Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 25, 2026

A New Method for Inducing a Depression-Like Behavior in Rats
Published on: February 22, 2018
Death makes news: the social impact of disease on newspaper coverage
1Institute of Gerontology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 48109-2007, USA. radelman@umich.edu
Unlabelled:
This paper is an integrated analysis of newspaper coverage, epidemiological rates, and recent social history of six prominent diseases.
Hypotheses:
Newspaper coverage of a disease has three developmental stages (emergence, maturation, and decline & death). Trends in newspaper coverage of a disease reflect trends in its mortality, prevalence, and incidence. Magnitudes of newspaper coverage of diseases reflect their differential mortality rates.
Data:
Using the LEXIS-NEXIS news archive for major U.S. newspapers, we retrieve articles about cancer, heart disease, AIDS, diabetes, Alzheimer disease, and arthritis for the period 1977-1997. We also obtain mortality, prevalence, and incidence trends for the six diseases.
Results:
During the two decades, newspaper coverage emerges for AIDS and Alzheimer disease and is in the mature stage for the other diseases; declines begin for heart disease and AIDS. Trends in news coverage closely parallel mortality trends, and less consistently prevalence and incidence trends. Sharp downturns and upturns in mortality are mirrored in news volume. High-mortality diseases prompt both the most news coverage and the largest proportions of articles with death topics.
Conclusion:
Newspaper coverage of diseases is responsive to their mortality levels and trends.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Overview of Cell Death
Cell death was observed in the early 19th century, but there was no experimental evidence to prove it. In 1842, Carl Vogt first discovered cell death in a metamorphic toad; however, it was not termed ‘cell death.’ Scientists discovered different cell death pathways only in the 20th century...
Dimensions of Health and Illness
Factors Affecting Illness
For instance, risk factors are connected to illness, disability,...
Principles of Disease Surveillance
Infectious Diseases and Their Occurrence
Investigation of Disease Outbreaks

