Newspaper representations of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) and cancer in a Malaysian newspaper
The present study examines newspaper coverage of hand, food and mouth disease (HFMD) and cancer, to compare how infectious and non-infectious diseases are represented in Malaysia. The Health Belief Model was used as the framework for selecting themes rel�evant to health actions for the conte...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Communication & Medicine
2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/36780/1/SU-HIE%20TING.pdf http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/36780/ |
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| Summary: | The present study examines newspaper coverage of
hand, food and mouth disease (HFMD) and cancer,
to compare how infectious and non-infectious diseases
are represented in Malaysia. The Health Belief Model
was used as the framework for selecting themes rel�evant to health actions for the content analysis of 69
articles (32,808 words in total) from the New Straits
Times. It was found that more emphasis was given to
HFMD (51 articles) than to cancer (18 articles). The
information most frequently included in the articles
was recommended health actions (3.8 mentions per
article for HFMD; 1.1 for cancer). The articles repre�sented HFMD as posing a greater threat than cancer,
as more information on susceptibility (1.6 for HFMD;
0.3 for cancer) was included compared to severity
(0.5 for HFMD; 0.2 for cancer). The HFMD articles
stressed the outbreak of HFMD: incidence and deaths,
symptoms, causes and preventive measures. However,
the cancer articles were usually not incident-specific
and focused on promoting a healthy lifestyle to avoid
cancer and to warn readers of cancer prevalence. Only
17% of the cancer articles carried treatment themes.
The findings suggest that news coverage of cancer
should include medical research and advances to
create better awareness of cancer. |
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