Cancer information in local television news.

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Introduction. It is important that health professionals and health information providers understand the extent and nature of cancer information available to the public as it directly affects their outreach efforts as well as their daily interactions with individual patients and their families. Local television news represents an important channel for the dissemination of health and cancer information. This study assesses the extent and nature of the coverage of cancer in local television news. Method. Using content analytic procedures, coders examined every news story on 1, 257 newscasts aired on seven stations (the affiliates of ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, UPN, WB, and Univision) in four midwest U.S. markets_Chicago, Indianapolis, South Bend, and Terre Haute_during four composite weeks from December 2004 to June 2005. Each channel's local morning, noon, and early and late evening newscasts were analyzed. Each cancer news story was coded in terms of: length (in seconds); location in the newscast; specific cancer types, stages, and topics covered; overall visual and verbal tone, viewpoints presented, follow-up options provided, and language accessibility. Results. A total of 386 news stories (1.0%) focused on cancer, with an average duration of 57 seconds. More than half of these stories (58%) were located in health segments; 7% served as a lead story of a newscast. Nearly half (40%) of all cancer news stories were broadcast in the morning, a function of newscast length. When compared by the number of cancer stories per 30 minutes, newscasts at noon offer the most coverage of cancer. The most frequently covered cancers were breast (24%) and colon/rectum (12%), followed by prostate, brain, lung/bronchus, leukemia, skin, liver, ovary, non-hodgkin lymphoma, oral cavity, and pancreas (all between 10% and 1%). This order diverges from actual cancer incidence rates. One out of four (26%) cancer stories covered advances; 13% focused on fundraising; 5% focused on technology; and 3% on law/policy. Most cancer news stories were verbally neutral (55%) or positive (35%), and visually neutral (93%) in tone. Few offered contrasting viewpoints (2%). Only one in eight provided follow-up information (12%). The average story required a 10^th grade education to be understood. Differences across markets did emerge but they were not systematically related to market size (and the likely resources of stations in those markets). Implications. Health practitioners can take some comfort in knowing that cancer stories in local news are mostly natural or positive, content unlikely to discourage information-seeking among cancer patients and their families as some earlier studies suggested. Yet, since cancer stories are episodic and abbreviated, and only few provide follow-up options, health practitioners will have to utilize other information outlets (i.e., PSAs and pamphlets) to set an agenda and steer viewers to interactive sources of information.