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IMP 16-19 Kitzinger: The role of the media in public and professional understandings of breast cancer

  • Last modified date:
    8 February 2007

Lead researcher: Dr Jenny Kitzinger, Dep. of Human Sciences, Brunel University

Published: 10/09/2002

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Project findings

Objectives
To examine media coverage of breast cancer, explain and identify the processes that influence coverage and explore the impact of reporting on lay public and health professionals.

Design/setting/participants
The project involved:

  • Analysis of press and television reporting about breast cancer
  • Interviews with 40 journalists and their sources (e.g. cancer research organisations).
  • Focus group discussions with 25 groups of 'ordinary women', one group of breast cancer survivors and four groups of health professionals.
Contact details

Tel: 01895 203114

Results

  • Breast cancer has a very high media profile relative to other illnesses. For example, it is seven times more likely to become headline news than lung cancer.
  • Breast cancer was described by journalists as a 'media friendly' disease. This was because of seven key factors: its prevalence, the sexual/social meaning attached to breasts, its impact on younger women, the relative lack of stigma, the vocal involvement of women with breast cancer, celebrity association and media organisations' desire to target female audiences.
  • Journalists emphasised the role of 'news hooks', 'relevance', 'accessibility' and 'controversy' as factors influencing which breast cancer stories were covered.
  • The perceived 'human interest' and 'drama' of genetic breast cancer also attracted interest from journalists and television scriptwriters. Content analysis showed that this received more attention than any other potential causal association (see Henderson and Kitzinger, 1999).
  • The media's emphasis on 'inherited' breast cancer was reflected in many women's view of breast cancer as a 'genetic disease'.
  • We also identified widespread fear among women about treatment. Anxieties appear to be fuelled by media imagery. For example, we identified a lack of of post-operative women's bodies, except where scars were displayed in the media to provoke fear, outrage or revulsion. (see Saywell et al, 1999)
  • Women's perceptions are influenced by media stories about individual women with breast cancer. This type of personalised account constituted 22% of all press reporting about breast cancer. Such stories were vividly recalled by women and used to 'make sense' of breast cancer as well as influencing their own risk assessments.
  • There are clear patterns to how women respond to different types of risk presentation. For example, dietary advice may be viewed with scepticism because of the history of changing advice about which foods are 'good' and 'bad' and because modifying diet is more difficult than simply taking (or not taking) a tablet.

Health professionals learn about medical advances both through the mass media and through the specialist press. However, they described only indirect effects from the mass media. These were as follows:

  • Discussions with patients are often mediated via, or conducted in relation to, particular headlines, press clippings or magazine articles. Health professionals have a strong sense of the way in which the media impacts on consultations.
  • They were concerned that health professionals should be informed of new advances or potential 'scares' before such stories find their way into the mass media.
  • Concern was expressed about the way in which media could misrepresent facts and options, e.g. giving the impression that genetic testing is easily available and can offer certainty.
  • Individual accounts (e.g. of 'miracle cures') were criticised for conveying unnecessary fears or false hopes.
  • However the media were identified as an important conduit for advice about self-/screening, directly bringing people to seek professional advice.
  • Personalised accounts in the media were identified as useful because of their exploration of the psycho-social impact of the disease.

Conclusions and relevance to the NHS
The media are a vital conduit for health information. The above factors should all be taken into account when considering media strategies. Recognising media and audience diversity is also essential to any efforts to improve health communication. We would highlight the following.

  • Women are highly selective in how they use the media. For example, health reporting in monthly women's magazines is highly trusted and such magazines are seen as more 'responsible' than sections of the press.
  • Soap operas are also viewed as accurately representing illness in some respects. At the same time, women understood scriptwriters' needs for dramatic tensions and condensed story-lines.
  • In spite of viewer's sophisticated readings of the media, dramatic representations (factual or fictional) can leave people with false impressions.
  • Some women avoid information about breast cancer through fear. The use of 'positive' stories and alternative avenues e.g. soap opera may therefore be vital.
  • Women with breast cancer, their relatives and health carers were particularly concerned about three aspects of reporting: the deluge of information (when those with cancer were trying to 'get on with their lives'); the lack of positive information/ around living with the illness and overwhelmingly 'tragic' stories.

Dissemination
Target audience: health practitioners, health educators, lay public

Publications:

  • Henderson L, Kitzinger J. The human drama of genes: 'hard' and 'soft' representations of breast cancer genetics, Sociology of Health and Illness 1999; 21(5): 560-578 (reprinted in Gabe, J and Conrad, P (eds) Genetics and Society)
  • Henderson, L. Das Gen wird popular: Inhalte und Rezeption der beitrage zum Thema Brustkrebforschung, in den britischen Medien. In. Jazbinsek D (ed). GesundheitsKommunikation. Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag: 2000.
  • Saywell, C, Henderson, L and Beattie, L 'Sexualised illness: the newsworthy body in media representations of breast cancer', in Potts, L (ed) Ideologies of Breast Cancer Macmillan. (1999).

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