Healthy Skepticism Library item: 10104
Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.
Publication type: media release
Media miss real stories on health
Simon Fraser University 2007 May 17
http://www.sfu.ca/mediapr/news_releases/archives/news05170703.htm
Full text:
Canadian newspapers consistently miss the real stories about health issues and dwell on covering the more simplistic and sensational stories. That is the conclusion of a new five-year study conducted by six researchers connected to Simon Fraser University. This is the first Canadian long-range analysis of media coverage of health issues.
The international journal, Social Science & Medicine, has published the findings of the study, Telling stories: News media, health literacy and public policy in Canada, in its May 2007 issue.
The authors are SFU professors Michael Hayes in health sciences (lead investigator) and Ian Ross, Bob Hackett and Donald Gutstein in the School of Communication. SFU alumni James Dunn and Mike Gasher were the other collaborators.
The researchers analysed 4,732 health-related stories in 13 daily newspapers across Canada between 1993 and 2001. They found that 65 percent of health news focused on service, delivery, management and regulation issues. Only 5.9 percent dealt with socio-economic factors and even less, 1.5 percent, dealt specifically with child development concerns.
Hayes says the results show that newspapers are either not in tune with or choose not to cover the overwhelming impact of socio-economic factors – such as income, education and social violence – on public health. Hayes and his colleagues point out that government white papers, published in 1975 (Lalonde report), 1986 (Epp report) and 1999 (Toward a Healthy Future), show that socio-economic factors largely determine an individual’s health.
The researchers note that, rather than analyzing the correlation between socio-economic factors and health problems, newspapers focus on health news of the day, such as long patient waitlists and rising health care costs. These attention-grabbing health care problems, say the researchers, are often the result of governments’ inability to address the correlation between socio-economic factors and health.
Contact:
Michael Hayes, 778.782.6648, 250.818.2410 (cell), mhayes@sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, PAMR, 604.291.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca
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Backgrounder: Quotes from Michael Hayes
“We need to encourage reporting of the full story behind health problems, not just the immediate story. If we want people to be in good health at the end of their lives then we have to ensure that the beginning of their lives is launched well.”
“While government policymakers get it that Canadian researchers have played a huge role in establishing the impact of socio-economic factors on health outcomes, the media and the public don’t.
“As a result there is no public discussion pressuring the government to change its policy of focusing the bulk of health spending on the health ministry. Spending is focused on pharmaceuticals, nurses, hospitals and other acute health care items, instead of being spread equally over the many ministries dealing with socio-economic factors.”
“Given that the health ministry gets the lion’s share of funding for acute care issues, it’s difficult for that ministry to ask for money to deal with socio-economic factors, such as childhood development strategies. Such a request would raise the eyebrows of politicians in other ministries who would feel that their ministries were being overshadowed.”
Backgrounder on Telling stories:
News media, health literacy and public policy in Canada
Available online at: http://www.sfu.ca/mediapr/news_releases/archives/news05170702.htm
