HEALTH NEWS COVERAGE IN THE U.S. MEDIA January – June 2009 A REPORT BY The Kaiser Family Foundation AND The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism JULY 2009 The Kaiser Family Foundation is a non-profit private operating foundation, based in Menlo Park, California, dedicated to producing and communicating the best possible analysis and information on health issues. The Project for Excellence in Journalism is an initiative of the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C. and is dedicated to studying the performance of the press, specializing in part in content analysis. The Project is funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Introduction 2 Key Findings 7 Conclusion 8 Methodology I INTRODUCTION nt s the Obama Administration begins in earnest its plans to take up health care reform, how the media covers the debate at the Aoutset will influence the public view of the issue and what happens next. R To what extent did health issues get covered in the national press during the first six months of the new Obama Administration? What O were the topics and stories driving the coverage? How does the extent and focus of the coverage broadly compare with health news D coverage in 2007 and the first half of 2008? uction Overall, health news coverage is on the rise. And while attention in the early months of the year was more tied to public health issues like the swine flu and salmonella-tainted peanut butter, media attention to health policy increased sharply in June. This report covers a six-month time period, from January through June 2009, and updates an earlier 18-month analysis of January 2007 through June 2008. Both reports were joint projects of the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ). The findings are based on an analysis of coverage of health in 55 different news outlets that were originally sampled as part of PEJ’s ongoing News Coverage Index. The study includes the front pages of small, medium and large market newspapers; network TV morning and evening news programs; cable television news; news and talk radio and online news. A total of 1,568 health stories were analyzed for this report. Key findings include: • Health news coverage is growing. It represented 4.9% of • The second-biggest health news story was the swine flu all coverage studied in the first six months of the year—a outbreak, which garnered 30.2% of all health coverage. 36% increase over the earlier time period of 2007 and the The swine flu story peaked in April when it was the fourth- first half of 2008 when it was 3.6% of all coverage studied. biggest story in the nation. At the height of the coverage, Health news kept its spot as the eighth-biggest subject. however, during the week of April 27–May 3, swine flu was Heath received less than half of the coverage devoted to the number one story in the nation, attracting 31.1% of the the economy; nearly one-and-a-half times the coverage of total national newshole. The following week (May 4–10), domestic terrorism and more than three times the coverage the story was the nation’s second-biggest story, with 9.2% of race and gender issues, science and technology, of national newshole. environment or education. • The single disease to garner the most media attention • Health policy/the U.S. health care system received the in the first half of this year was cancer, accounting for most attention of any health-related topic (40.2% of 5.9% of all health coverage. The number two condition newshole), followed by coverage of public health issues like was mental health, at 2.5%, followed by diabetes/obesity the swine flu (35.7%) and coverage of specific diseases (1.9%). or conditions (24.1%). This is a big shift in the focus of • The media sectors differed in the attention paid to health health reporting from our earlier study; in 2007 and the news and also in which health news areas they followed first half of 2008, health policy/the health care system was most closely. The three commercial evening newscasts the least-covered aspect of health in the news, while in the primarily covered specific diseases and health conditions, current period it is the most prominent health topic in the while the PBS NewsHour focused on health policy issues. news. Network morning TV and news Web sites, meanwhile, • The vast majority of health policy coverage had to do with spent more time on the latest public health outbreaks while the debate over how to reform health care. It was the newspapers and news radio were more evenly divided in biggest single health news story during the first six months their coverage. of 2009, at 37.5% of the overall health newshole. Most of that coverage came in June when President Obama’s health care bill began making its way through Congress. That month, the health care debate story was the fourth- biggest story in the nation. January – June 2009 Health News Coverage in the U.S. Media 1 KEY FINDINGS Top Health News Topic Areas The health news agenda in the first six months of 2009 was Overall Coverage of Health in the News overwhelmingly dominated by coverage of health policy/the Cumulatively, U.S.-related health news accounted for 4.9% U.S. health care system and public health issues (primarily the INGS of the newshole studied during the first six months of 2009. outbreak of swine flu). Together, these issues comprised over D That put health in the 8th spot among news topics, behind three-quarters (75.9%) of the total health news studied. the economy, foreign affairs, business, politics and crime, but ahead of domestic terror, race and gender, science and The largest share of that (40.2%) focused on stories about technology, the environment and education. health policy and the state of the U.S. health care system. Until June, though, three specific events accounted for most But it also represented a 36% increase from the time period of the attention. The (January 2007–June 2008) covered in our earlier study, when first came in March HEALTH NEWS TOPIC AREAS health accounted for only 3.6% of national newshole.1 And, K E Y F I N when Obama named attention to health news seems to be on the rise. During the Governor Kathleen months of April, May and June, coverage of health issues Sibelius as Secretary Health reached 7.4%, 6.9% and 6.7% respectively, marking the Policy/Health of Health and Human Care System Public Health highest monthly levels of attention to health issues of any time 40.2% 35.7% Services. Later that over the past two-and-a-half years. month coverage spiked Specific Diseases/ In addition to the intense coverage of the swine flu outbreak again during President Conditions 24.1% in April, some of the increase is due to the political priority the Obama’s health care Obama Administration placed on health care reform—a priority summit. Then the next that will likely keep health in the news for months to come. uptick came in May when the President met with health care leaders and sparked a heated nationwide discussion of the TOP ISSUES IN U.S. NEWS MEDIA single-payer option. (January – June 2009) Percent of It wasn’t until June—when health care reform legislation Topic Newshole began making its way through Congress—that health policy Economy/Economics 13.5% Government Agencies/Legislatures 12.0 became a consistent top theme in the press. The health care Foreign 11.1 debate story was the fourth-biggest story in the nation in the U.S. Foreign Affairs 9.2 month of June, attracting 5.7% of the total national newshole. Business 9.1 Crime 6.5 And that level of attention remained consistent throughout the Campaigns/Elections/Politics 6.1 month, ranking between seventh and third nationally each of Health 4.9 the four weeks. Domestic Terrorism 3.6 Lifestyle 2.7 The second-biggest health topic—potential epidemics Miscellaneous 2.5 and other public health concerns—comprised 35.7% of Domestic Affairs (other) 2.1 Disasters/Accidents 1.8 health news coverage over the first six months of 2009. Media 1.7 Most notable were the outbreaks of peanut butter-related Science/Technology 1.6 salmonella in January and of swine flu in April and May. The Race/Gender/Gay Issues 1.6 swine flu story peaked in April, when it was, overall, the fourth- Court/Legal System 1.6 Sports 1.5 biggest story in the nation. At the height of the coverage, Environment 1.4 however, during the week of April 27–May 3, swine flu was Celebrity/Entertainment 1.3 the number one story, attracting 31.1% of the total newshole. Education 1.3 Defense/Military (domestic) 1.2 The following week (May 4–10), the story was still the nation’s Immigration .6 second-biggest story, filling 9.2% of the national newshole. Transportation .6 Religion .4 Development/Sprawl < .1 1 We also broke down the prior time period into six-month increments and examined the second half of 2008. Even then, 2009 still has the greatest TOTAL 100% percentage devoted to health news. Jan. – June 2007=4.1%; July – Dec. 2007 =3.8%; Jan. – June 2008=2.9%; July – Dec. 2008=2.6%. Health News Coverage in the U.S. Media January – June 2009 KEY FINDINGS Stories about specific diseases and conditions, disease For the first six months of 2009, the overall proportion of prevention and medical research rounded out the news these three major areas of health news—health policy and coverage with 24.1% of the health newshole.