Using Public Relations to Promote Health: A Framing Analysis of Public Relations Strategies Among Health Associations

Abstract

This study explored health organizations' public relations efforts to frame health issues through their press releases. Content analysis of 316 press releases from three health organizations—the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, and the American Diabetes Association—revealed that they used the medical research frame most frequently and emphasized societal responsibility for health issues. There were differences, however, among the organizations regarding the main frames and health issues: the American Diabetes Association was more likely to focus on the issues related to social support and education, while the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society were more likely to address medical research and scientific news. To demonstrate their initiatives for public health, all the organizations employed the social support/educational frame most frequently. Researchers and medical doctors frequently were quoted as trusted sources in the releases.

Notes

¹American Heart Association, www.americanheart.org; American Cancer Society, www.cancer.org; American Diabetes Association, www.diabetes.org.

²A Program for Reliability Assessment with Multiple Coders.

χ²(6, N = 314) = 54.977, p < .05.

³The personal stories frame was excluded for the chi-square analysis because its expected counts for each organization were less than five.

Note. Since this question allowed for multiple mentions, the sum of the numbers and percentages within the columns is not equal to the total for each column.

df = 2, ∗p < .05.

χ²(6, N = 149) = 16.278, p < .05.

df = 2, ∗p < .05.

Note. Since anyone mentioned and interviewed in a release was coded for the types of subjects and sources respectively, the sum of the numbers and percentages within the columns is not equal to the total for each column in Tables 4 and 5.

df = 2, ∗p < .05.