ABSTRACT
The news media are influential in shaping or framing the way we think about and discuss health. With millions of people relying on news coverage for health information, many public health experts believe the news media’s continuous framing of health problems in terms of individual responsibility is problematic. They propose that if journalists were to follow a social determinants of health (SDH) model and frame health problems in terms of environmental causes and public policy solutions, then the public would hold governments, institutions, and the electorate accountable for solving health problems. This would result in greater political participation and collective action, thereby reducing health inequities and creating a healthier public overall. Building on this premise, this chapter argues that advocates need to shift their framing discourses toward an SDH model, and journalists need to cover health via tiers of frames, combining costs and benefits with other format-based frames, such as thematic and episodic. Scholarship has to keep up as well, as we still have a limited understanding of how combined news frames affect audience members. The chapter examines the findings of studies investigating the effects of combining frames in general news and health news coverage; it also discusses the implications of this line of inquiry for public health practitioners, health reporters, and scholars. The chapter concludes with suggestions for future research examining the effects of combining news frames in health coverage.
