Abstract
BackgroundLack of social awareness is a major barrier to the development of palliative care. Mass media influences public opinion, and frequently deal with palliative care contributing to its image and public understanding.AimTo analyse how palliative care is portrayed in Spanish newspapers, as well as the contribution made by the press to its social representation.DesignBased on criteria of scope and editorial plurality, four print newspapers were selected. Using the newspaper archive MyNews (www.mynews.es), articles published between 2009 and 2014 containing the words “palliative care” or “palliative medicine” were identified. Sociological discourse analysis was performed on the identified texts on two levels: a) contextual analysis, focusing on the message as a statement; b) interpretative analysis, considering the discourse as a social product.ResultsWe examined 262 articles. Politician and healthcare professionals were the main representatives transmitting messages on palliative care. The discourses identified were characterised by: strong ideological and moral content focusing on social debate, strong ties linking palliative care and death and, to a lesser degree, as a healthcare service. The messages transmitted by representatives with direct experience in palliative care (professionals, patients and families) contributed the most to building a positive image of this healthcare practice. Overall, media reflect different interests in framing public understanding about palliative care.ConclusionThe knowledge generated about how palliative care is reflected in the printed media may help to understand better one of the main barriers to its development not only in Spain, but also in other contexts.
Highlights
Due primarily to the reduction of premature mortality and the control of communicable disease, the majority of countries worldwide have experienced a significant increase in life expectancy and the ageing of their populations
Palliative care has been defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual” [5]
This study shows the results of a sociological discourse analysis applied to references of Palliative care (PC) in Spanish print newspapers between 2009 and 2014
Summary
Due primarily to the reduction of premature mortality and the control of communicable disease, the majority of countries worldwide have experienced a significant increase in life expectancy and the ageing of their populations. The risk of developing cancer and neurodegenerative diseases has increased and the prevalence of chronic disorders and diseases with lengthy trajectories is expected to rise in the coming years [1,2,3]. Managing this demographic and epidemiological situation represents a major public health challenge. In 2012 PC coverage remains at less than half of the recommended amount, and the level of service development remains insufficient to cover the needs of the Spanish population [6]. Mass media influences public opinion, and frequently deal with palliative care contributing to its image and public understanding
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