When public health systems are news: a comparative analysis of the journalistic coverage in Brazil and Spain

Langbecker, Andrea; Castellanos, Marcelo Eduardo Pfeiffer; Catalán-Matamoros, Daniel

doi:10.1590/1413-812320202511.22532018

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ARTICLE • Ciênc. saúde coletiva 25 (11) • Nov 2020 • https://doi.org/10.1590/1413-812320202511.22532018 copy

When public health systems are news: a comparative analysis of the journalistic coverage in Brazil and Spain

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Abstract

This study aimed to undertake a comparative analysis of the journalistic coverage of the National Health System (SUS) by “Folha de São Paulo”, and the National Health System (SNS) by “El País”. This qualitative study was anchored in the news values theory focusing on selection and construction news values and content analysis. All the contents published during 2013 of both newspapers were analyzed. “Folha” brought 88 covers, with 100 cover stories in total, and “El País” had 37 covers and 39 cover stories. “Folha’s” coverage focused on the “Mais Médicos” program, while most of the news in El País focused on the privatization of the Spanish public health system. The most important news value in both was related to government. As a second category, in “Folha”, controversy prevailed, focusing on the clash between the Federal Councils of Medicine and the Ministry of Health. Impact was the second most popular category in the Spanish newspaper. Concerning the news values of construction, we found that the newspapers used diverse resources. “Folha” adopted simplification in its approach, whereas “El País” invested in personalization and dramatization to sensitize readers with accounts of users, where the background was often the privatization process of health care services.

Key words
National Health System; Unified Health System; Health journalism; News-values

Selection news-value categories	Concept
Conflict	This category is highly valued by the media. It gathers facts related to wars, rivalries, disputes, fights, strikes, and demands.
Knowledge	Related to discoveries, inventions, and research: widely used in the science and health sections that focus their editorial line on scientific coverage, valuing the discovery of a new medicine or treatment of a certain disease.
Government	It gathers facts related to themes of national interest, government decisions and measures, inaugurations of public institutions, elections, trips and statements by government representatives.
Impact	It brings the numerical dimension as a factor that impacts when selecting a fact to become news: the more people are affected by a certain event, more likely is this fact reported. This category also includes the number of people involved in the event and large amounts of money. A certain theft is more likely to be aired, for example, if it involves a large amount.
Justice	It comprises events related to trials, denunciations, investigations, apprehensions, judicial decisions, and crimes. This criterion may have more strength if, for example, it is related to the criterion of prominence, considering the notoriety of the person involved.
Controversy	This value is related to events involving scandals and controversies. Depending on the vehicle, it is a criterion also highly valued when deciding what will be news. In some cases, the media itself stimulates controversies that do not yet exist. As an example, the case of opposing testimonies of personalities to stimulate a controversy.
Prominence	It is related to the notoriety of actors involved and their social importance: if they are from the elite or a celebrity. Sometimes, there is no relevant information in the news, but the fact that a politician, for example, is visiting some city is news.
Proximity	Geographic or cultural. The closer an event is to its audience, the easier it is to be published.
Rarity	Uncommon, original, or unusual facts are within this category: those escaping the socially established rule. It is one of the classic criteria of journalism whose premise is that the more an event deviates from the standard, the more likely it becomes news.
Tragedy/Drama	Here they understand disasters, accidents, risk of death and death, violence/crime, suspense and emotion, and human interest. Another criterion that adds more value to this category is whether it is impact, for example, an accident involving several people, or even prominence, the death of someone from the elite or a celebrity.

Construction News Values Categories	Concept
Consonance	The ability to frame an event in previously existing settings; fitting the news into a known mold, a known narrative; a mental pre-image; reinforces stereotypes.
Dramatization	The potential for dramatizing history; reinforcement of critical, dramatic and conflicting aspects of the facts.
Personalization	The potential for personalizing the story; tendency to present the news as phrases in which there is a subject; as a consequence of these people's actions.
Simplification	The less ambiguous and more direct, the more possibilities the news has to be published; reduce the polysemic nature of the event. Clichés and stereotypes are useful.

Categories	Number	Frequency
Mais Médicos Program	48	48%
Provision of services	13	13%
Other ^* * The themes that appeared only once were counted in the category Other.	11	11%
ANVISA's actions and measures	10	10%
Health plans and ANS	6	6%
Lack of doctors	5	5%
AIDS/HIV	3	3%
Change of manager	2	2%
SUS management	2	2%
Total	100	100%

Categories	Number	Frequency
Provision of services	9	23.07%
Health privatization	8	20.51%
Public health crisis	5	12.82%
Pharmaceutical funding	5	12.82%
Other ^* * The themes that appeared only once were counted in the category Other.	4	10.25%
Shutdown of urgencies	3	7.70%
Health expenditure	3	7.70%
Management irregularities	2	5.13%
Total	39	100%

Selection news values	Folha de São Paulo (100 cover stories)	El País (39 cover stories)
Government	53%	30.77%
Controversy	21%	7.70%
Prominence	9%	2.56%
Impact	5%	20.20%
Rarity	5%	2.56%
Conflict	3%	12.82%
Knowledge	2%	0
Justice	1%	7.70%
Tragedy/drama	1%	10.25%
Total	100%	100%

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E-mail: cienciasaudecoletiva@fiocruz.br

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[1] Collaborations

A Langbecker produced and analyzed the data and wrote the paper. MEP Castellanos and D Catalán-Matamoros revised, corrected, and made suggestions for the manuscript.