Abstract

MAGALHAES, Olga; LOPES, Felisbela  and  ARAUJO, Rita. Oncological diseases in the news: the strength of medical research. OBS* [online]. 2020, vol.14, n.3, pp.120-133.  Epub Feb 15, 2022. ISSN 1646-5954.  https://doi.org/10.15847/obsobs14320201565.

Most lay people find health information through the media. This is a great responsibility for journalism, since news contents influence social perceptions. Research shows that the media coverage of health, especially in the written press, does not pay much attention to diseases. When that happens, cancer is the most highlighted disease in the news.

In this study, we aimed at understanding how cancer becomes news in the portuguese daily newspapers. In order to do so, we analized all the news texts published in Público, Jornal de Notícias, Diário de Notícias and Correio da Manhã from 2010 to 2018 - our corpus has 1.255 texts in which are quoted 2.471 news sources. Our analyses emphasizes the strength of medical research in the media coverage of cancer and the power of specialized news sources as the number one source in putting cancer in the news.

Keywords : cancer; medical research; media coverage.

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