As the shift toward consumer-oriented health care occurs and the public relies more heavily on the news media for information, it will be important to understand how news coverage affects public attitudes about important health issues like obesity.
The study, "News Media Framing of Childhood Obesity in the United States From 2000 To 2009," in the July 2011 issue of Pediatrics (published online June 20), analyzed a random sample of news stories on childhood obesity in 18 national and regional news sources in the U.S. Over the 10-year study period, news stories consistently mentioned behavioral change most often as a solution to obesity. However, television news reports were significantly more likely to mention behavior change compared with newspapers, which more often mentioned system-level solutions to the problem of obesity such as changes affecting neighborhoods, schools and the food and beverage industry.
The lower attention by television news to solutions involving the food and beverage industry raises questions about the possible influence of media advertising budgets on news content. Data from Nielsen Company indicate that 15.2 percent of all national network television advertising was paid for by the food industry in 2008, while only 2.4 percent of national and local newspaper advertising was paid for by the food industry.
The authors conclude it is important to investigate the role of interest groups in shaping news content on this topic and to monitor how news framing affects public perceptions about how best to combat the problem of childhood obesity.
