Topical Punch Health Topics as Drivers of Idiosyncratic Reader Responses to Online News

AbstractAlthough scholars explore how news stories' framing elements may affect reader responses, they have yet to examine how the topics of health-related articles affect those responses. By content analyzing three US newspapers' online health content and reader comments, this study finds that certain health topics are idiosyncratic with reader responses. Readers reacted to personal health and obesity news with more episodic and gain-framed comments but relied more on loss frames when discussing chronic health issues. Readers also used more thematic frames in comments about mental illness. Health coverage related to politics and the government was associated with fewer episodic comments.Keywordsepisodic and thematic framing, gain and loss framing, health frames, health journalism, health news, online comments, news consumersDiscourse surrounding health concerns has remained among the top news issues in the United States over the last several years, particularly online where traffic to news sites continues to rise.1 These outlets serve as important conduits of health content and provide a certain level of public engagement, often offering spaces where readers can comment on reports and discuss related issues. Allowing readers to comment on online news coverage opens up public deliberation, exposes people to novel ideas, and invites a variety of perspectives and opinions that may not be included in the news coverage itself.2 Several recent studies have examined the association between the ways health news articles are framed and the ways readers respond, finding that readers may pick up on particular frames but may not promote them in online discourse.3 This is particularly important in light of research that shows news consumers who read online content and the comments that follow may align their beliefs and opinions more with reader responses and less with actual news coverage.4 Even with balanced reporting, reader comments have the potential to skew news consumers' perceptions.While public health officials and scholars have urged journalists for years to improve their health news coverage, especially in ways that can help people connect with health issues on societal rather than individual levels,5 reader comments have only recently come under fire. Indeed, journalists have taken steps to enhance their health coverage by including more societal, or thematic, frames in their reporting.6 Readers, however, have not entirely embraced the change, continuing to approach some health issues as individual problems in spite of the thematic frames offered by journalists.7 This suggests that certain topics, rather than framing devices, may drive reader responses. For example, the topic of obesity may engender episodic thinking no matter how much thematic framing journalists employ. Thus, this study questions how the topic of health news content, rather than the frames, may guide reader responses. If it is the case that health topics influence the ways in which readers react, then improving health news coverage may need to extend beyond simply shifting framing techniques.Using a content analysis of online health articles and reader responses from three major U.S. news outlets, this study explores the association between the topic of health content and the frames with which readers choose to respond. The findings signify the importance of particular health topics in promoting certain forms of reader responses and can help health communication scholars and journalists design potentially more effective approaches to health news coverage by anticipating certain forms of reader reactions.Literature ReviewOver the last several decades, the Internet has opened up new forms of news media that help to inform the public while also promoting a certain level of dialogue between news creators and consumers.8 News creators have attempted to harness this new form of news interaction, navigating into social media spaces and developing forums for public conversations. …