Gollust Sarah E, Baum Laura M, Niederdeppe Jeff, Barry Colleen L, Fowler Erika Franklin
Sarah E. Gollust is with the Division of Health Policy and Management, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis. Laura M. Baum is with the Wesleyan Media Project, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT. Jeff Niederdeppe is with the Department of Communication, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. Colleen L. Barry is with the Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD. Erika Franklin Fowler is with the Department of Government and the Wesleyan Media Project, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT.
Am J Public Health. 2017 May;107(5):687-693. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2017.303659. Epub 2017 Feb 16.
To examine the public health and policy-relevant messages conveyed through local television news during the first stage of Affordable Care Act (ACA) implementation, when about 10 million Americans gained insurance.
We conducted a content analysis of 1569 ACA-related local evening television news stories, obtained from sampling local news aired between October 1, 2013, and April 19, 2014. Coders systematically collected data using a coding instrument tracking major messages and information sources cited in the news.
Overall, only half of all ACA-related news coverage focused on health insurance products, whereas the remainder discussed political disagreements over the law. Major policy tools of the ACA-the Medicaid expansion and subsidies available-were cited in less than 10% of news stories. Number of enrollees (27%) and Web site glitches (33%) were more common features of coverage. Sources with a political affiliation were by far the most common source of information (> 40%), whereas research was cited in less than 4% of stories.
The most common source of news for Americans provided little public health-relevant substance about the ACA during its early implementation, favoring political strategy in coverage.
在《平价医疗法案》（ACA）实施的第一阶段，约1000万美国人获得保险，考察通过当地电视新闻所传达的与公共卫生及政策相关的信息。
我们对1569篇与ACA相关的当地晚间电视新闻报道进行了内容分析，这些报道是从2013年10月1日至2014年4月19日播出的当地新闻样本中获取的。编码人员使用一种编码工具系统地收集数据，该工具跟踪新闻中引用的主要信息和信息来源。
总体而言，所有与ACA相关的新闻报道中只有一半聚焦于健康保险产品，其余的则讨论了围绕该法案的政治分歧。ACA的主要政策工具——医疗补助扩大和可用补贴——在不到10%的新闻报道中被提及。参保人数（27%）和网站故障（33%）是报道中更常见的内容。具有政治倾向的来源是迄今为止最常见的信息来源（>40%），而研究在不到4%的报道中被引用。
在美国人最常用的新闻来源中，在ACA实施初期几乎没有提供与公共卫生相关的实质性内容，报道偏向于政治策略。
