Division Ageing and Social Change, Department of Culture and Society, Linköping University, S-60174 Norrköping, Sweden.
Department of Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Oct 8;18(19):10539. doi: 10.3390/ijerph181910539.
The news media, specifically online newspapers, is one of the powerful transmitters of discourse due to its rapid accessibility that contributes to social beliefs and attitudes that often shape our perceptions on dementia and Alzheimer's disease. The media portrayal of dementia is largely heterogeneous, but there is certainly an association between the influence of online news coverage and the social perceptions of dementia that need to be understood more broadly. In this study, we examined the portrayal of dementia in two online newspapers ( and ) that might have an influence on dementia discourse by comparing the content and form of the news coverage on dementia across time. This study was guided by three interconnected theoretical understandings: and . A total of 291 published articles featuring dementia from 2014 to 2019 were included in this study and a content analysis of the articles provided insight into the dementia-related news coverage. Our results showed that both newspapers have a decreasing trend in publishing articles related to dementia over time. In addition, dementia-related (modifiable) risk factors as principal news content was significantly associated with the year of publication. Despite a weak association between story categories and newspapers, the majority of articles reported preventive measures as the main story category. Although both newspapers featured more articles with a less negative tone across time when reporting on dementia, derogative wording, as discourse, was commonly used to address the illness. We have provided some insight into understanding how online newspapers potentially affect subjective representations of dementia as well as perpetuate dementia discourse. Finally, we suggest that future study may benefit from establishing a linkage between the depiction of dementia in online newspapers and the contextualization of dementia within cultures.
新闻媒体，特别是网络报纸，是话语的强大传播者之一，因为其快速获取信息的能力，有助于形成社会信仰和态度，这些信仰和态度往往塑造了我们对痴呆症和阿尔茨海默病的看法。媒体对痴呆症的描述在很大程度上是多种多样的，但网络新闻报道的影响与痴呆症的社会认知之间肯定存在关联，需要更广泛地理解。在这项研究中，我们通过比较两家网络报纸（ 和 ）在不同时间对痴呆症新闻报道的内容和形式，研究了它们对痴呆症话语的影响。本研究以三个相互关联的理论理解为指导： 、 、 。共有 291 篇关于痴呆症的文章在 2014 年至 2019 年期间发表，对这些文章的内容分析提供了对痴呆症相关新闻报道的深入了解。我们的研究结果表明，随着时间的推移，这两家报纸发表的与痴呆症相关的文章呈下降趋势。此外，作为主要新闻内容的与痴呆症相关的（可改变的）风险因素与发表年份显著相关。尽管故事类别与报纸之间存在微弱的关联，但大多数文章将预防措施作为主要故事类别进行报道。尽管两家报纸在报道痴呆症时，随着时间的推移，报道痴呆症的文章语气不那么消极，但作为话语的贬义词仍被广泛使用。我们提供了一些理解在线报纸如何潜在地影响对痴呆症的主观描述以及使痴呆症话语永久化的见解。最后，我们建议未来的研究可能受益于在网络报纸对痴呆症的描述和痴呆症在文化背景下的定位之间建立联系。
