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Hot Topic: A Systematic Review and Content Analysis of Heat-Related Messages During the 2021 Heat Dome in Canada
Emily J Tetzlaff1, Nicholas Goulet, Melissa Gorman
1Human and Environmental Physiology Research Unit, School of Human Kinetics, Faculty of Health Sciences (Ms Tetzlaff, Mr Goulet, and Drs Meade and Kenny) and Behavioural and Metabolic Research Unit, School of Human Kinetics, Faculty of Health Sciences (Mr Goulet), University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Climate Change and Innovation Bureau, Safe Environments Directorate, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (Mss Tetzlaff and Gorman and Messrs Goulet, Richardson, and Enright); Department of Geography and Environmental Management, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada (Mr Enright); Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts (Dr Meade); and Clinical Epidemiology Program, The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (Dr Kenny).
Context:
During the summer of 2021, western Canada experienced a deadly heat event. From the first heat alert to postevent reporting, thousands of media articles were published that reference the heat event. However, a gap remains in understanding how this communication chain-from the release of a public heat alert to information shared through media outlets to the public-currently operates to disseminate heat-related messaging across Canada.
Objective:
To understand the role of digital media in delivering heat-health messaging during an extreme heat event in Canada.
Design:
A qualitative content analysis was conducted using Canadian news articles published on the 2021 Heat Dome between June 2021 and February 2022 (n = 2909). The coding frame was designed to align with the basic framework for information gathering used in journalism (who, what, where, when, and how) and included both concept-driven and data-driven codes.
Results:
Overall, 2909 unique media articles discussing the 2021 Heat Dome were identified, with the majority (74%) published by online news agencies (how). The highest article count was on June 29, 2021 (n = 159), representing 5% of the total data set (n = 2909) spanning 260 days (when); 57% of the identified locations were in British Columbia (where). Although we found that the top voices providing media-based heat-health messages are government officials (who), only 23% of articles included heat-health messaging that aligns with the government health alert bulletins released during extreme heat. In addition, heat-health messaging frequently included contradictory content, inconsistent language, or incorrect advice (what).
Conclusion:
The findings demonstrate clear opportunities to improve health communication related to extreme heat, perhaps most importantly, including updates to mass media messaging educating the public on heat-protective behaviors.
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