Media Coverage of Managed Care: Is There a Negative Bias?

Health Affairs

Volumn 17, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 9-25

  Brodie, Mollyann ^a   Brady, Lee Ann ^a   Altman, Drew E ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; HEALTH INSURANCE; HUMAN; INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION; MASS MEDIUM; PUBLICATION; SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY; STANDARD; TELEVISION; UNITED STATES;

COMMUNICATION; HUMANS; MANAGED CARE PROGRAMS; MASS MEDIA; NEWSPAPERS; PREJUDICE; TELEVISION; UNITED STATES;

EID: 0031601657     PISSN: 02782715     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.17.1.9     Document Type: Article

References (17)

1. KPMG Peat Marwick, Health Benefits 1997 (Washington: KPMG Peat Marwick, June 1997). The 1988 figure is taken from the Health Insurance Association of America's 1988 Survey of the Nation's Employers, cited in Health Benefits 1997.
2. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Medicaid Facts: Medicaid and Managed Care (Prepared for the Kaiser Commission on the Future of Medicaid, Washington, D.C., June 1997).
3. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, The Medicare Program: Managed Care (Prepared for the Kaiser Medicare Policy Project, April 1997).
4. M. Serafini, "Managed Care Digs Out, Maybe," National Journal, 2 March 1996, 504.
5. P. Cotton, ed., "PR Campaign Planned for Managed Care," Medicine and Health, 22 January 1996, 1. See also, American Association of Health Plans, press release, 26 February 1996.
6. For recurring story leads/"big stories," coders evaluate each story looking for recurrent themes/leads. Most thematic trends in press coverage have a finite life, such as the health care reform debate. Other less specific leads, however, such as Wall Street performances and hospital closings and consolidations, extend over longer periods of time.
7. To measure those subjects or issues that receive the most coverage in news stories, coders identify the most prominent managed care topic examined in each story. If that subject or issue receives one-third or more of the story coverage, it is coded as the principal news topic. If an additional subject or issue receives one-fifth or more of the coverage, it is designated as the secondary news topic. There can only be a secondary news topic if the coder has first identified a principal news topic. For purposes of analysis, these two variables are combined to create the measure for dominant news topic.
8. See Kaiser Family Foundation/Times Mirror Center, Health Care Reform Media Monitoring Reports, 1993-1994.
9. To identify the most prominently featured newsmakers, coders identify individuals, organizations, or communities covered in each story. If any receives one-third or more of that coverage, it is designated as the major newsmaker; if an additional individual, organization, or community receives one-fifth or more of the story's coverage, it is designated as the secondary newsmaker. For purposes of analysis, these two variables are combined to create the measure for dominant newsmaker.
10. For anecdotal drama level, coders were required to identify all anecdotal references within a particular news story, then evaluate the one most dramatic anecdote. When there was little or no dramatic element to that anecdote, it was coded as "minimal drama"; when there was a situation described in which someone was inconvenienced or somewhat burdened, it was coded as "some drama." Only in cases in which there was a life-altering, potentially fatal, or fatal event recounted was the anecdote coded as "high drama." For villains and victims, coders evaluated each story to see if any individual, organization, or community was depicted as an agent that caused harm to another; if so, that entity was designated as the villain of the news story. Likewise, when an individual, organization, or community was portrayed as having been harmed, it was coded as the victim.
11. As indexed by the Vanderbilt University Television News Archives.
12. Special series, selected on an ad hoc basis and encompassing no more than one week, were not dominated by time-driven events.
13. Coders determine "tone" by quantifying and evaluating the positive and negative comments, interpretations, and innuendos offered by the journalist or presented as quotes from other sources; headlines carry double weight. If the ratio is 2:1 negative or more, the story is coded as negative; if the ratio is 2:1 positive, it is coded as positive. Those stories that have a positive-to-negative ratio of less than 2:1 are considered neutral or ambiguous.
14. Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard University/Princeton Survey Research Associates, National Survey of Americans' Views on Managed Care, September 1997.
15. E.M. Rogers and J.W. Dearing, "Agenda-Setting Research: Where Has It Been, Where Is It Going?" in Communication Yearbook 11, ed. J.A. Anderson (Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1988), 555-594.
16. Kaiser/Harvard/Princeton Survey Research, National Survey of Americans' Views on Managed Care.
17. Ibid.