and how these issues could be addressed by policy. He remained genuinely interested throughout the presentation.
After the talk was finished, this colleague approached me to discuss my research. He started with the comment, “that’s exactly what we do. That’s how we cover issues.” It was my turn to nod my head in agreement and answer “I know.” I worked as a journalist before entering academia. I had the same reaction when I first read Iyengar’s 1991 book, Is Anyone Responsible: How Television Frames ←xi | xii→Political Issues, about episodic and thematic frames and attribution of responsibility. My dissertation advisor, another former journalist, assigned the book for me to read. She said, “You are going to like this. He gets us.” I did like it. It made sense to me. When I read it, I realized I knew what these frames were because as a journalist I used them all of the time.
My experience as a journalist influences my work as a health communication researcher. Journalists use thematic and episodic frames in news coverage. As researchers we need to examine the frames journalists use in their stories. Even if these frames are not shiny and new. Like most social issues, successful attempts to address public health problems involve public policy solutions. Public opinion support is necessary for public policy. Public support for policy requires the public to understand society’s role in solving problems.
Thematic and episodic frames are directly connected to attribution of responsibility. Along with the who, what, when, where, and why in news stories, identifying the causes of problems, and who or what is responsible for solving problems remains one of the most important functions of journalists. Attribution of responsibility influences the political agenda, public opinion, and public support for policies dealing with issues and problems.
In this book, we examine 25 years of research on thematic and episodic frames in health news. We have two goals in this project. First, to examine and explain what we know about the research on these frames in health to this point, and to provide a framework for research on thematic and episodic frames in health news in terms of public opinion support for health policy.
We plan to share our work with other health communication scholars, public health scholars and practitioners, and journalists reporting on health issues. All of us need to work together to understand the process and power of news frames. In many ways, that is where the real work begins.
Lesa Hatley Major
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The research presented in this book could not have been conducted without the support and assistance of key individuals and institutions. Christian Potter and Kim Baker provided invaluable help developing the coding categories used to analyze the content in the academic journal articles on thematic and episodic frames in news. As a research assistant, Christian was instrumental during the content analysis phase of this project. We are indebted to him for all of his thorough and thoughtful work.
Financial support for two of the experiments presented in this text was provided by Indiana University, Bloomington, through the Faculty Research Support Program. We would like to thank Dr. Lee Becker and are honored to be included in his series—Mass Communication and Journalism with Peter Lang Publishing. Also, we want to thank our editor, Dr. Erika Hendrix and everyone at Peter Lang Publishing for all of their support during this entire process.
Lesa would also like to acknowledge the following: Working with Stacie on this project was one of the most rewarding professional experiences of my career. I truly mean it when I say this work would not have been possible without her. Her insight not only added to the intellectual integrity of our research but provided the depth that could lead to real changes in how journalists and researchers do their jobs.
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Professor Amy Reynolds provided much needed advice when I decided to write this book. I value her honesty, humor and friendship. I’d like to thank my dear friend Tracey Setze for her encouragement and support.
I’d like to thank my parents—Donald and Mikell Sue Hatley—for helping me see the possibilities in life, always supporting me through the good and difficult times, and never making me color within the lines when I was little. My brother, John C. Hatley, always believed his big sis could do just about anything—that means the world to me.
Finally, I want to thank my husband, Allen C. Major for his unwavering love and support. He makes me laugh every day. For 19 years, he has been by my side with positive energy continually reminding me, “You got this!”
Stacie would like to recognize the following: Lesa has been my teacher, mentor, friend, and colleague for more than a decade, and working on this book together has been my favorite project we have done. It has truly been a joy as well as a revelation. Lesa is at the heart of this work, always pushing for deeper understanding. It’s this drive that will help uncover the knowledge researchers and journalists can use to be more effective.
I am fortunate to have supportive colleagues at Northern Kentucky University’s College of Informatics, especially within the journalism program. Furthermore, I am thankful for the kindness and support of friends, particularly Jessica Birthisel, Anne Blandford, Spring-Serenity Duvall, Lori Henson, and Rosemary Pennington. My sister, Jennie Goetz, also is a constant source of joy and comfort.
I am blessed with a supportive, loving, and hilarious family—parents Don and Paula Meihaus, siblings Don, Stephen, and Jennie, and an entire extended family, particularly my grandfather, Paul Tipton, who has not let a conversation go by without asking about this book. Finally, I am profoundly grateful for the love of my sons, Luke and Nathan, as well as my husband, Hal, who all celebrate with me the smallest of successes and buoy me through rough waters.
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Introduction: This Is a Health Communication Book?
Geoffrey Rose advised epidemiologists that “(s)ociety is not merely a collection of individuals but also a collectivity, and the behavior and health of its members are profoundly influenced by its collective characteristics and social norms” (2, p. 62).
Hundreds of health news stories are read and viewed daily across the globe. While individuals may turn to multiple outlets for health information, news remains one of the most important providers of health knowledge. All health news stories use some combination of episodic and thematic framing. Reporters tell stories about an individual’s health problem or provide details about a single event involving health (episodic coverage) and/or discuss a health problem more broadly offering context by focusing on prevalence, societal causes, and treatments including health policy (thematic coverage). These are the frames journalists use in the real world. Understanding how journalists construct these frames, and how these frames influence audience members, is critical for anyone involved in health communication, including health reporters.
Shanto Iyengar introduced thematic and episodic news frames in his 1991 book, Is Anyone Responsible? How Television Frames Political Issues. These news frames provide the audience with critical information about the causes of problems and who or what is responsible for solving problems. This attribution of responsibility influences how individuals think about social problems including health—who or what is causing the problem and who or what is responsible for solving it. ←1 | 2→Attributions of responsibility are critical elements of all social knowledge (Iyengar, 1991). Iyengar found news stories using an episodic frame led audience members to blame problems on the person in the story, while a thematic-framed story did the opposite. Thematic news coverage led audience members to think about problems in a broader context. In turn, audience members would consider societal conditions as problems requiring societal solutions like public health policies.
We began this research project thinking we would analyze all the academic research on thematic and episodic frames in news coverage of social problems for the past 25 years. This time period covered