Cancer coverage in a mainstream and Korean American online newspaper: lessons for community intervention.
OBJECTIVE
Korean Americans have higher incidence of stomach, liver, and cervical cancer than most groups in CA, USA, and generally lower rates of cancer screening. To better target community interventions, we evaluated the cancer content in a leading Korean American newspaper, the Korea Daily, compared to a mainstream newspaper from the same metropolitan area, the Los Angeles (LA) Times.


METHODS
Using the online versions of each newspaper for the year 2006, we counted articles mentioning cancer and evaluated the content in a random sample of 300 articles from each newspaper. Articles were categorized by relevance of cancer content and topic(s) covered.


RESULTS
Although the LA Times had a higher proportion of articles mentioning cancer, the Korea Daily had more articles that primarily focused on cancer and addressed specific types of cancer. Articles in the Korea Daily were more likely to discuss prevention, while those in the LA Times more often focused on people, politics, or research.


CONCLUSIONS
Smaller, ethnic newspapers may be more amenable to messages about prevention and appropriate places to target community-focused interventions.


CONCLUSIONS
Health practitioners should consider submitting articles to ethnic newspapers and forming partnerships with journalists to cultivate this potential.
McDonnell
Diana D
DD
Center for Family and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94704-7370United States. dmcdonnell@berkeley.edu
Lee
Hyun-Ju
HJ
Kim
Young-Bok
YB
Kazinets
Gene
G
Moskowitz
Joel M
JM
D001213:Asian / Q000193:education / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015706:Bibliometrics; D002423:Cause of Death; D003256:Community Participation; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D015438:Health Behavior / Q000208:ethnology; D006266:Health Education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006291:Health Policy; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D054625:Healthcare Disparities; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D020407:Internet; D018156:Journalism, Medical; D007723:Korea / Q000208:ethnology; D015141:Los Angeles / Q000453:epidemiology; D008403:Mass Screening; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D009524:Newspapers as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011322:Primary Prevention; D016896:Treatment Outcome