Differences in English- and Spanish-language Health News: A Comparison of Newspapers in Two Cities

Abstract

The authors explored whether differences exist in the volume of health news coverage in English- and Spanish-language newspapers in the United States, as well as differences in the main topics discussed and the way the issue was framed. A sample of 239 news articles was selected from English- and Spanish-language newspapers in Miami, Florida and Los Angeles, California. Analysis revealed that English-language newspapers contained a greater volume of health news information and significant t-test results indicated a greater frequency of biomedical and financial–economic frames than Spanish-language newspapers contained. Los Angeles and Miami comparisons also yielded significant differences. Specifically, community–political–environmental and biomedical frames were used more frequently in Los Angeles than in Miami. Author ethnicity was not found to affect health news coverage, but this may be more indicative of the difficulties in measuring ethnicity and the questionable validity of this variable. These findings raise questions about the role of newspaper ownership structure and goals, as well as regional differences in health news coverage and the resulting access to health information for Spanish-dominant Latinos across the country.

KEYTERMS:

• comparative framing
• ethnic newspapers
• health news
• Latinos

Notes

Note. χ² = 5.41, p = 0.02.

Note. pharm = pharmaceutical. χ² = 13.71, p = 0.033.