This study examines health news in Norwegian, Spanish, British, and U.S. newspapers. It seeks to fill a gap in journalism studies in the examination of health news as a genre, particularly in a comparative context, and with a focus on broader social and political roles and meanings of health news, rather than effects on individual behavior. It is rooted in literatures that seek to understand health journalism in sociological terms, considering the role of health journalism in relation to institutional relationships between biomedicine, the market, and the state. It departs, in particular, from the theory of biomedicalization, which holds that the field of biomedicine, increasingly transformed into a complex, commercialized “techno-service complex,” has deep cultural impact, including the spreading of a conception of an individualized patient-consumer who will actively seek information to control risk and pursue wellness. In this article, we ask whether research on health news centered around this model, mostly carried out in the United States, is generalizable to European countries where the health system is organized primarily according to a public service model. The study considers three aspects of health news content: the implied audience of news stories, distinguishing in particular between those that address readers as patient-consumers and those that address them as citizens; the distinction among biomedical, lifestyle, and social frames for understanding health issues; and the range of actors reflected in health news as sources and as story originators.
BeckfieldJasonOlafsdottirSigrunSosnaudBenjamin. 2013. “Healthcare Systems in Comparative Perspective: Classification, Convergence and Five Missed Turns.” Annual Review of Sociology39:127–46.10.1146/annurev-soc-071312-145609
2.
BreilhJaime. 2008. “Latin American Critical (“Social”) Epidemiology: New Settings for an Old Dream.” International Journal of Epidemiology37:745–50.10.1093/ije/dyn135
3.
BriggsCharles L.HallinDaniel C.2016. Making Health Public: How News Coverage Is Remaking Media, Medicine and Contemporary Life. New York: Routledge.
4.
BrüggemannMichaelEngesserSvenBüchelFlorinHumprechtEddaCastroLaia. 2014. “Hallin and Mancini Revisited: Four Empirical Types of Western Media Systems.” Journal of Communication64 (6): 1037–65.10.1111/jcom.12127
ClarkeAdele E.ShimJanet K.MamoLauraFosketJennifer RuthFishmanJennifer R.2003. “Biomedicalization: Technoscientific Transformations of Health, Illness, and U.S. Biomedicine.” American Sociological Review68:161–94.10.1177/000312240306800201
7.
ClarkeJuanne N.EverestMichelle M.2006. “Cancer in the Mass Print Media: Fear, Uncertainty and the Medical Model.” Social Science & Medicine62:2591–2600.10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.11.021
8.
ConradPeter. 2007. The Medicalization of Society: On the Transformation of Human Conditions into Treatable Disorders. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
9.
ConradPeterBandiniJuliaVasquezAlexandria. 2016. “Illness and the Internet: From Private to Public Experience.” Health20 (1): 22–32.10.1177/1363459315611941
10.
CorniaAlessioGhersettiMarinaManciniPaoloOdénThomas. 2105. “The Partisans, the Technocrats, and the Watchdogs: Domestication in Media Coverage of the Swine Flu Pandemic in 2009.” Journalism Studies17 (8): 1030–50.10.1080/1461670X.2015.1040891
11.
De DobbelaerRebecaVan LeuvenSarahRaeymaeckersKarin. 2017. “Dirty Dancing: Health Journalists and Pharmaceutical Industry a Multi-Method Study on the Impact on Pharma PR on Magazine Health News.” Public Relations Review43 (2): 450–59.10.1016/j.pubrev.2017.02.002
12.
De DobbelaerRebecaVan LeuvenSarahRaeymaeckersKarin. 2018. “The Human Face of Health News: A Multi-Method Analysis of Sourcing Practices in Health-Related News in Belgian Magazines.” Health Communication33 (5): 611–19.10.1080/10410236.2017.1287237
13.
DumitJoseph. 2012. Drugs for Life: How Pharmaceutical Companies Define Our Health. Durham: Duke University Press.
14.
EideMartinHernesGudmund. 1987. Død og pine: Om massemedia og helsepolitikk [Death and Torment: On Media and Health Politics]. Oslo: Fafo.
15.
EideMartinKnightGraham. 1999. “Public/Private Service: Service Journalism and the Problems of Everyday Life.” European Journal of Communication14 (4): 525–47.10.1177/0267323199014004004
16.
ExworthyMarkFreemanRichard. 2009. “Health Policy Learning in the National Health Service.” In Comparative Studies and the Politics of Modern Medical Care, eds. MarmorTheodore TedFreemanRobert EdwardOkmaKieke G. H., pp. 153-179. New Haven: Yale University Press.
17.
FigenschouTine U.2017. “Patient Narratives: Health Journalists’ Reflections, Dilemmas and Criticism of a Compelling Journalistic Tool.” In Putting a Face on It: Individual Exposure and Subjectivity in Journalism, eds. FonnBirgitte KjosHornmoenHaraldHyde-ClarkeNathalieHågvar, 235–256Yngve B.Oslo: Cappelen Damm.
18.
FigenschouTine UstadThorbjørnsrudKjersti. 2018. “Mediated Agency, Blame Avoidance and Institutional Responsibility: Government Communication in a Personalised Media Landscape.” Scandinavian Political Studies41 (2): 210–232.
19.
ForsythRowenaMorrellBronwenLipworthWendyKerridgeIanJordensChrisChapmanSimon. 2012. “Health Journalists’ Perceptions of Their Professional Roles and Responsibilities for Ensuring the Veracity of Reports of Health Research.” Journal of Mass Media Ethics27 (2): 130–41.10.1080/08900523.2012.669290
20.
