The coverage of prostate cancer and impotence in four popular men's magazines

International Journal of Men's Health, Summer, 2005 by William Hoon

LITERATURE REVIEW

This study is one of the few to examine how men's health issues have been covered in popular magazines. While a number of researchers have explored the coverage of general health topics in magazines, the search found only one specific to men's health. Clarke (1999) examined select print articles on prostate cancer between 1974 and 1995 but found only 35 articles on the topic over the 20-year time span. Shaulis (1998) analyzed exercise messages in magazine articles from 1925 to 1968. The study concluded that exercise information from the magazines during that period (1925 to 1968) was often incomplete and/or emphasized quick results. Inaccurate information was also found in an examination of magazine coverage of mental health topics. For instance, Barton (1996) found that many magazines provided a negative image of mental health services.

Some research has focused on a particular health concern, for instance, cigarette smoking. One study in particular examined the coverage of smoking-related dangers in article content and the presence of cigarette advertisements in U.S. magazines. The authors found support for the belief that the magazines restricted their coverage of smoking dangers out of fear of economic reprisals by tobacco advertisers (Warner, Goldenhar, & McLaughlin, 1992). A similar study analyzed editorial and advertising content of six women's magazines for the coverage of smoking-related health hazards (Kessler, 1989). After finding no substantive coverage of any of the health hazards associated with smoking, Kessler (1989) also argued that tobacco advertising revenue and the lack of coverage were connected.

Most of the research on health coverage in magazines has focused primarily on content in women's magazines. Miller (1980) examined the coverage of health-related content in six women's magazines between 1976 and 1978. Miller stated that magazines served as a major source of health information, which emphasized promotion, practices, and preventative orientation. However, that study is one of the few to praise the print medium's efforts to raise the public's awareness of health issues.

In the past decade, several scholars have provided arguments that the print media's treatment of public health issues has been both sparse and superficial. Sacks (1991) examined seven women's magazines for their coverage of national health promotion and objectives. The author found only limited coverage of information concerning many health problems that affect women. In an analysis of articles about breast cancer, Olive (1996) reported that women's magazines provided contradictory information on screening guidelines and failed to report the power women have in battling the disease. Another study showed women's magazines gave their readers very little information about the risks and treatment of colon cancer (Gerlach, Marino, Weed, & Hoffman-Goetz, 1997). Reed (1990) examined women's magazines for the existence of "mobilizing information," which might encourage readers suffering from eating disorders to take some action concerning their dilemmas. Reed found 51 articles about the topic in 14 magazines during the 1980s with less than half of them containing specific mobilizing information. While women's magazines were found to provide a sustained level of coverage concerning rape, Benedict (1994) found the articles upheld some of the myths of rape and often reported only the titillating aspects of the crime. In sum, these studies typify the need for better coverage of all health-related issues to the general public.