Research On The Reports Of Obesity In The Field Of Health Communication

This paper takes 399 pieces of obesity news from 2003 to 2017 in two Chinese national health care newspapers,Health News and the Health Times,as samples.Using content analysis to compare the distribution of the two newspapers in the news source,the topic of the report,the attribution framework and the news tone,and on this basis,further explore the differences between the two newspapers and the pros and cons of obesity news.The study found that the changes in the number of obesity news reports in the past 15 years can be roughly divided into four stages: the initial period,the development period,the gradual period and the reheating period.The reports of obesity is mainly focused on “experts or conference reports” and “journal or media”.The topics of the reports focus on “new results of medical research on obesity or population of health knowledge” and “treatments or solutions for obesity”.The personal factors in the attribution framework account for the highest proportion,followed by medical factors,and social factors are at the end.In terms of news tone,the category is “neutral or mixed or unable to judge”.Health News and the Health Times have significant differences in terms of sources,subject topics and attribution frameworks,but the difference between the two newspapers in the news tone is not significant.In addition,obesity news reports are objective and rarely stigmatized.These are the advantages and strengths.However,there are also deficiencies.First of all,the source of news is simple and too dependent on expert authority.Second,blurred news sources have damaged the quality of the reports.Third,some statements of the reports are not rigorous enough.Last but not less important,there is an imbalance in the attribution framework,focusing on personal factors and neglecting social factors.Finally,based on the findings of the above research,this paper summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of obesity news content and reflects on the limitations of this study.It also makes recommendations for the shortcomings.This study suggests improving journalism professionalism to improve the quality of news reports.