FoucaultMichel. 1997. “The Birth of Biopolitics.” In Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth, ed. RabinowPaul, 73–80. New York: New Press.
21.
FowlerErika F.GollustSarah E.2015. “The Content and Effect of Politicized Health Controversies.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science658:155–71.10.1177/0002716214555505
22.
GalloPedroGené-BadiaJoan. 2013. “Cuts Drive Health System Reforms in Spain.” Health Policy113:1–37.10.1016/j.healthpol.2013.06.016
23.
GiovanellaLígiaStegmüllerKlaus. 2014. “The Financial Crisis and Health Care Systems in Europe: Universal Care Under Threat? Trends in Health Sector Reforms in Germany, The United Kingdom and Spain.” Cadernos de Saúde Pública30 (11): 2263–81.10.1590/0102-311X00021314
24.
GollustSarah E.LoRussoSusan M.NaglerRebekah H.FowlerErika F.2016. “Understanding the Role of the News Media in HPV Vaccine Uptake in the United States: Synthesis and Commentary.” Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics12 (6): 1430–34.10.1080/21645515.2015.1109169
25.
HallinDaniel C.BrandtMarisaBriggsCharles L.2013. “Biomedicalization and the Public Sphere: Newspaper Coverage of Health and Medicine, 1960s-2000s.” Social Science & Medicine96:121–28.10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.07.030
26.
HallinDaniel C.BriggsCharles L.2015. “Transcending the Medical/Media Opposition in Research on News Coverage of Health and Medicine.” Media, Culture & Society37 (1): 85–100.10.1177/0163443714549090
27.
HallinDaniel C.ManciniPaulo. 2004. Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.
28.
HamiltonJames. 2004. All the News That’s Fit to Sell: How the Market Transforms Information into News. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
29.
HayesAndrew F.KrippendorffKlaus. 2007. “Answering the Call for a Standard Reliability Measure for Coding Data.” Communication Methods and Measures1 (1): 77–89.10.1080/19312450709336664
30.
HinnantAmandaJenkinsJoySubramanianRoma. 2016. “Health Journalist Role Conceptions: Existing and Emerging Professional Identities.” Journalism Practice10 (6): 763–81.10.1080/17512786.2015.1053509
31.
HinnantAmandaLen-RíosMaría E.YoungRachel. 2013. “Journalistic Use of Exemplars to Humanize Health News.” Journalism Studies14 (4): 539–54.10.1080/1461670X.2012.721633
32.
HjarvardStig. 2013. The Mediatization of Culture and Society. London: Routledge.
33.
HobækBårdLieAnne K.2019. “Less Is More: Norwegian Drug Regulation, Antibiotic Policy, and the ‘Need Clause.’” The Milbank Quarterly97 (3): 762–95.
34.
KarpfAnne. 1988. Doctoring the Media. London: Routledge.
35.
LalazaryanAnasikZare-FarashbandiFiroozeh. 2014. “A Review of Models and Theories of Health Information Seeking Behavior.” International Journal of Health System & Disaster Management2 (4): 193–203.10.4103/2347-9019.144371
36.
LundbyKnut. 2014. Mediatization of Communication. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
37.
MagnussenJonVrangbaekKarstenSaltmanRichard B.2009. Nordic Health Care Systems: Recent Reforms and Current Policy Challenges. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
38.
MarchettiDominique. 2010. Quand la Santé Devient Médiatique. Les Logiques de Production de l’Information dans la Presse [When Health becomes Mediatized: The Logics of Production of Information in the Press]. Grenoble: Presses Universitaires de Grenoble.
39.
MorrellBronwenForsythRowenaLipworthWendyKerridgeIanJordensChristopher F.C.2015. “Rules of Engagement: Journalists’ Attitudes to Industry Influence in Health News Reporting.” Journalism16 (5): 596–614.10.1177/1464884914525705
40.
NettletonSarah. 2013. The Sociology of Health and Illness. Cambridge: Polity Press.
41.
RoseNikolas. 2007. The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power, and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
42.
SealeClive. 2002. Media and Health. London: Sage.
43.
StrömbäckJesper. 2008. “Four Phases of Mediatization: An Analysis of the Mediatization of Politics.” International Journal of Press/Politics13 (3): 228–46.10.1177/1940161208319097
44.
StroobantJoyceDe DobbelaerRebecaRaeymaeckersKarin. 2018. “Tracing the Sources: A Comparative Content Analysis of Belgian Health News.” Journalism Practice12 (3): 344–61.10.1080/17512786.2017.1294027
45.
StroobantJoyceBogaertSarah Van denRaeymaeckersKarin. 2019. “When Medicine Meets Media: How Health News Is Co-Produced between Health and Media Co-Professionals.” Journalism Studies20 (13): 1828–45.10.1080/1461670X.2018.1539344
46.
ThorbjørnsrudKjerstiYtrebergEspen. 2020. “The Human Interest Economy: Making Media Exemplars out of Ordinary People.” Journalism Studies21 (8): 1093–1108.10.1080/1461670X.2020.1720520
47.
VerhoevenPiet. 2008. “Where Has the Doctor Gone? The Mediazation of Medicine on Dutch Television, 1961–2000.” Public Understanding of Science17:461–72.10.1177/0963662506075352
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
