Diabetes TV News Coverage Lags Behind

Stephania T. Miller; Marquita N. Campbell; James W. Pichert

doi:10.2337/diacare.25.3.607

Reviews/Commentaries/Position Statements

Diabetes TV News Coverage Lags Behind

Stephania T. Miller, PHD1,
Marquita N. Campbell2 and
James W. Pichert, PHD1

¹Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Diabetes Research and Training Center, Nashville, Tennessee
²Spelman College, Department of Biology, Atlanta, Georgia.

Diabetes Care 2002 Mar; 25(3): 607-607. https://doi.org/10.2337/diacare.25.3.607

Millions of Americans depend on the national nightly network news programs for current events information (1). Previous studies showed that nightly network news coverage about diabetes paled in comparison with that given to cancer and heart disease during the 1970s and 1980s (2,3). We evaluated whether the amount of national news coverage given to diabetes had improved during the 1990s and the extent to which racial disparities in diabetes had been highlighted. Specific objectives included tracking diabetes-related coverage on major nightly network news programs for the last 10 years, comparing diabetes coverage with that of cancer and heart disease, and examining the content of diabetes-related coverage.

The Vanderbilt Television News Archives (VTNA) has videotaped, catalogued, and indexed nightly news broadcasts from ABC, CBS, and NBC since 1968 (4). In addition, the VTNA …

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