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Can You See What They Are Saying? Breast Cancer Images and Text in Canadian Women’s and Fashion Magazines

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Abstract

Media are an important source of breast cancer information for women. Visual images influence recall and comprehension of information. Research on breast cancer in the media has infrequently focused on images. Using directed content analysis, we compared content, tone, and themes in images (n = 91) and articles (n = 31) in Canadian women’s and fashion (n = 6) magazines (2005–2010). About half of the articles (51.6%) had both positive and negative tone; in contrast, 87.7% of women in the images had positive facial expressions. Women in the images were Caucasian (80.9%), young (81.3%), attractive (99.2%), had a healthy body type (93.8%), and appeared to have intact breasts (100%). Images of screening/treatment (5.5%) and visual impact of disease/treatment on the body (4.4%) were rare. The most common theme in the articles was medical issues (35.5%); in the images, it was beauty or fashion (15.4%). The potential impact of these divergent messages for breast cancer education is discussed.

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Acknowledgments

We would like thank the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Canadian Federation of University Women Ruth Binnie Fellowship for financially supporting this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health and Health Systems, Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, Canada, N2L 3G1

    J. E. McWhirter & L. Hoffman-Goetz

  2. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON, Canada, N2L 3C5

    J. N. Clarke

Authors
  1. J. E. McWhirter
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  2. L. Hoffman-Goetz
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  3. J. N. Clarke
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to L. Hoffman-Goetz.

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McWhirter, J.E., Hoffman-Goetz, L. & Clarke, J.N. Can You See What They Are Saying? Breast Cancer Images and Text in Canadian Women’s and Fashion Magazines. J Canc Educ 27, 383–391 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-011-0305-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-011-0305-0

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