TV Health Content Analysis: Mapping Health Portrayals On Popular Primetime Scripted Shows

Background:  Studies have shown that health content depicted on fictional television programs is associated with changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behavior among audience members. Exploring the health content of primetime television shows is critical to understanding the kinds of issues and portrayals that millions of television viewers are exposed to every day.

Program background: The HH&S TV Monitoring Project is designed to survey health content in the most popular primetime entertainment TV programming in the United States. Codes encompass specific depictions of health, region of the world, access to health care, value appeal and framing of health issues, educational content value, stigma of the health issue, and cross-cultural practices. The project analyzes the depictions of several broad health issues including risk factors for disease (from cancer to malaria and tuberculosis), health outcomes, and social determinants of health.

Evaluation Methods and Results: A content analysis of 615 health storylines from the spring 2009 television season was conducted.  Research questions focused on analyzing the health storylines watched by three audience groups: General, African American, and Hispanic. Findings suggest that minority audiences are exposed to health storylines with significantly less educational content.

Conclusions: Viewers are exposed to a wealth of health content through scripted shows, but disparities in health portrayals exist across top primetime shows for the three audience groups. 

Implications for research and/or practice: This study illustrates how television can be an effective mode of communicating health information to millions of people in a short period of time. Implications for content analyses and the study of media and health will also be discussed.