Behavioral Consequences of Conflict-Oriented Health News Coverage: The 2009 Mammography Guideline Controversy and Online Information Seeking

Building on channel complementarity theory and media-system dependency theory, this study explores the impact of conflict-oriented news coverage of health issues on information seeking online. Using Google search data as a measure of behavior, we demonstrate that controversial news coverage of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force's November 2009 recommendations for changes in breast cancer screening guidelines strongly predicted the volume of same-day online searches for information about mammograms. We also found that this relationship did not exist 1 year prior to the coverage, during which mammography news coverage did not focus on the guideline controversy, suggesting that the controversy frame may have driven search behavior. We discuss the implications of these results for health communication scholars and practitioners.

[1]  Jennings Bryant,et al.  Selective Exposure To Communication , 2013 .

[2]  Carla M Bann,et al.  The public's response to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force's 2009 recommendations on mammography screening. , 2011, American journal of preventive medicine.

[3]  Brian E. Weeks,et al.  The Symbiosis of News Coverage and Aggregate Online Search Behavior: Obama, Rumors, and Presidential Politics , 2010 .

[4]  Jakob D. Jensen,et al.  Making Sense of Cancer News Coverage Trends: A Comparison of Three Comprehensive Content Analyses , 2010, Journal of health communication.

[5]  Timothy J Wilt,et al.  Screening for breast cancer: U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement. , 2009, Annals of internal medicine.

[6]  D. Kennedy,et al.  A Comparative Review of Thermography as a Breast Cancer Screening Technique , 2009, Integrative cancer therapies.

[7]  Glen T. Cameron,et al.  Cancer Coverage in General-Audience and Black Newspapers , 2008, Health communication.

[8]  M. Slater,et al.  News Coverage of Cancer in the United States: A National Sample of Newspapers, Television, and Magazines , 2008, Journal of health communication.

[9]  R. Lynfield,et al.  Communication of Information About Surveillance: Part 1: Media Communication of Information about Infectious Disease Surveillance and Outbreaks , 2008 .

[10]  James D. Robinson,et al.  Media Use and Health Information Seeking: An Empirical Test of Complementarity Theory , 2008, Health communication.

[11]  R. Hornik,et al.  Cancer News Coverage and Information Seeking , 2008, Journal of health communication.

[12]  C. Atkin,et al.  A Comprehensive Analysis of Breast Cancer News Coverage in Leading Media Outlets Focusing on Environmental Risks and Prevention , 2008, Journal of health communication.

[13]  F. Barg,et al.  Examining the Dimensions of Cancer-Related Information Seeking and Scanning Behavior , 2007, Health communication.

[14]  Rhonda Gibson,et al.  The Agenda-Setting Function of National Versus Local Media: A Time-Series Analysis for the Issue of Same-Sex Marriage , 2007 .

[15]  W. Klein,et al.  Perceived Ambiguity about Screening Mammography Recommendations: Association with Future Mammography Uptake and Perceptions , 2007, Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention.

[16]  Ricardo J. Wray,et al.  Validation of Database Search Terms for Content Analysis: The Case of Cancer News Coverage , 2006 .

[17]  Gary L. Kreps,et al.  Trust and sources of health information: the impact of the Internet and its implications for health care providers: findings from the first Health Information National Trends Survey. , 2005, Archives of internal medicine.

[18]  F. Mebane,et al.  News Media Coverage of a Women's Health Controversy: How Newspapers and TV Outlets Covered a Recent Debate Over Screening Mammography , 2005, Women & health.

[19]  K. Viswanath,et al.  The communications revolution and cancer control , 2005, Nature Reviews Cancer.

[20]  P. McGettigan,et al.  Medical research and the news media. , 2005, The New England journal of medicine.

[21]  Mohan J. Dutta-Bergman,et al.  Developing a Profile of Consumer Intention to Seek Out Additional Information Beyond a Doctor: The Role of Communicative and Motivation Variables , 2005, Health communication.

[22]  Mohan J. Dutta-Bergman.  Interpersonal communication after 9/11 via telephone and internet: A theory of channel complementarity , 2004, New Media Soc..

[23]  Mohan J. Dutta-Bergman.  Complementarity in Consumption of News Types Across Traditional and New Media , 2004 .

[24]  Blackford Middleton,et al.  Communicating Health Information to an Alarmed Public Facing a Threat Such as a Bioterrorist Attack , 2004, Journal of health communication.

[25]  Jo Ellen Stryker,et al.  Reporting medical information: effects of press releases and newsworthiness on medical journal articles' visibility in the news media. , 2002, Preventive medicine.

[26]  Dhavan V. Shah,et al.  News Framing and Cueing of Issue Regimes: Explaining Clinton's Public Approval in Spite of Scandal , 2002 .

[27]  A. Berg,et al.  Screening for Breast Cancer: Recommendations and Rationale , 2002, Annals of Internal Medicine.

[28]  R. J. Cline,et al.  Consumer health information seeking on the Internet: the state of the art. , 2001, Health education research.

[29]  B. Rimer,et al.  Confusion about mammography: prevalence and consequences. , 1999, Journal of women's health & gender-based medicine.

[30]  S. Dunwoody,et al.  Proposed model of the relationship of risk information seeking and processing to the development of preventive behaviors. , 1999, Environmental research.

[31]  J. D. Johnson.  Cancer-Related Information Seeking , 1997 .

[32]  D. Nelkin,et al.  An uneasy relationship: the tensions between medicine and the media , 1996, The Lancet.

[33]  John P. Robinson,et al.  Television News and the Informed Public: An Information-Processing Approach. , 1990 .

[34]  D. Nelkin.  The culture of science journalism , 1987 .

[35]  John P. Robinson,et al.  The Main Source: Learning from Television News , 1986 .

[36]  S. Ball-Rokeach.  THE ORIGINS OF INDIVIDUAL MEDIA-SYSTEM DEPENDENCY , 1985 .

[37]  W. Odling-Smee,et al.  Screening for Breast Cancer , 1985, The Lancet.

[38]  Ralph H. Turner,et al.  Media in crisis: Blowing hot and cold , 1982 .

[39]  S. Jasanoff,et al.  Scientific Knowledge , Controversy , and Public Decision-Making , 2013 .

[40]  K. Emmons,et al.  Uncovering differences across the cancer control continuum: a comparison of ethnic and mainstream cancer newspaper stories. , 2007, Preventive medicine.

[41]  A. Rubin.  Media uses and effects: A uses-and-gratifications perspective. , 1994 .