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Transparent Communication of Health Risks pp 195–213Cite as

Transparent Health Information in the Media

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Abstract

When it comes to medical decisions, people have to deal with a wide range of information from different sources. Information from the media is a prominent example: It increasingly addresses health-related issues and communicates benefits and risks of medical treatments and prevention programs. Is the media a reliable and objective source of health information? To investigate this issue, we conducted a media analysis of the widely promoted vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) in newspaper reports and Internet sources in Germany and Spain. These two countries differ in vaccination compliance rates and in the extent to which their health systems are directive. This chapter describes information categories in the media analyses. These categories included prevalence of cervical cancer and risk at baseline of suffering this disease, etiology, effectiveness of the vaccination, possible side effects, and costs. We compared media coverage and how balanced reports were in the two countries and investigated cross-cultural differences in medical communication.

In this chapter, we partially reproduce the article Bodemer, N., Müller, S. M., Okan, Y., ­Garcia-Retamero, R., & Neumeyer-Gromen, A. (2012). Do the media provide transparent health ­information? A cross-cultural comparison of public information about the HPV vaccine. Vaccine, 30, 3747–3756.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The vaccine by Gardasil® protects against HPV 16 and 18, which have been found in 70% of all cervical cancers (Zechmeister et al. 2007).

  2. 2.

    Follow-up studies that provide data to allow an evaluation of the vaccine’s effectiveness in reducing cervical cancer incidence and mortality are not yet available; cancer development needs decades of observation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Empirical Research in Economics and Behavioral Science (CEREB), University of Erfurt, Nordhäuser Str. 63, 99089, Erfurt, Germany

    Stephanie M. Müller Ph.D.

  2. Harding Center for Risk Literacy, Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, Berlin, 14195, Germany

    Nicolai Bodemer & Angela Neumeyer-Gromen M.P.H., Dr.P.H.

  3. Departamento de Psicología Experimental, Facultad de Psicología, University of Granada, Campus Universitario de Cartuja s/n, Granada, 18071, Spain

    Yasmina Okan & Rocio Garcia-Retamero Ph.D.

  4. Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, Berlin, 14195, Germany

    Rocio Garcia-Retamero Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Stephanie M. Müller Ph.D.
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  2. Nicolai Bodemer
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  3. Yasmina Okan
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  4. Rocio Garcia-Retamero Ph.D.
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  5. Angela Neumeyer-Gromen M.P.H., Dr.P.H.
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stephanie M. Müller Ph.D. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Campus Universitario de Cartuja, Departmento de Psicologia Experimental, Universidad de Granada, Granada, 18071, Spain

    Rocio Garcia-Retamero

  2. , Ctr for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Human Dev., Lentzeallee 94, Berlin, 14195, Germany

    Mirta Galesic

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Müller, S.M., Bodemer, N., Okan, Y., Garcia-Retamero, R., Neumeyer-Gromen, A. (2012). Transparent Health Information in the Media. In: Garcia-Retamero, R., Galesic, M. (eds) Transparent Communication of Health Risks. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4358-2_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4358-2_12

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