The Representation of Cancer Risk by Korean Health Journalism: Comparing the Crude Rates of 10 Cancers to the Amount of Cancer News in the Three Major Newspapers(1990-2010)

Abstract

<Abstract> Objectives: The public relies on the news media to understand health risks. To examine the surveillance function of Korean health journalism, this study compared the rank-order of the 10 most frequently diagnosed cancers with that of the 10 cancers most frequently covered by three major Korean newspapers. Methods: News stories published between 1999 and 2010 by the Chosun-Ilbo, Joong-Ang-Ilbo, and Dong-A-Ilbo were examined. Data on cancer incidence were collected using the epidemiological data published by a governmental public health institution. To compare the level of the crude rates and the amount of news coverage, rank-order correlation tests and regression analyses were employed. Results: A reduction in the rank-ordered correlation coefficient was observed despite an increase in the overall number of cancer news stories released. The significance of the correlation disappeared after 2006. The big difference of the rank order between the crude rate and the amount of news coverage was observed in the cancer of breast, uteri, thyroid, and gallbladder/biliary. Finally, the three newspapers did not follow the amount change in stomach, lung, liver, and uterine cervix cancer. The four cancers' rank orders of crude rate were lowering, signifying a reduction of the comparative dangerousness of the four cancers. Conclusions: The news media's customization of news content and the negative bias in journalism are suggested as possible influences on the news media's inaccurate representation of cancer risk..

News Portrayal of Cancer: Content Analysis of Threat and Efficacy by Cancer Type and Comparison with Incidence and Mortality in Korea

“…Our findings on the discrepancies between news portrayal and realities are consistent with past studies regarding the amount of news coverage by cancer type ( 3 4 5 6 24 25 ). Indeed, portrayed threat and efficacy did not have significant rank-order correlations with any of the cancer statistics used in this research.…”

“…Second, this research extends past findings on the amount of news coverage by cancer type ( 1 2 3 4 5 6 ) by examining how the specific content of news coverage may vary across cancer type. One notable finding concerns the pattern of news stories of pancreatic and liver cancers.…”

“…Another interesting finding concerns news stories of breast cancer. Breast cancer has been consistently found to be the most covered cancer site in both the U.S. and Korea ( 3 4 25 ). In this study, breast cancer was ranked 4 out of 10 in the degree of threat in the news (with 85% of stories conveying either general or specific-level threat information), and ranked 8 in terms of efficacy conveyed in the news.…”

“…How the news media cover cancer may bear significant implications for cancer prevention and control. Past studies suggest that the amount of news coverage of specific cancers does not correspond to the actual incidence or mortality rates ( 1 2 3 4 5 6 ) and that public perception of cancer risk is significantly related to distorted depictions in cancer news coverage ( 7 8 ). For example, Jenson and colleagues found that in comparison to cancer incidence rates in the United States, certain cancers (e.g., breast, lung, blood/Leukemia, pancreatic, and skin) were overreported in newspapers, whereas other cancers (e.g., male reproductive, female reproductive, kidney, and thyroid) were underreported ( 3 ).…”