Mar 20, 2002
 Media suffering from tunnel vision

 Daily stories about a shortage of health care funding and miraculous medical
discoveries may be symptomatic of a serious malady afflicting the news media
speculates Michael Hayes. "Tunnel vision," suggests the Simon Fraser University
health geographer and  associate director of the institute for health research
and education. Hayes specializes in population health research and leads a
collaborative project called Telling stories: news media, health literacy and
public policy.The three year project, funded by a  $175,000 grant from the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, will generate empirical
analysis of health literacy in  Canadian news media. Faculty from SFU's school
of communication (Bob Hackett and Donald Gustein) and the University of Calgary,
B.C. 's provincial health officer and the Institute of Media, Policy and Civil
Society are collaborating on the study.

 Hayes' group recently gathered some telling evidence in a pilot project aimed
at testing the study's methodology and content  analysis tools. "We found that
an overwhelming number of health stories in major newspapers deal obsessively
with shortages in  healthcare services and funding, and medical discoveries,"
says Hayes. "The
last 30 years of federal health policy-making have been  based on evidence that
factors outside the health care system are fundamental to determining and
maintaining a population's health.  Yet very few of the stories we analysed
dealt with health determinants such as housing, nature of work, poverty or
income  distribution."

 The pilot project analysed 500 health stories published collectively over a
year in five major newspapers: The Globe and Mail,  National Post, Toronto Star,
Montreal Gazette and Vancouver Sun. "We know that the news media significantly
impact public opinion.  Research shows that risk factors for mortality as
presented in the media often
don't jive at all with the empirical evidence," says  Hayes. He adds this kind
of reporting feeds public pressure for short term, immediate solutions to health
care shortages. Policy  makers need to second the news media's help in shifting
public opinion if we are to focus on early developmental and life long  factors
that influence health outcomes over the life course, says Hayes.

 The SFU professor's collaborative study will gather empirical evidence on the
extent to which the news media set the public agenda  on health and what
influences their decision-making. The group's research will culminate in
workshops aimed at stimulating health  reporting and public discourse that
better addresses the broad spectrum of determinants affecting population health.

 Hayes notes that this study is unique in its focus and broad-based,
interdisciplinary approach. "One study published recently  analysed health
reporting in Dutch newspapers, but there has been no empirical
analysis of the media's portrayal of health issues in  Canada," notes Hayes.
"This project also brings together academic researchers and media analysts from
non profit groups to uncover  and share information."

 Hayes also has a $521,000 grant over three years to analyse and correlate
information from a variety of databases about the  distribution of health status
in the Lower Mainland. Using 26 population health determinants, the study will
integrate information  from municipal, regional and provincial databases to
create a big picture of health status in the metropolitan Vancouver region. The
Canadian Institute for Health Information is funding this project through its
Canadian Population Health Initiative.

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 CONTACT
 Michael Hayes, 604.268.6648, [log in to unmask]
 Carol Thorbes, Media & PR, 604.291.3035

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