December 2004

The media gap

by Dr. Madeline Behrendt

Early on a Monday morning, Jane Chiropractor starts her news routine. She watches a national TV news program while spinning, skims the local newspaper during breakfast, and plays the radio while driving into work. Health news is important to her. But, Jane finds the health news limited to prescription drug "breakthroughs" and breakdowns or potential pandemics. By mid‑morning her interest diminishes and Jane turns away from the noise.

Sound familiar? Typically, news that the media reports as "health" information frustrates chiropractors. Even more frustrating is the news the media is not reporting. Chiropractic is enormously popular with the public, yet so many stories, miracles, and life‑changing moments go unreported.

Are chiropractor's frustrations on target? Just how often is chiropractic mentioned in the media, and in what context?

For this information I went to the list of the top 100 daily newspapers (2003) and researched several of their archives. The results were not pretty. Often DCs had to be arrested, die, or be cut out of workman's comp to appear in print. Only the sports pages mentioned chiropractic frequently and in a positive light. The athletes making news often used chiropractic care for performance or to recover from injury.

Appropriate media coverage is a concern because newspapers reach a lot of people. Here are the circulation statistics for the top five dailies: USA TODAY (2,136,068), The Wall Street Journal (1,800,607), The New York Times (1,113,000), The Los Angeles Times (925,135), The Washington Post (746,724).

The following examples show how many times during 2003 chiropractic or chiropractors were mentioned and in what context:

*** The Los Angeles Times ‑‑ at least 72 mentions including: 26 regarding policy; 25 in general articles; 6 regarding criminal activities; 5 in the sports section; 3 in a general health topic article; 2 regarding animals; 1 each in letters to the editor, an obituary, and articles on strokes, celebrity, and humanitarian service.

*** USA TODAY, the number one daily newspaper in 2003 ‑‑ at least 23 mentions including: 10 in the sports section; 5 each regarding policy, and general non‑health articles; 2 related to celebrity; 1 in a general health article.

*** The San Francisco Chronicle (#11, circulation 512,129) at least 51 mentions, including: 25 regarding policy; 11 in the sports section; 4 related to humanitarian services; 3 each in non‑health related articles and letters to the editor; 2 each in articles related to strokes and animals; 1 each for a criminal case, obituary, and a general health topic article.

What do these patterns that are repeated over and over show? These results reveal that writers and editors are not writing or publishing chiropractic news. Chiropractors' frustrations are on target.

One major glitch contributing to the media gap is a mismatch of expertise. Writers and editors producing health news may be trained in journalism, but lack the expertise to negotiate the complicated world of health care, including the distinctions between medicine and natural approaches. Some expertise gaps in other industries have been resolved. In the sports world, for instance, teams of professionals are created to cover events and broadcasters work with retired athletes.

Yet, in health care, how many journalists have the specific expertise to identify the real issue driving a story, know when they are being misinformed or what the most important questions are? Many women relied on the media to report on hormone replacement therapy (HRT), Vioxx, and anti‑depressant drugs. When the media failed to get the real story behind these drugs, the public was left with scandals.

Overall, this gap results in superficial news. Maybe headlines that don't match the studies they are describing. Maybe health topics are repetitively approached in the "same old, same old," conventional way. Maybe heavily biased claims are reported as news and swallowed whole. And, no "maybe" about it, accurate health care choices are missing.

I'm writing this at the end of a year in which chiropractic enjoyed possibly the most positive and extensive press ever. The WCA media campaign hit many home runs. JVSR research studies attracted tremendous responses and generated TV, print, and Internet news stories. I worked with CBS producers who were excellent, making sure they got the story right.

But while this year was sweet, there still is a big gap between what's being covered and what needs to be covered. What to do about it? Well, gaps are what New Year's resolutions are for! Chiropractors, add "media campaign" to your list. Let's have better media statistics at the end of 2005.

(Dr. Madeline Behrendt is chair of the WCA Council on Women's Health and associate editor of the Journal of Vertebral Subluxation Research [JVSR]. An author and speaker, she is committed to connecting women to chiropractic and chiropractors to women, and may be contacted at drmadeline@drmadelinedc.com)