AHCJ member wins LA Emmy for PCOS coverage
AHCJ member Gerri Shaftel Constant of KTTV-Los Angeles earned her 10th Los Angeles Area Emmy Award for a three-part series on polycystic ovary syndrome, a female hormone disorder. The series profiled two women who suffer from PCOS, as well as a local physician who is a national pioneer in its management. PCOS is linked to obesity, acne, diabetes and facial hair growth, as well as numerous other associated symptoms. The series was titled “Hormone Nightmare,” and won in the “Medical News Story - Multi Report” category.
Send us your latest news
Got a new job? Earned a promotion? Won an award or fellowship? Just published a book? AHCJ members are encouraged to share your news by sending it to info@healthjournalism.org. Member news items are posted on Covering Health and in HealthBeat, AHCJ’s newsletter.
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.
-
Join us in Atlanta
for Health Journalism 2012
Fellowship applications
due Feb. 27
New at HealthJournalism.org
- Data gives depth to investigation of patient safety
- What reporters should know about Alzheimer’s and related dementias
- Apply for fellowships to attend Health Journalism 2012
- AHCJ asks Supreme Court to permit broadcast of arguments in health reform case
- Tips for print, online journalists to embrace broadcast opportunities
- Numbers reveal how often, or how rarely, states check doctors’ disciplinary records
- How I did it: Falsified charts in nursing homes linked to patient care
- Access Denied: Looking at a lack of health care availability
- Transparency & medical errors: Public reporting of patient harm is a potent force
