How Science News Sections Influence Newspaper Science Coverage: A Case Study

Abstract

This study uses content analysis to compare the coverage of science in two groups of dailies to see how the addition of a science news page influences coverage in nine dailies, some which added science sections while others did not. The study finds when a paper adds a science section, there is an increase in the number of science stories, more illustration, and a tendency to group basic science and technology stories in the special section. The addition of a special science section had less effect on coverage of the environment and medicine, stories which — regardless of section — appeared throughout other sections of all sample papers.