Study: Women’s health coverage focuses on control
Amanda Hinnant, an assistant professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, analyzed 148 health articles in nine top-selling women’s magazines from a feminist perspective. The resulting article “The Cancer on Your Coffee Table: A Discourse Analysis of the Health Content in Mass-circulated Women’s Magazines,” is summarized here for those without the necessary journal access. Hinnant found that most coverage hewed to what could be called a post-feminist view and focused on the control the individual has over their own health with less regard for outside factors.
From the journalism.missouri.edu summary:
Most articles framed seeking better health as a way of taking control of your life, yet Hinnant suggested this was an illusion of control. “Mood, stress and energy are frequently substituted as symbols for health. Maintaining good health means constantly patrolling the borders for a bad mood, high stress and low energy,” she wrote. “What materializes is the notion that the pursuit of wellness will result in a life in control, when in fact it is a life that is controlled by the tyranny of constant surveillance.”
There were a few political and socially oriented stories (particularly in Glamour), but Hinnant found weight loss to be the most popular topic. Typically, readers were encouraged to lose weight not for aesthetic reasons, but to improve wellness, improve heart health and prevent cancer.
How bad docs keep clean records
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Jeremy Kohler and Blythe Bernhard used the example of one litigious St. Louis psychiatrist to demonstrate how doctors can work the system to keep their records clean and professional prospects bright despite work histories that are sometimes anything but. The strong anecdote provides engaging context for a well-analyzed report on the reporting of physician errors under the current system.
Critics say hospitals are underreporting and that puts patients in harm’s way. As long ago as 1996, a government agency concluded that the number of hospital reports was “unreasonably low.” It has gotten even lower. In 2008, the number of reports was three-fourths of the 1996 total, according to the newspaper’s analysis.
Kidney swap connects six in small Mo. town
Filed under: Health journalism, Hospitals, Hot Health Headline
Joy Robertson of KOLR-Springfield, Mo., tells the story of the coincidences and generosity that led to six residents of Licking, Mo., (population 1,471) swapping kidneys in a St. Louis hospital. Here’s a quick timeline, to give you an idea of how it all came together.
- Licking resident Stephanie Hood needed a kidney.
- Friends Randy and Melissa Lewis wanted to donate one for her, but neither was a match.
- Randy decided to donate his kidney anyway.
- Carrie Goforth, a 29-year-old Licking mother on dialysis, was a match for Randy.
- Meanwhile, Melissa Lewis decided to donate her kidney as well.
- Hers went to Gern Beasley, another Licking resident.
- Finally, Stephanie Hood, the patient who started it all, also got the kidney she needed. Her donor? Her cousin Diane. From Licking.
Reporting on kidney donation
Josephine Marcotty of the Minneapolis Star Tribune recently wrote a series addressing the increasing demand for kidneys, a need spurred by an aging population, increases in diabetes, obesity and high-blood pressure. In a recent AHCJ article, she explained how the story came together and how other reporters can follow in her footsteps and expand upon her work.
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