Basch Corey H, Kollia Betty, Park Eunsun, Yousaf Helen
Department of Public Health, William Paterson University, Wayne, New Jersey, USA.
Department of Speech-Language Pathology, William Paterson University, Wayne, New Jersey, USA.
Noise Health. 2024;26(123):571-576. doi: 10.4103/nah.nah_118_23. Epub 2024 Dec 30.
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Noise remains an under-discussed type of environmental pollutant, which exerts a wide range of adverse health effects, both auditory and non-auditory. Ensuring that the public has ready access to useful health information online about noise exposure is important. In this regard, evaluating the content of public news articles regarding noise pollution is vital. Although examining the content available to the public on this topic is significant, there is still a dearth of information on this topic. Consequently, this study aimed to analyze the content on Google News regarding noise pollution.
Google News was searched using the term "noise pollution," and 100 articles were shortlisted for further coding. Qualitative coding was based on the news source, the type of domain extension, and whether a video was included in the article. The articles were quantitatively coded based on their content and compared for length.
The three most common content areas were as follows: types of noise pollution (73%), sources of noise (63%), and responses by administrative offices (59%). Only 17% of the news articles alluded to health issues linked to noise pollution, such as sleep disturbances, anxiety, high blood pressure, and effects on children's auditory skills, that is speech development, concentration, and memory retention. Scientific research findings related to noise pollution were incorporated in less than one-third of the articles. The news articles were of comparable length.
This study not only contributes to a better understanding of the news provided to the public and how noise pollution issues are discussed in contemporary, mainstream media, but also can inform about public health initiatives. We recommend that scientific/healthcare communities collaborate with online news media to improve the coverage regarding-and underscore the scientific evidence of-the deleterious consequences of noise on human and animal health.
背景/目的：噪声仍然是一种较少被讨论的环境污染物，它会对健康产生广泛的不良影响，包括听觉和非听觉方面。确保公众能够方便地在网上获取有关噪声暴露的有用健康信息非常重要。在这方面，评估关于噪声污染的公共新闻文章的内容至关重要。虽然研究公众可获取的关于该主题的内容很有意义，但关于这个主题的信息仍然匮乏。因此，本研究旨在分析谷歌新闻上关于噪声污染的内容。
在谷歌新闻上使用“噪声污染”一词进行搜索，筛选出100篇文章进行进一步编码。定性编码基于新闻来源、域名扩展名类型以及文章中是否包含视频。文章根据其内容进行定量编码，并比较长度。
三个最常见的内容领域如下：噪声污染类型（73%）、噪声源（63%）和行政部门的应对措施（59%）。只有17%的新闻文章提到了与噪声污染相关的健康问题，如睡眠障碍、焦虑、高血压以及对儿童听觉技能的影响，即言语发展、注意力和记忆力。与噪声污染相关的科学研究结果在不到三分之一的文章中有所体现。这些新闻文章长度相当。
本研究不仅有助于更好地理解向公众提供的新闻以及当代主流媒体如何讨论噪声污染问题，还能为公共卫生举措提供信息。我们建议科学/医疗社区与在线新闻媒体合作，以改善关于噪声对人类和动物健康有害后果的报道，并强调其科学证据。
