Elsevier

Preventive Medicine

Volume 44, Issue 1, January 2007, Pages 20-25
Preventive Medicine

Uncovering differences across the cancer control continuum: A comparison of ethnic and mainstream cancer newspaper stories

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2006.07.012Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective.

The use of the news media to disseminate control research could play a pivotal role in reducing the cancer burden. An important first step is to understand how newspapers cover cancer and if differences exist between mainstream and ethnic newspapers.

Methods.

Cancer news in the major U.S. (MAJN) (N = 5327) and ethnic (ENW) newspapers (N = 565) appearing in 2003 were content analyzed. Comparisons of mainstream and ethnic newspapers utilized Pearson ×2 tests of two-sided statistical significance and independent samples t tests for interval-level variables.

Results.

Breast cancer dominated coverage: 27% of MAJN and 35% of ENW stories mentioned breast cancer. Coverage focused primarily on cancer treatment (MAJN: 60%; ENW: 52%) rather than on primary or secondary prevention. Compared to mainstream newspapers, the ethnic newspapers required lower literacy levels for understanding news stories, were substantially more likely to cover primary and secondary cancer prevention, and paid more attention to cancer awareness and education.

Conclusions.

The ethnic media are a promising vehicle for dissemination of cancer control messages. However, the successful utilization of any U.S. newspaper as a dissemination mechanism requires a greater understanding of the root causes for imbalances in cancer coverage and work with journalists to reframe cancer news coverage.

Introduction

The dissemination of cancer control research knowledge across the continuum of prevention, detection, treatment, survivorship, and end-of-life care could play a pivotal role in reducing the cancer burden (Grunfeld et al., 2004). One venue for such dissemination is the news media. The news media are an important source for the transmission of cancer information, functioning as a source of health information not just for the general public (Meissner et al., 1992), but also for patients (Yanovitzky and Blitz, 2000), doctors and the medical community (Gutman, 1977, Okeefe, 1970, Phillips et al., 1991, Ward et al., 1982), as well as policymakers and funders (Corbett and Mori, 1999, Rogers et al., 1991, Yanovitzky and Bennett, 1999).

The last comprehensive content analysis of cancer news reporting was conducted by the National Cancer Institute in 1980 (Freimuth et al., 1984, Freimuth et al., n.d.). Twenty-five years later, major advances have been made in cancer control, yet there have been no large-scale efforts to update descriptions and analyses of news coverage. Recent studies of cancer news coverage have focused narrowly on one cancer type or one guiding theme as a framework for analysis. For example, one study analyzed news coverage of environmental risks of cancer (Lichter and Rothman, 1999). While different aspects of media coverage of breast cancer have been studied frequently (Andsager et al., 2000, Andsager and Powers, 2001, Clarke, 1999, Corbett and Mori, 1999, Marino and Gerlach, 1999, Moyer et al., 1995, Stoddard et al., 1990, Wells et al., 2001, Yanovitzky and Blitz, 2000), media coverage of other cancers, such as skin cancer, has been largely ignored (Stryker et al., 2005). Because of the fragmented nature of the research, we do not have a broad understanding of the current context of cancer news coverage. Furthermore, there has been increasing recognition of cancer-related health disparities among racial and ethnic minority groups in the United States, yet the only research exploring media messages targeting these underserved populations has been conducted in Canada (Hoffman-Goetz and Friedman, 2005).

A recent poll showed that 45% of ethnic adults surveyed preferred ethnic media to mainstream media, and an additional 35% accessed ethnic media on a regular basis (New California Media Parntership, 2005). It is also generally accepted that culturally specific messages may resonate more with audiences, and ultimately be more persuasive (Kreuter and McClure, 2004). If ethnic newspapers are a primary source for cancer information for members of minority groups, then it is of vital importance to understand how these newspapers report on cancer. This manuscript provides an overview of cancer newspaper stories, comparing coverage across mainstream and ethnic newspapers.

Section snippets

Methods

A content analysis was conducted using the top U.S. “mainstream” and ethnic papers for the year 2003. The universe of texts for the mainstream papers (MAJNs) consisted of the 50 highest-circulating newspapers accessible through the Lexis-Nexis database (N = 44). The ethnic newspaper (ENW) sample consisted of all English-language newspapers contained within the Ethnic NewsWatch database (N = 283), representing many different racial and ethnic groups, including African Americans, Native Americans,

Results

The mainstream newspaper (MAJN) sample contained 5327 valid stories. The ethnic and newspaper (ENW) sample contained 565 valid stories, with stories from papers targeting African American/Caribbeans/Africans (N = 294); Asian/Pacific Islanders (N = 86); Jews (N = 86); Native Americans (N = 51); Europeans (N = 34); Arab/Middle Eastern (N = 4); Latinos (N = 4); and multi-ethnic (N = 1). Of these, 68% contained at least one major cancer-related theme (MAJN N = 3638; ENW N = 380), and cancer was the primary focus of

Discussion

Across both mainstream and ethnic newspapers, there are some alarming imbalances in cancer coverage. Breast cancer dominated coverage of specific types of cancers as well as specific cancer screening modalities. Cancer coverage focused primarily on cancer treatment and patients rather than on primary or secondary prevention. In the mainstream newspapers, treatment received more attention than prevention and screening practices combined. Few news stories discussed issues relevant to cancer

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Viviana Abuchar, Ryan Hurley, Jakob Jensen, Cortney Moriarty, and Gina Tassio for their coding and data preparation. Dr. Stryker acknowledges the support of the Georgia Cancer Coalition.

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    This research was conducted with funding from the National Cancer Institute, CA98437-01A1.

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