The portrayal of complementary and alternative medicine in mass print magazines since 1980.
OBJECTIVE
The objectives of this study were to examine and describe the portrayal of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in mass print media magazines.


METHODS
The sample included all 37 articles found in magazines with circulation rates of greater than 1 million published in the United States and Canada from 1980 to 2005. The analysis was quantitative and qualitative and included investigation of both manifest and latent magazine story messages.


RESULTS
Manifest analysis noted that CAM was largely represented as a treatment for a patient with a medically diagnosed illness or specific symptoms. Discussions used biomedical terms such as patient rather than consumer and disease rather than wellness. LATENT analysis revealed three themes: (1) CAMs were described as good but not good enough; (2) individualism and consumerism were venerated; and (3) questions of costs were raised in the context of confusion and ambivalence.
Clarke
Juanne
J
Department of Sociology, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. jclarke@wlu.ca
Romagnoli
Amy
A
Sargent
Cristal
C
van Amerom
Gudrun
G
D001294:Attitude to Health; D015706:Bibliometrics; D002170:Canada; D003142:Communication; D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008402:Mass Media; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D014481:United States