Veterans' Exposure to News Portrayals of Military-Related Posttraumatic Stress and Support for Government Health Interventions: Influences of Stigma and Halo Communication.

This study interrogates the nature by which media perpetuates and potentially preempts stigma about military-related posttraumatic stress. Indeed, addressing the stigma of mental illness is critical to facilitating veteran comfort in seeking needed mental health care. Therefore, the authors explored how media messages about veterans experiencing posttraumatic stress (PTS) influenced how veterans viewed themselves, other veterans experiencing PTS and overall support for government policy and intervention. An experimental design was used to assess how veterans' perceptions are affected by messages adhering to the principles of the model of stigma communication, as well as its more prosocial counterpart, what the authors coin as halo communication. Findings reveal evidence that stigma messages more potently influence outcome perceptions relative to comparable halo messages in the current context. Additionally, interactive effects of message exposure (i.e. conditioned by perceived association with PTS identity) were observed on views that government health intervention is warranted for veterans managing PTS. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Culpability Framing Influences on Community Support for Those Managing Illness: A Multi-Malady Comparison of Mediated Health Stigma.

Prior research demonstrates an influence of culpability framing on news consumers' perceptions about, and willingness to provide support for, those managing illness. Framing research of this sort has typically focused on the effect of frames on a particular health context (e.g. cancer). It is necessary to examine how three health frames which are overwhelmingly represented in health news could be uniquely influencing perceptions about those managing illness in a number of disparate health contexts. Specifically, we explore the nature of health frame influence as it relates to news reports regarding alcoholism, morbid obesity, and cancer. These illnesses represent the three of the most prominent health concerns for Americans that also vary in terms of how they relate to four chief cues for stigma communication. Experimental findings reveal unique ways in which culpability framing influences social support dispositions for those managing illness, as a function of intergroup anxiety perceptions.

Online cancer news: trends regarding article types, specific cancers, and the cancer continuum.

The Internet is one of the fastest growing news sources for many worldwide (Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2011), and cancer news is one frequently consumed form of online health information (Google, Inc., 2007). This content analysis of online cancer news (n = 862) retrieved from the four most frequented news websites describes trends regarding specific cancers, stages in the cancer continuum, and types of news articles. In general, treatment information received the most attention in online cancer news. Breast cancer received the most attention of each specific cancer, followed by digestive and genitourinary cancers. Research reports and profiles of people (more than 60% of which were about celebrities) were the most common article types. Risk, uncertainty, and clinical trials were also present across several types of cancer news articles. Implications of content trends are discussed as relevant to consumers, producers, health campaign designers, and researchers alike.