by Kathy Wiemers
The media has been accused of a liberal bias for years. The Pew Research Center studied the media's coverage of President Obama's healthcare reform bill. Pew found that a majority of the terms used were conservative frames, not liberal frames. The media also covered the health care reform process like a horserace or battle.
Pew looked at 5,500 health care stories from June 2009 through March 2010 when it was the top news story. This time period corresponds to higher public interest and the greatest political partisanship. Talk shows, especially liberal leaning shows, discussed health care reform more often than the mainstream media.
While the media covered the politics of the health care reform, they spent little time on other story angles. The media hardly covered how the health insurance industry works. Newspapers were the exception, and they used about 18 percent of their front page coverage on the current state of health insurance in the US and how health insurance works. So while the American public was confused (69% said debate was hard to understand in December 2009), the media did little to help.
We are left with several questions:
- Did the media do its job?
- Do you understand health care insurance and health care reform?
- Do you know how the health care reform bill reformed health care?
Reference
Pew Research Center, Project for Excellence in Journalism. "Six Things to Know about Health Care Coverage" June 10, 2010. http://www.journalism.org/analysis_report/six_things_know_about_health_care_coverage (accessed June 20, 2012).
Pew Research Center, Project for Excellence in Journalism. "Six Things to Know about Health Care Coverage" June 10, 2010. http://www.journalism.org/analysis_report/six_things_know_about_health_care_coverage (accessed June 20, 2012).
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