Health campaigns in the media: positive becomes negative
The journalistic adage «only bad news is good news» seems to apply even in contexts where it makes little sense in terms of content. Researchers at the University of Geneva have demonstrated this through their analysis of media coverage of health campaigns.
The researchers took a close look at two campaigns that focused on bowel cancer prevention. Their messages were deliberately tailored to be positive. They were mostly along the lines of "Watch out!" or "Take care!". What many Swiss media made of this was a "cancer threatens everyone" and an "overemphasis on the danger". It has been proven that people are far more willing to change their behavior when they are given positive messages, as study director Bettina Borisch told the industry service Pressetext. Threatening negative messages, on the other hand, caused fear and paralyzed people. The negative reporting was mainly in the French and Italian-speaking media. In German-speaking Switzerland, on the other hand, where the campaign was more successful, more positive aspects were reported.
As the study also shows, the local press receives little attention from the initiators. Smaller regional media are often disregarded as "Blätterwald" or "cheese papers", although they report significantly more on the campaigns and provide the most detailed articles, Borisch continues.
As the study also shows, the local press receives little attention from the initiators. Smaller regional media are often disregarded as "Blätterwald" or "cheese papers", although they report significantly more on the campaigns and provide the most detailed articles, Borisch continues.
