The Human Face of Health News: A Multi-Method Analysis of Sourcing Practices in Health-Related News in Belgian Magazines

Abstract

Health journalists are central gatekeepers who select, frame, and communicate health news to a broad audience, but the selection and content of health news are also influenced by the sources journalists, rely on (Hinnant, Len-Rios, & Oh, 2012). In this paper, we examine whether the traditional elitist sourcing practices (e.g., research institutions, government) are still important in a digitalized news environment where bottom-up non-elite actors (e.g., patients, civil society organizations) can act as producers (Bruns, 2003). Our main goal, therefore, is to detect whether sourcing practices in health journalism can be linked with strategies of empowerment. We use a multi-method approach combining quantitative and qualitative research methods. First, two content analyses are developed to examine health-related news in Belgian magazines (popular weeklies, health magazines, general interest magazines, and women's magazines). The analyses highlight sourcing practices as visible in the texts and give an overview of the different stakeholders represented as sources. In the first wave, the content analysis includes 1047 health-related news items in 19 different Belgian magazines (March-June 2013). In the second wave, a smaller sample of 202 health-related items in 10 magazines was studied for follow-up reasons (February 2015). Second, to contextualize the findings of the quantitative analysis, we interviewed 16 health journalists and editors-in-chief. The results illustrate that journalists consider patients and blogs as relevant sources for health news; nonetheless, elitist sourcing practices still prevail at the cost of bottom-up communication. However, the in-depth interviews demonstrate that journalists increasingly consult patients and civil society actors to give health issues a more "human" face. Importantly, the study reveals that this strategy is differently applied by the various types of magazines. While popular weeklies and women's magazines give a voice to ordinary citizens to translate complex issues and connect with their audiences, general interest magazines and health magazines prefer elite sources and use ordinary citizen stories as a way of "window dressing."

Calls to Action (Mobilizing Information) on Cancer in Online News: Content Analysis

“…For the news sources, our results illustrated that the cancer news articles were most likely to present MI when NGOs were interviewed as the source, followed by medical institutions and medical journals. This result agrees with a previous study finding that elite sources are the dominant news sources in health news coverage [ 32 ]. This study suggests that health journalists should be more active in engaging with NGOs and medical institutions.…”

“…News source has a vital impact on health news coverage, and it is also a crucial variable for content analysis [ 32 ]. The description of news source in this study was adopted from past studies [ 33 , 34 ].…”

Biomedicalization and Media in Comparative Perspective: Audiences, Frames, and Actors in Norwegian, Spanish, U.K. and U.S. Health News

“…Another has to do with the strong prominence of patients, family members, and other ordinary citizens, which are the most frequent sources in three of the four countries, with a particularly high level in Norway. Here, no doubt we see the influence of media logic on the flow of information about health and medicine, as journalist's norms of storytelling and practices for connecting with readers push toward personalization and the use of exemplars (De Dobbelaer et al 2018;Figenschou 2017;Hinnant et al 2013).…”

“…Overall, studies find that journalists tend to be wary of the "undue" influence of the pharmaceutical industry (i.e., De Dobbelaer et al 2017;Morrell et al 2015), whereas scientists and biomedical researchers are often treated as (neutral) authoritative expert sources (Forsyth et al 2012). Findings and interpretations of how this boundary work functions vary, but studies point at a development characterized by an expansion of different types of expert sources (i.e., Hallin et al 2013;Stroobant et al 2018) in addition to the inclusion of wider range of interest groups and lay persons (De Dobbelaer et al 2018;Hinnant et al 2013).…”

“…The concept of mediatization would also suggest a multiplication of voices beyond biomedical specialists and increasing source diversity over time (Hallin et al 2013). In addition, several studies describe a trend where lay persons such as patients and the representatives of patient interest groups have received more attention (De Dobbelaer et al 2018;Hinnant et al 2013). The presence and role of public health authorities and health government have received less attention and are scarcely discussed in the literature.…”