Dementia in Media Coverage: A Comparative Analysis of Two Online Newspapers across Time

Abstract

The news media, specifically online newspapers, is one of the powerful transmitters of discourse due to its rapid accessibility that contributes to social beliefs and attitudes that often shape our perceptions on dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. The media portrayal of dementia is largely heterogeneous, but there is certainly an association between the influence of online news coverage and the social perceptions of dementia that need to be understood more broadly. In this study, we examined the portrayal of dementia in two online newspapers (The New York Times and The Guardian) that might have an influence on dementia discourse by comparing the content and form of the news coverage on dementia across time. This study was guided by three interconnected theoretical understandings: cultivation theory, agenda-setting theory, and spiral of silence theory. A total of 291 published articles featuring dementia from 2014 to 2019 were included in this study and a content analysis of the articles provided insight into the dementia-related news coverage. Our results showed that both newspapers have a decreasing trend in publishing articles related to dementia over time. In addition, dementia-related (modifiable) risk factors as principal news content was significantly associated with the year of publication. Despite a weak association between story categories and newspapers, the majority of articles reported preventive measures as the main story category. Although both newspapers featured more articles with a less negative tone across time when reporting on dementia, derogative wording, as discourse, was commonly used to address the illness. We have provided some insight into understanding how online newspapers potentially affect subjective representations of dementia as well as perpetuate dementia discourse. Finally, we suggest that future study may benefit from establishing a linkage between the depiction of dementia in online newspapers and the contextualization of dementia within cultures.