April 4-6, 2024 • Hyatt Regency • Lexington, KY
Innovations in Health Communication
Innovations in Health Communication
Abstract: Nationwide and Multi-City Newspaper Coverage of Birth Control Access: Community Structure Theory, Ethnic Identity, and Age
A community structure analysis (Pollock, 2007, 2013, 2015) compared city characteristics and nationwide newspaper coverage of birth control access in newspapers in 21 major U.S. cities, sampling all relevant 150+ word articles from 10/6/2017 - 7/13/23. A total of 238 articles were coded for editorial “prominence” (placement, headline size, article length, presence of graphics) and “direction” (government responsibility, societal responsibility, or balanced/neutral: coverage) and then combined into each newspaper’s composite “Media Vector” (+0.9087 to -0.3924: range = 1.3011.). Eighteen of the 21 newspapers (86%) yielded media coverage emphasizing government responsibility for birth control access.
Overall, two major demographic patterns emerged. First, measures of vulnerability were associated with media coverage emphasizing less government responsibility for birth control access. Percentage African American (r= -.483, p=.013), Hispanic (r= -.419, p=.029), and foreign-born (r= -.403, p=.035) revealed media coverage emphasizing less government responsibility for birth control access, confirming the initial hypothesis hypothesis. In addition to ethnic identities, the ages 65 plus stakeholder hypothesis was also confirmed. Cities with higher percentages of ages 65 plus (r= .447, p=.021) were linked with coverage emphasizing more government responsibility for birth control access.
These findings linking measures of vulnerability to media emphasis on less government responsibility for birth control access are inconsistent with previous research. Other scholarship connected percent African Americans with favorable coverage of Roe v. Wade (Pollock et al., 1978), greater media emphasis on government responsibility for PTS (Goldman et al., 2016), and campus suicide prevention (Swartz et al., 2016), as well as favorable coverage of transgender rights (Pollock et al, 2017). Despite assumptions that older generations are more conservative, cities with higher percentages of ages 65 plus (r= .447, p=.021) were linked with coverage emphasizing more government responsibility for birth control access. By contrast, past research associated ages 65 plus with unfavorable coverage of same-sex marriage (Vales et al. 2014, 2015) and detainee rights at Guantanamo Bay (Zinck et al., 2014, 2015).
Regression analysis revealed empirically that the percentage of African Americans (22.6% of the variance) and foreign-born individuals (11.8%) accounted for 34.4% of the variance, linked with nationwide coverage emphasizing less government responsibility for birth control access. By contrast, percent aged 65+ (only 13.8% of the variance), was associated with coverage emphasizing more government responsibility for birth control access.
Methodologically, combining measures of both “prominence” and “direction,” highly sensitive Media Vectors highlighted the capacity of media to reflect community measures of “vulnerability,” “ethnic identity,” and “age.” Theoretically, emphasizing the influence of local demographics, community structure theory complements agenda-setting theory at the national level, reconfirming the findings of an original founder of agenda-setting (Funk & McCombs, 2015), that both nationally prominent newspapers (agenda setting) and local community characteristics/concerns (community structure) can affect coverage of critical local issues.
Overall, two major demographic patterns emerged. First, measures of vulnerability were associated with media coverage emphasizing less government responsibility for birth control access. Percentage African American (r= -.483, p=.013), Hispanic (r= -.419, p=.029), and foreign-born (r= -.403, p=.035) revealed media coverage emphasizing less government responsibility for birth control access, confirming the initial hypothesis hypothesis. In addition to ethnic identities, the ages 65 plus stakeholder hypothesis was also confirmed. Cities with higher percentages of ages 65 plus (r= .447, p=.021) were linked with coverage emphasizing more government responsibility for birth control access.
These findings linking measures of vulnerability to media emphasis on less government responsibility for birth control access are inconsistent with previous research. Other scholarship connected percent African Americans with favorable coverage of Roe v. Wade (Pollock et al., 1978), greater media emphasis on government responsibility for PTS (Goldman et al., 2016), and campus suicide prevention (Swartz et al., 2016), as well as favorable coverage of transgender rights (Pollock et al, 2017). Despite assumptions that older generations are more conservative, cities with higher percentages of ages 65 plus (r= .447, p=.021) were linked with coverage emphasizing more government responsibility for birth control access. By contrast, past research associated ages 65 plus with unfavorable coverage of same-sex marriage (Vales et al. 2014, 2015) and detainee rights at Guantanamo Bay (Zinck et al., 2014, 2015).
Regression analysis revealed empirically that the percentage of African Americans (22.6% of the variance) and foreign-born individuals (11.8%) accounted for 34.4% of the variance, linked with nationwide coverage emphasizing less government responsibility for birth control access. By contrast, percent aged 65+ (only 13.8% of the variance), was associated with coverage emphasizing more government responsibility for birth control access.
Methodologically, combining measures of both “prominence” and “direction,” highly sensitive Media Vectors highlighted the capacity of media to reflect community measures of “vulnerability,” “ethnic identity,” and “age.” Theoretically, emphasizing the influence of local demographics, community structure theory complements agenda-setting theory at the national level, reconfirming the findings of an original founder of agenda-setting (Funk & McCombs, 2015), that both nationally prominent newspapers (agenda setting) and local community characteristics/concerns (community structure) can affect coverage of critical local issues.