Newspaper Coverage of Cancer Prevention: Multilevel Evidence for Knowledge Gap Effects.

Prior research on knowledge gap effects, in health as well as in other domains, has focused largely on assessing individual-level differences in exposure to news based on self-report of media use. Inherent inferential limitations of this approach are addressed by testing the hypothesis that the relationship between education and cancer prevention knowledge will be moderated by regional differences in U.S.

News coverage of cancer in the United States: a national sample of newspapers, television, and magazines.

A content analysis of cancer news coverage in a sample of local and national newspapers, television, and magazines was conducted for the years 2002 and 2003. Analyses compared proportions of mentions of cancer sites with proportional contribution to cancer incidence and mortality based on available epidemiological estimates. Analyses also examined relative attention provided to prevention, detection, treatment, causes, and outcomes of various cancers.