The Portrayal of Heart Disease in Mass Print Magazines, 1991—2001

Abstract

In this article we discuss the portrayal of heart disease based on a content analysis of the highest circulating English-language magazines available in Canada and published in Canada or the United States in 1991, 1996, and 2001. It includes both manifest and latent content analysis. In terms of the manifest analysis, the findings indicate the dominance of the medical frame followed by lifestyle and social structural frames. The latent analysis reveals the following frames: (a) optimism about medicine; (b) medicine as "good" and, by contrast, the body as "bad"; (c) heart disease as an "attack"; (d) heart disease as an individual responsibility; (e) contradictory information; (f) male celebrity patients and doctors; and (g) prestigious medical doctors, journals, and institutions. The medicalized portrayal of heart disease as fear generating is considered. In addition, the lack of attention to social structural causation in contrast to current epidemiological findings is discussed.

The Triumph of Pharmaceuticals: The Portrayal of Depression from 1980 to 2005

“…what is it?). These questions were 'theory smart' questions because they arise from other work on the portrayal of different diseases in the mass media (see for instance Clarke 2006, Clarke and Binns 2006, Clarke and Everest 2006. Morse (2002) suggests developing 'theory smart' initial codes so that qualitative work can build incrementally on previous work and lead to the growth of theoretical explanations.…”

The silent killer in media stories: Representations of hypertension as health risk factor in French-language Canadian newspapers

“…The issue for public health actors is the accuracy and objectivity of such information. But the media do not neutrally transmit expert information on health risk; they are also a means for shaping it (Joffe 2003, Clarke and Binns 2006, Hayes et al 2007. Media studies show that the media have their own modus operandi and, in response to audience demand and increasing competition, produce content that satisfies the criteria of newsworthiness and media-value.…”

“…Indeed, there are many studies on media coverage of cancer (Clarke 1991, Lupton 1994b, Kilgore 1996, Brown et al 2001, Seale 2001a, 2001b, 2002b, Driedger and Eyles 2003, Clarke and Everest 2006, Hanne and Hawken 2007, Musso and Wakefield 2009. However, to our knowledge, only four studies have been partly devoted to coverage of cardiovascular disease (Clarke 1991, Clarke and Binns 2006, Hanne and Hawken 2007. One study deals exclusively with cardiovascular disease (Clarke and Binns 2006) but it analyses magazines, which have a much lower circulation than newspapers and a readership that is less broad and diverse.…”

“…However, to our knowledge, only four studies have been partly devoted to coverage of cardiovascular disease (Clarke 1991, Clarke and Binns 2006, Hanne and Hawken 2007. One study deals exclusively with cardiovascular disease (Clarke and Binns 2006) but it analyses magazines, which have a much lower circulation than newspapers and a readership that is less broad and diverse. Moreover, none of these analyses focus on hypertension and few studies contrast, as we do, the different categories of newspapers.…”

When bad things happen to good people: The portrayal of accidents in mass print magazines

“…Media portrayal has been found to influence and reflect health issues as broad as global warming (Dispensa and Brulle 2003) and as individual as whether or not to go to the doctor with a given symptom (Basch et al 2004). The media representation of numerous diseases including toxic shock syndrome (Cheek 1997), HIV/AIDS (Gwyn 1999), genital herpes (Roberts 1997), heart disease (Clarke and Binns 2006), Alzheimers (Clarke 2006), mental illnesses (Coverdal et al 2001, Sieff 2003, depression (Metzl and Angel 2004), suicide (Pirkis 2002) and various cancers (Clarke 1991, 1999a, b, 2004a, b, Lupton 1994, Clarke and Robinson 1999, Seale 2001a, b, 2002 has been investigated. Disease portrayal has been found to be associated with attitudes towards represented diseases, the persons with the diseases, as well as what needs to be done about the diseases.…”