Abstract
The delivery of accurate, salient, and actionable prevention information is critical for controlling chronic diseases such as cancer. Disparities in access to health information disadvantage many ethnic minority groups already burdened by disparities in health outcomes. The US Latino population is one example, particularly in view of potential language barriers. Low rates of health insurance among Latinos have also contributed to a ‘prevention gap’ in relation to uptake of available preventive services.
The news media are a pervasive source of health information, and prior research has demonstrated that even minimal news coverage can result in meaningful health behavior change. Understanding how media disseminate health information is therefore critical. The current literature on health news as a communication channel routinely ignores ethnic and foreign language media that are created to serve populations who are underserved or excluded by mainstream media. Most existing research has also focused on ‘hard news’ sources rather than alternative forms of news delivery that may reach a wider audience and also present information in more accessible ways. While Spanish-language news media play a potentially significant role as purveyors of relevant health information, Latinos have reported that the media they use is does not adequately cover stories on “steps families can take to prevent illnesses”.
In this study, we analyze Spanish-language and soft news formats both separately and in combination. We use Petty and Cacioppo's (1986) Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) as a theoretical foundation for our examination of the potential for culturally tailored, “soft” news format to enhance information consumption and potential behavior change. Under ELM's dual-route processing model, motivated message recipients more actively and thoughtfully process the communicated information. Relevancy is one way that motivation is produced; thus we documented relevancy in stories pertaining to chronic disease on the most widely viewed Spanish language morning news program, Univisión's Despierta América.
Our data consist of 30 program broadcasts over 6 months (April-Sept. 2009); one week per month was sampled and each morning's show was recorded in its entirety (7am-10am). We used Ethnographic Content Analysis to guide analysis of content dealing with primary prevention of chronic diseases. We identified 32 stories pertaining to chronic disease, 12 of which dealt primarily with cancer. Dietary change and physical activity were among the most commonly recommended actions, with some stories some providing meaningful visual and/or aural examples.
We argue that the ‘soft’ news format of the morning program allowed for beneficial in-depth discussions of complex health issues. Explicit indications of relevancy were found in only a few stories, but implicit relevancy was abundant. The use of “I” and “we” and personal experiences created a sense of connection and “collectivism”. Experts appearing on the show were all Spanish-speaking Latinos, potentially increasing their salience and relevance based on similarity.
We conclude that coverage of chronic disease in Despierta América provided appropriate and relevant content for a Latino audience, but not always explicitly. The “soft” news format provides a structure amenable to enhancing relevancy, thus prompting motivation both to process messages at a deeper level and possibly take action. A future step in determining the role for ethnic news sources in reducing information disparities would be a viewer assessment of health information presented and perceived relevancy. This is critical to understand how health information delivered in this manner can affect key health behaviors.
Citation Information: Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2011;20(10 Suppl):A12.
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