Meditation as panacea: A longitudinal semantic network analysis of meditation coverage in campus newspapers from 1997–2018

Abstract

Objective

Media framing of health issues reflects public opinion and impacts readers’ perceptions and behavior. This study examines how meditation — a recommended stress coping strategy for college students — is framed in campus newspapers from 1997-2018.

Participants

A total of 494 articles were analyzed.

Methods

Semantic network analysis was used to automatically detect frames and the longitudinal trend.

Results

Five major frames emerged: (1) building a meditation community within a campus community, (2) meditation benefits, (3) yoga for enhancing mind and body awareness, (4) meditation techniques, and (5) secularizing meditation on campus. There is a shift in coverage from interest in religion to secular views of health benefits throughout the years. Discussions of adverse effects that have emerged from the literature were entirely absent.

Conclusions

The trend of secularizing meditation practices on college campuses is evident. Emphasizing the techniques and benefits could encourage participation and build a learning community.

Keywords:

• Campus newspapers
• framing
• meditation
• semantic network analysis

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States and received approval from the University of Kansas Institutional Review Board.

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.