004;Wallington et al, 2010a;Wallington et al, 2010b), the current study suggests that local television journalists are increasingly becoming marketers for local hospitals instead of investigators who inform and interpret information and function as independent ''watchdogs'' for the communities they serve (Craft & Davis, 2013;Kovach & Rosentiel, 2007).…”

“…Lindlof and Taylor (2002) note that journalists are good subjects for in-depth interview research because they have specialized knowledge of the field and reflectively communicate their experiences. As such, communication researchers often use journalist interviews to explore a wide-range of media-related topics (Attfield & Dowell, 2003;Besley & McComas, 2007;Besley & Roberts, 2010aTanner, Forde, Besley, & Weir, 2012), including health communication (Hinnant & LenRios, 2009;Wallington, Blake, Taylor-Clark, & Viswanath, 2010b). The current study employed a purposive sampling technique to select 15 to 20 local television news health journalists in the US to participate in in-depth, semi-structured interviews aimed at examining their perceptions related to their health news practices and factors that influence them to generate ideas for health news content and then develop and cover a particular topic.…”

Prevalence and Framing of Health Disparities in Local Print News: Implications for Multilevel Interventions to Address Cancer Inequalities

“…Producing localized content can be challenging for a local media organization's budget (28), and thus researchers have called for national subsidies to support such coverage for critical topics like health promotion (47, 50). Until such time as subsidies are available, CBOs and local journalists must work together to advance the health of their communities by integrating disparities/SDH content into routine health coverage.…”

“…Future research should pay greater attention to the localization elements given their importance in increasing story relevance and mobilizing communities to action. Last, even if greater disparities/SDH coverage is included in local print news—indeed, some journalists have worried about the palatability of such content (47)—there may be other barriers to generating support for structural solutions to disparities. For example, studies have found of evidence of public resistance to disparities messages, particularly along political ideological lines (48).…”

Understanding Public Resistance to Messages About Health Disparities

“…Public opinion studies show that conservatives are less likely to recognize health disparities than liberals (Booske, Robert, & Rohan, 2011), that the public is more aware of differences in health by socioeconomic status than by race , and that the public judges behavioral factors as more important determinants than social and economic factors . Research also demonstrates that journalists face challenges in covering the issue of health disparities (Wallington, Blake, Taylor-Clark, & Viswanath, 2010), but when they do, they tend to emphasize individual-level behavioral explanations for racial health differences (Kim, Kumanyika, Shive, Igweatu, & Kim, 2010). The emphasis on behavioral factors among the lay public and journalists alike makes sense, given the centrality of personal responsibility in American political thought in general and in health policy discourse in particular (Brownell et al, 2010;Leichter, 2003;Wikler, 2002).…”