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

Why has a large Legionnaires’ disease outbreak been absent from public debate?

“…Even though our interviewees did not ask for anonymity, we decided not to identify them because we believe it would not add relevance to our analysis. This is also consistent with the international trend [8][9][10] . We asked them the following questions:…”

Putting a Face on It

“…Whereas both of the editors were male, all of the interviewed reporters were women. The gender imbalance in our sample indicates that most specialized health reporters in Norway are women, a pattern found in most international studies of health journalists (see among others Tanner et al (2015) and Viswanath et al (2008)). In light of the gender imbalance, it should be noted that female health reporters are found to be more likely than their male colleagues to use human interest framing, controversial new information and the need to change behavior as story angles (McCauley et al, 2013).…”

“…The health sector is characterized by rapid progress and the expansion of medical science, described as the medicalization of society (Clarke, Mamo, Fosket, Fishman & Shim, 2010;Conrad, 2007;Nettleton, 2013). As contemporary health and medical science is increasingly specialized and technical, health reporters are largely dependent on medical expertise (Tanner et al, 2015;Visnawath et al, 2008) and often perceive themselves as translators and interpreters of medical information (Forsyth et al, 2012;Hinnant, Jenkins & Subramanian, 2016). Over the last 50 years, the relative dominance within the elite segment shifted from health authorities and individual physicians to expert sources in medical research and, more recently, the pharmaceutical sector (Hallin, Brandt & Briggs, 2013;Karpf, 1988).…”

“…For media organizations, patient narratives thus represent both a potential and a professional responsibility. The use of human exemplars as a narrative tool in health and science journalism has been common, yet contested (Amend & Secko, 2012;Hinnant & Len-Rios, 2009;Hinnant, Len-Rios & Oh, 2012;Karpf, 1988;Morlandstø, 2006;Mullan et al, 2006;Seale, 2002;Tanner, Friedman & Zheng, 2015;Viswanath et al 2008). For health journalists in mainstream news organizations, working with and on patients' personal stories can challenge ethical codes.…”

As doenças mais mortíferas: retratos de um jornalismo que procura promover a saúde = The most deadly diseases: portraits of a journalism that seeks to promote health = Las enfermedades más mortíferas: retratos de un periodismo que busca promover la salud

“…Todavia, essa reconhecida importância acarreta algumas responsabilidades para as redações. É preciso, pois, que a informação seja transmitida de uma forma doseada e apresentada de um modo simples para que possa ser bem assimilada por qualquer tipo de audiência (Tanner, Friedman & Zheng, 2015;Hinnant, Len-Ríos & Jee Oh, 2011).…”