Insurance Issues on the Local News
When local television health issues was covered, it focused a majority (60 percent) of its health stories on the causes and treatments for diseases. The diseases that attracted the heaviest coverage were food-borne illnesses (15 percent of all local disease stories) and cancer (12 percent of all local disease stories). The second most common subjects of health issue stories were environmental/lifestyle health issues, such as diet and exercise (21 percent of local health coverage).
Stories about the health care industry and health insurance ranked a distant third, accounting for 5 percent of health issue coverage, followed by legal health stories (4 percent), stories about HIV/AIDS (3 percent) and reproductive health and abortion issues (2 percent). Stories about the two major government health insurance programs, Medicaid and Medicare, made up 1% of local health news stories.
Although health issue stories were more common on network news, the three networks covered health issues much like local news. As with local news, stories about causes and treatments for diseases accounted for more than half (51 percent) of network health stories, with cancer making up the largest number (16 percent) of all disease stories.
The second most common topic among network news health stories was environmental/lifestyle health issues making up 28 percent of all health news. Although health stories were more common on network news, the three networks covered health much like local news. As with local news, stories about causes and treatments for diseases accounted for more than half (51 percent) of network health stories, with cancer making up the largest number (16 percent) of all disease stories.
Local and network health news also mirrored each other in terms of the type of health information they provide to viewers. Almost three-quarters of local health stories (74 percent) and over two-thirds (69 percent) of network health news focused on providing consumer news - "news you can use" - such as how to choose and HMO or the latest approach to prevent heart disease.
Information on health policy information, such as consideration of health care legislation in state capitals or coverage of the Medicare debate, accounted for about one-fourth of local (23 percent) and of network (28 percent) health stories. Health and politics news, in which health issues were discussed in terms of a political strategy on the part of a politician or public official, accounted for 4 percent of local and 3 percent of network health news.
A dedicated health reporter reported only 5 percent of local health stories. An anchor or reporter without a specified beat reported the vast majority (94 percent) of local health news stories.
