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This study establishes the construct of “compassion fatigue,” encompassing desensitization and emotional burnout, as a phenomenon associated with pervasive communication about social problems. The study marks the first-known empirical investigation of compassion fatigue as it relates to media coverage and interpersonal communication about social problems. A telephone survey methodology was used to measure compassion fatigue among a general, adult population toward four social problems: AIDS, homelessness, violent crime, and child abuse. Results indicate the existence of a compassion fatigue phenomenon, in varying degrees of magnitude, for every issue. Compassion fatigue was found to be a situational variable, rather than a personality trait. Cognitive, affective, and behavioral manifestations of compassion fatigue are identified, and significant predictors of compassion fatigue are discussed. The findings support the existence of a mass-mediated compassion fatigue phenomenon and suggest that the nature of contemporary media coverage may contribute to emotional fatigue with society's problems.

This study uses a nationwide survey of health journalists (N = 774) to explore the agenda-building process in health news, examining how journalists develop story ideas, value expert source characteristics, and perceive the acceptability of using public relations materials. Results indicate that intermedia agenda setting may be a stronger influence on agenda building than are information subsidies, and that journalists rate characteristics associated with public relations training as important in expert sources. Also, journalists who take an audience advocate role are more accepting of news releases than those who take a skeptic role.When developing health news reports, journalists often use information that comes in the form of "information subsidies." An information subsidy is news information packaged free for journalists by those seeking publicity.' Public relations materials are examples of information subsidies. In the area of science and health, the literature suggests that general assignment reporters depend on subsidies because they, themselves, may know less about the story subject, and that beat or specialty reporters may use them as a means to meet deadline pressures. While there is nothing inherently wrong with using information subsidies from public relations professionals, some critics2 have raised concern about the credibility and framing power this process can confer on groups that already are perceived to have extensive societal power (e.g., corporations).One way that journalists try to maintain ownership of health stories is to rely less on information subsidies for the generation of story ideas, even though it may take more time and effort. Nevertheless, the process of producing news is complicated and influenced by many factors, not the least of which are money and time. The realities of a twenty-four-hour news cycle do not always make it practical or possible to avoid using information subsidies. The purpose of this study is to examine how health journalists make decisions about using information subsidies in reporting on health stories by analyzing how they (1) develop Maria E. Len-Rios is an assistant professor; Amanda Hinnant is an assistant professor; Sun-A Park is a doctoral student; Glen T. Cameron is a professor; Cynthia M. Frisby is an associate professor; and Youngah Lee is a doctoral student. A11 are at the University of Missouri. Fundingfor this research was provided through a grantfrom the Missouri Foundation for Health, Agreement 07-0242-HL-07. HEALTH NEWS AGENDA BUILDING 315 J~M C ~~~d vol. 86, NO. 2 S~m e r 2 0 0 9 315-331

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This experiment revealed that emotional news frames (anger-inducing vs. sadness-inducing) affect people’s emotional response to a corporate crisis such as a cell phone battery explosion accident. The distinct emotions induced by different news frames influenced individuals’ information processing (i.e., heuristic vs. systematic processing) and the evaluation of the company differently. Participants exposed to anger-inducing crisis news read the news less closely and had more negative attitudes toward the company than those exposed to sadness-inducing news. Also, emotional frames affected how individuals perceived the different types of corporate responses (relief-focused message vs. punishment-focused message; emotional appeal vs. no emotional appeal). The advantage of emotional appeals was found contingent on how the crisis was previously framed by the media. Findings demonstrate a potential for developing effective corporate response strategies in a given crisis situation, considering the type of crisis, how it has been framed by the media, the publics’ emotional responses, and the use of emotional appeals.