Courting Coverage: How National News Media Reported on Health Risk Behaviors in Teens

Background:  From the Pew 2016 State of the News Media Report, digital news consumption is rising and consumers are getting news/information from a variety of media types and platforms. Despite the changing landscape, national news media are a critical dissemination channel linking the public with the world of science and public health. Unfortunately, not all health issues or study findings generate media attention on their own, making it imperative that public health professionals strive to maximize media attention and coverage.

Program background:  Since 1991 the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) has provided important data related to student health behaviors. Health risk behaviors among youth vary over time and across the nation, making the YRBS an essential tool to better understand a wide range of priority health risk behaviors among youth at the national, state, and local levels. The YRBS helps identify newly emerging behaviors and monitors long-standing youth risk behaviors over time. In June 2016, CDC released the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) results. More than 15,000 U.S. high school students participated in the 2015 National YRBS.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  Building support for a public health program is critical. If approached strategically, news media can be a powerful ally in furthering the reach of public health information and messages. To get reporters’ attention and encourage coverage of the YRBS results, CDC implemented a media strategy that included framing youth health and safety in a compelling way by disseminating a comprehensive digital press kit, providing spokespersons for interviews, and convening a telebriefing about the data release. Content analysis of media coverage in an applied setting is not as formal as in theoretical studies. In this case, analysis was used as a process/implementation evaluation tool to assess media coverage and reach of the CDC press release about the YRBS findings. Media monitoring software was used to track news stories by source and channel over a 48 hour period. Examination of the news stories generated data on CDC references, YRBS results, and topic popularity.  Highlights included:

• 632 stories written and/or broadcast. 
• General interest websites led coverage (234 stories), followed by broadcast station websites (120 stories).
• Total publicity value was $1,105,068.38. 
• Cumulative reach of the coverage was 1,795,755,504 people.
• Articles posted on general interest news websites reached the most people (955,352,648).

Findings suggest if coverage is a priority, media engagement can yield results that illustrate the value of media in raising awareness of youth health issues and advancing public health.

Conclusions:  A majority of the public depends on a mix of news media formats and channels for receiving health news and information. News media coverage can raise public awareness of teen health risk behaviors. Working with the media to report research findings can have an impact on improving behavior, lifestyles and well-being plus potential implications for influencing public health practice.

Implications for research and/or practice:  National news media play a vital role in communicating health and science information to the public. Communication with the media should be undertaken strategically to increase the likelihood of more accurate and balanced reporting while reaching a broad audience.