Is social isolation a public health issue? A media analysis in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Abstract

Recognition of the health effects of social isolation has led to the media framing it as a public health issue. In this paper, we examine how the media frame social isolation among older people and how the public respond to this framing. Using framing analysis, we analysed an online article, embedded video content and 369 comments posted in response to this article. The article used a recognisable public health framing to understand the causes of social isolation as structural, supported by a video which presented the private face of a public health problem. The online comments largely resisted this framing, arguing that social isolation reflected an individual deficit, best remedied through individual actions such as joining groups or having a positive attitude. Families were also viewed as responsible for the social lives of their members, and social isolation was attributed to neglectful families. Commenters also suggested that alleviating social isolation was the responsibility of neighbours and volunteers. These three arguments accounted for 88% of the comments. Much less commonly, social isolation was described as due to the march of Western civilisation. This analysis shows how the public are active in their response to, and largely rejection of, framing social isolation as a public health issue. Although the health impacts of social isolation were endorsed, this was insufficient for structural explanations to prevail. Public health campaigners need to understand how individualising accounts of health issues are used to undermine public health explanations so as to most effectively challenge them.