Health News and Responsibility
How Frames Create Blame
Summary
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the authors
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Table of Contents
- Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter One: Introduction: This Is a Health Communication Book?
- References
- Chapter Two: Good Pictures vs. Talking Heads: Iyengar’s Episodic and Thematic Frames
- References
- Chapter Three: Research on Thematic and Episodic Frames: The Health News Connection
- Framing Theories
- Thematic and Episodic Frames in Health News
- The Key Outcome: Support for Public Policy
- Journalists and Framing in Health News
- Health Communication Research
- Conclusion
- References
- Chapter Four: 25 Years of Thematic and Episodic: A Content Analysis of the Scholarly Research in Academic Journals
- Assessing the State of Thematic/Episodic Framing Research on Health News
- Definitions and Operationalization
- Generic and Issue-specific Frames
- Linkage to Theory
- Methodology Variables
- Methodology
- Results
- Definition Variables
- Discussion of Key Findings
- Key Findings: Research Operationalizing Thematic and Episodic Frames
- Appendix A (List of Searches for Article Retrieval)
- Appendix B (Intercoder Reliability Krippendorff’s Alpha Where Appropriate)
- Content Analysis Variables
- Experiment Variables
- Survey Variables
- In-depth Interviews
- Appendix C (Full Citations of Studies Studying Thematic and Episodic Frames)
- References
- Chapter Five: The Integrated Process of Framing: An Approach to Organize and Evaluate
- What Is an Integrated Process of Framing
- Applying the Integrated Process of Framing Model to Research on Intensifying the Effects of Thematic/Episodic Frames in Health News
- Frame-building Research
- Frame-setting Research
- Conclusions
- References
- Chapter Six: Feast or Famine: A Qualitative Analysis of 25 Years of Thematic and Episodic Research in Academic Journals
- Method
- Analysis
- Conclusions
- Appendix A Full Citations of Studies Operationalizing Thematic and Episodic Frames
- References
- Chapter Seven: Thematic and Episodic Frames in Obesity News: Findings from Three Studies
- Obesity Remains Top Health Issue Around the World
- Frame-building Research on Obesity News Coverage
- Frame-setting Research on Obesity News Coverage
- The Big Picture (Frame-building and Frame-setting)
- Frame-building Studies
- Frame-setting Studies
- Expanding Our Understanding of Obesity and Attribution of Responsibility
- Journalists and the Construction of Obesity Stories
- Findings from Our Original Obesity Frame-setting Studies (Emotions, Combining Frames, Psychological Reactance, Civic Engagement, and Stigma)
- Study 1
- Study 2
- Study 3
- Appendix A
- Details about Study 12
- Stimuli
- Measures
- Analysis
- Appendix B
- Details about Study 2
- Measures
- Analysis
- Appendix C
- Details about Study 3
- Stimuli
- Pre-test
- Post-test
- Measures
- Pilot Test and Manipulation Check
- Participants
- Analysis
- References
- Chapter Eight: Thematic and Episodic Frames in Depression News: Findings from Two Studies
- Depression Continues to Impact the World
- Depression and Thematic and Episodic Frames
- Frame-building Research about Depression
- Frame-setting Research about Depression
- The Big Picture (Frame-building and Frame-setting)
- Journalists and the Construction of Depression Stories
- Findings from Our Original Depression Frame-setting Studies (Emotions, Combining Frames, Psychological Reactance, Civic Engagement, and Stigma)
- Findings
- Appendix A
- Details about Study 1
- Measures
- Participants
- Analysis
- Appendix B
- Details about Study 2
- Stimuli
- Pre-test
- Post-test
- Measures
- Pilot Test and Manipulation Check
- Participants
- Analysis
- References
- Chapter Nine: Conclusions: What Have We Learned and a Path Forward with These Frames
- Moving Forward
- References
- Index
Table 4.6: Data-gathering by health topic. Data-gathering method.
Table 4.8: Names & frequency of frames.
←ix | x→Table 4.10: Main findings of studies operationalized thematic and episodic frames.
Table 7.1: Stigma characteristic descriptions.
Table 7.2: Stigma characteristic indices.
Table 7.3: Correlation measures for emotion indices.
Table 7.4: Means for stigma characteristics for obesity.
Table 7.5: Emotion means by story type for obesity.
Table 7.6: Tukey post-hoc tests examining differences in means between story types for obesity.
Table 7.8: Correlations between stigma characteristics and social helping for obesity.
Table 8.1: Stigma characteristic descriptions.
Table 8.2: Stigma characteristic indices.
Table 8.3: Correlation measures for emotion indices.
Table 8.4: Means for stigma characteristics for depression.
Table 8.5: Emotional affect means by story type for depression.
Table 8.6: Tukey post-hoc tests examining differences in means between story types for depression.
Table 8.8: Correlations between stigma characteristics and social helping for depression.
