Year: 2008
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Public opinion may be an important influence on policy development to improve population health and reduce disparities. Yet little is known about the public’s opinions about the determinants of health or the impact of the news media on their opinions. Through two complementary studies, this dissertation addresses the media’s role in shaping public understandings and policy preferences about type 2 diabetes, an illness for which racial disparities and social determinants are major concerns. The first study evaluated coverage of diabetes in 698 articles appearing in 19 U.S. print newspapers in 2005 and 2006. Content analysis revealed that diabetes’ behavioral causes and individualized remedies dominated coverage. Fewer than 15% of articles identified any social determinants, social policy interventions, or disparities; those that did appeared in a select subset of newspapers. The second study assessed the effects of these media messages on participants’ support for non-medical policy interventions. Study participants (N=2,490) completed a web-based survey in which they viewed a mock news article about diabetes featuring one of four randomly-assigned causal frames (genetic predisposition, behavioral choices, social determinants, or no causal language) and one of three photos (a black woman, a white woman, or a medical device). The experimental results challenge the conventional wisdom that increasing publicity of the social determinants of health will lead to greater public support for health policies. The social determinants framing of diabetes elicited a polarization of opinion, with Democrats more supportive and Republicans less supportive of the policies, compared to those who viewed the frame without causal language. In the full sample, those who viewed the behavioral choices frame were significantly more likely to endorse negative stereotypes about people with diabetes, while blacks who viewed the social determinants frame were less likely to do so. Negative stereotypes predicted reduced support for spending on diabetes research. The race of the person pictured in the article did not influence these attitudes. This research demonstrates that media messages about the causes of diabetes evoke morally- and politically-laden themes. Future research might assess how news media messages interact with political predispositions to shape public opinion about health policy topics.
Author: Sarah E. Gollust
Language: English
Subfield: Communication
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W207360236