Abstract
Human-interest narratives are journalistic tools to captivate and engage the audience, influence public opinion and bring revenue to media organizations. This paper analyses how human-interest narratives are used in contemporary health journalism across media systems and health systems. Based on a comparative content analysis of Norwegian, Spanish, U.K. and U.S. newspapers (2016–2017), it studies how human-interest stories are contextualized, health problems explained and responsibility attributed. The article reveals a complex picture of the role of human-interest stories in health coverage. In line with expectations, the study finds that human-interest stories do tend to emphasize individual biomedical treatment of illness and to privilege idealized victims who fit the routines of dominant media dramaturgy. In contrast to theories that consider personalization of news as an individualization of responsibility and dumbing down of public debate, however, the study finds that human-interest narratives are also used to explain health as a structural phenomenon and a collective responsibility, appealing to political intervention and accountability of health authorities. Such claims are more prominent in European human-interest health stories and less frequent in the more strongly commercialized U.S. health and media system.
Highlights
Human-interest narratives are journalistic tools to captivate and engage the audience, influence public opinion and bring revenue to media organizations
Focussing on how human-interest stories are related to dominant understandings of health and the attribution of responsibility to avoid and fight illness, it asks: How are human-interest stories contextualized, health problems explained and responsibility attributed in contemporary health journalism across media systems and health systems?
The other emerging approach to human-interest stories takes the opposite view, and argues that the use of personal accounts spurs calls for collective action and appeals to public authorities to take responsibility (Boukes et al, 2015; Hopmann et al, 2017; Ostfeld and Mutz, 2014; Zillmann, 2002). We elaborate on these two main positions; how they relate to the development of health journalism and political advocacy, and how a impact of such personal narratives may privilege some stories and some victims of disease over others
Summary
Human-interest narratives are journalistic tools to captivate and engage the audience, influence public opinion and bring revenue to media organizations. In contrast to theories that consider personalization of news as an individualization of responsibility and dumbing down of public debate, the study finds that human-interest narratives are used to explain health as a structural phenomenon and a collective responsibility, appealing to political intervention and accountability of health authorities. We elaborate on these two main positions; how they relate to the development of health journalism and political advocacy, and how a (perceived) impact of such personal narratives may privilege some stories and some victims of disease over others
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