Several years ago I was presenting my research on the effects of episodic and thematic frames in health news. The audience was colleagues, including professors and practitioners, and graduate students from the journalism program at Indiana University in Bloomington. As I was explaining my work defining episodic and thematic frames and their connection to attribution of responsibility, I watched the facial expressions of the people attending my lecture.
Like most people, who present or perform in front of audiences, I was trying to read the room. Searching the faces for comprehension, confusion, agreement, disagreement, etc. I noticed one of my colleagues, a Pulitzer prize winning journalist, nodding in agreement with how I was describing thematic and episodic framing. I was explaining how journalists use these frames in news to cover health issues by focusing on individual stories of success or failure sometimes combined with details that offer a broader context about these same issues–statistics about how many people are affected, and how these issues could be addressed by policy. He remained genuinely interested throughout the presentation.
After the talk was finished, this colleague approached me to discuss my research. He started with the comment, “that’s exactly what we do. That’s how we cover issues.” It was my turn to nod my head in agreement and answer “I know.” I worked as a journalist before entering academia. I had the same reaction when I first read Iyengar’s 1991 book, Is Anyone Responsible: How Television Frames ←xi | xii→Political Issues, about episodic and thematic frames and attribution of responsibility. My dissertation advisor, another former journalist, assigned the book for me to read. She said, “You are going to like this. He gets us.” I did like it. It made sense to me. When I read it, I realized I knew what these frames were because as a journalist I used them all of the time.
My experience as a journalist influences my work as a health communication researcher. Journalists use thematic and episodic frames in news coverage. As researchers we need to examine the frames journalists use in their stories. Even if these frames are not shiny and new. Like most social issues, successful attempts to address public health problems involve public policy solutions. Public opinion support is necessary for public policy. Public support for policy requires the public to understand society’s role in solving problems.
Thematic and episodic frames are directly connected to attribution of responsibility. Along with the who, what, when, where, and why in news stories, identifying the causes of problems, and who or what is responsible for solving problems remains one of the most important functions of journalists. Attribution of responsibility influences the political agenda, public opinion, and public support for policies dealing with issues and problems.
In this book, we examine 25 years of research on thematic and episodic frames in health news. We have two goals in this project. First, to examine and explain what we know about the research on these frames in health to this point, and to provide a framework for research on thematic and episodic frames in health news in terms of public opinion support for health policy.
We plan to share our work with other health communication scholars, public health scholars and practitioners, and journalists reporting on health issues. All of us need to work together to understand the process and power of news frames. In many ways, that is where the real work begins.
Lesa Hatley Major
Introduction: This Is a Health Communication Book?
Geoffrey Rose advised epidemiologists that “(s)ociety is not merely a collection of individuals but also a collectivity, and the behavior and health of its members are profoundly influenced by its collective characteristics and social norms” (2, p. 62).
Hundreds of health news stories are read and viewed daily across the globe. While individuals may turn to multiple outlets for health information, news remains one of the most important providers of health knowledge. All health news stories use some combination of episodic and thematic framing. Reporters tell stories about an individual’s health problem or provide details about a single event involving health (episodic coverage) and/or discuss a health problem more broadly offering context by focusing on prevalence, societal causes, and treatments including health policy (thematic coverage). These are the frames journalists use in the real world. Understanding how journalists construct these frames, and how these frames influence audience members, is critical for anyone involved in health communication, including health reporters.
Shanto Iyengar introduced thematic and episodic news frames in his 1991 book, Is Anyone Responsible? How Television Frames Political Issues. These news frames provide the audience with critical information about the causes of problems and who or what is responsible for solving problems. This attribution of responsibility influences how individuals think about social problems including health—who or what is causing the problem and who or what is responsible for solving it. ←1 | 2→Attributions of responsibility are critical elements of all social knowledge (Iyengar, 1991). Iyengar found news stories using an episodic frame led audience members to blame problems on the person in the story, while a thematic-framed story did the opposite. Thematic news coverage led audience members to think about problems in a broader context. In turn, audience members would consider societal conditions as problems requiring societal solutions like public health policies.
We began this research project thinking we would analyze all the academic research on thematic and episodic frames in news coverage of social problems for the past 25 years. This time period covered the 25 years since the 1991 publication of Iyengar’s seminal work. After collecting the sample for our study, we realized that seventy percent of the research was on health news. While we had expected to find more studies on thematic and episodic frames in news coverage, we were not surprised that health communication dominated this research area. We adapted and focused our research on thematic and episodic frames in health news.
Details
- Pages
- XIV, 238
- Publication Year
- 2020
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9781433140938
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9781433142482
- ISBN (MOBI)
- 9781433142499
- ISBN (Hardcover)
- 9781433140921
- ISBN (Softcover)
- 9781433140839
- DOI
- 10.3726/b16213
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2020 (March)
- Published
- New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Oxford, Wien, 2020. XIV, 236 pp., 26 tables
- Product Safety
- Peter Lang Group AG
