Kromm Elizabeth Edsall, Smith Katherine Clegg, Singer Rachel Friedman
Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205-1996, USA.
J Cancer Surviv. 2007 Dec;1(4):298-305. doi: 10.1007/s11764-007-0033-y. Epub 2007 Oct 3.
This study examines the types of news stories that include comments by everyday cancer survivors and the messages or information these individuals provide. Even though these non-celebrity survivors increasingly serve on the front lines of cancer prevention and advocacy efforts and often engage with media, the role they play in the media discourse on cancer has not been a focus of research.
We conducted a thematic content analysis of print news articles of non-celebrity cancer survivors in 15 leading national daily newspapers for four consecutive months starting in June 2005 to identify the issues or events that included a survivor perspective and the messages or information conveyed by the everyday survivors.
Journalists included survivor commentary primarily when covering cancer fundraising events and when focusing on individual survivorship stories. In overall news coverage involving survivors, breast and prostate cancers received the greatest attention, followed by blood and lung cancers. Survivors spoke mainly about the diagnosis experience and life post-cancer. Our analysis of survivors' comments revealed that discussions of the diagnosis experience often convey fear and a lack of confidence in cancer screening practices, while cancer is portrayed as a positive life event.
DISCUSSIONS/CONCLUSIONS: While evidence of a positive and hopeful portrayal of survivorship is an encouraging finding for continued efforts to decrease stigma associated with a cancer diagnosis and for the public understanding of the disease, it is important to consider potential negative implications of an idealized and restricted media discourse on survivorship.
The increasing size and capacity of the survivor community offers opportunities for the cancer advocacy community to consider how news media portrayal of cancer and survivorship may contribute in both positive and potentially detrimental ways to public understanding of this disease, its survivors and life after cancer.
本研究考察了包含普通癌症幸存者评论的新闻报道类型以及这些人所提供的信息。尽管这些非名人幸存者越来越多地站在癌症预防和宣传工作的前沿，并且经常与媒体接触，但他们在关于癌症的媒体话语中所扮演的角色尚未成为研究重点。
我们对15家全国性主要日报的非名人癌症幸存者平面新闻文章进行了连续四个月的主题内容分析，从2005年6月开始，以确定包含幸存者视角的问题或事件以及普通幸存者所传达的信息。
记者主要在报道癌症筹款活动以及关注个人生存故事时纳入幸存者评论。在涉及幸存者的整体新闻报道中，乳腺癌和前列腺癌受到的关注最多，其次是血癌和肺癌。幸存者主要谈论诊断经历和癌症后的生活。我们对幸存者评论的分析表明，对诊断经历的讨论往往传达出恐惧以及对癌症筛查做法缺乏信心，而癌症被描绘成一个积极的生活事件。
讨论/结论：虽然对生存进行积极和充满希望的描绘的证据对于持续努力减少与癌症诊断相关的污名以及公众对该疾病的理解来说是一个令人鼓舞的发现，但重要的是要考虑理想化和受限的媒体话语对生存的潜在负面影响。
幸存者群体规模和能力的不断扩大为癌症宣传群体提供了机会，使其能够思考新闻媒体对癌症和生存的描绘如何可能以积极和潜在有害的方式影响公众对这种疾病、其幸存者以及癌症后生活的理解。
