Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, 915 Greene Street, Room 235, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA,
J Community Health. 2014 Apr;39(2):378-85. doi: 10.1007/s10900-013-9774-x.
Journalists have a unique opportunity to educate the community about public health and health care. In order for health communication messages to be effective, characteristics of the intended audience must be considered. Limited attention has been given to health journalists' perceptions of their target communities and little is known about how journalists' perceptions may impact the delivery of health information in the news. Fifteen in-depth telephone interviews were conducted with health journalists from varying geographic regions and media market sizes. Interview questions examined health journalists' perceptions of their target communities, the content and delivery of their health-related stories, and the current state of health journalism. Interviews were audio-recorded for transcription and thematic analysis. Health journalists perceived their audiences to be primarily mothers and adults with limited education. Participants reported they often used personal stories and strong headlines to engage their communities. They also stated that their news stories were quite technical and may not have been written at an appropriate reading level for their audience. When asked about the current state of health journalism, participants reported that there were areas for improvement. Journalists stated that increased collaborations with public health practitioners would improve their own understanding of health and medical information and allow them to develop health news content that was more appropriate for their target communities.
记者有独特的机会向社区宣传公共卫生和医疗保健知识。为了使健康传播信息有效，必须考虑到目标受众的特点。对于健康记者对其目标社区的看法，关注有限，并且对于记者的看法如何影响新闻中健康信息的传递知之甚少。对来自不同地理区域和媒体市场规模的健康记者进行了 15 次深入的电话采访。访谈问题考察了健康记者对其目标社区的看法、他们与健康相关的报道的内容和方式，以及健康新闻的现状。采访进行了录音转录和主题分析。健康记者认为他们的受众主要是母亲和受教育程度有限的成年人。参与者报告说，他们经常使用个人故事和醒目的标题来吸引他们的社区。他们还表示，他们的新闻报道非常技术性，可能不符合受众的适当阅读水平。当被问及健康新闻的现状时，参与者表示还有改进的空间。记者表示，增加与公共卫生从业者的合作将提高他们对健康和医疗信息的理解，并使他们能够开发更适合目标社区的健康新闻内容。
