How the Media Distorts Perceptions on Chronic Disease Risks

Doctor checking blood glucose level using a fingerstick glucose meter, waiting for results from glucometer. Obese or overweight man at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Concept of health risks of overwight and obesity. — Media outlets consistently underrepresent chronic illnesses, like obesity and diabetes, in their coverage, while overrepresenting sensational health risks. (Credit: Halfpoint via Getty Images)

Silent illnesses, or chronic diseases, contribute to 70% of deaths in the US annually and six in ten Americans suffer from at least one chronic condition. Despite this, coverage of this public health crisis is disproportionately overshadowed by sensational risks, including terrorism, homicide, and traffic accidents- incidents that are far more likely to grab readers’ attention.

Calvin Isch, an Annenberg Ph.D. student and member of the Computational Social Science Lab (CSSLab), which is directed by Duncan Watts, Stevens University Professor in Computer and Information Science (CIS) further explored this bias and imbalance in media coverage in his latest research.

Isch’s new paper, Media bias in portrayals of mortality risks: Comparison of newspaper coverage to death rates, found that the mainstream media tends to amplify sensational risks while underrepresenting chronic risks, highlighting a disparity between risks covered by the media and the mortality risks that threaten Americans the most.

Using natural language processing techniques, Isch collected monthly data on 14 different mortality risks using keyword searches on 823,406 major US news outlet articles that were published between 1999 to 2020.

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