Na saúde a palavra mediática não é dos doentes

Abstract

Health in general and disease in particular, constitute themselves as a part of the print news production in this field and that has been growing in recent years in Portugal. Taking as reference four years 2008- 2011, and as sample all editions of the Expresso, Publico and Jornal de Notícias, i.e., 6305 news articles, we wanted to know who appears in the news of these newspaper articles, paying special attention to the presence of the common citizen, in particular when it assumes the status of a patient or patient family. When speaking of health, or illness, do journalists make room for those who are a major target of their texts? This is the main question that guides our work. The growth of health information seems to be related, on the one hand, with a greater availability of health professionals meeting the demands of journalistic work and, secondly, with a strengthening of marketing activities and strategic communication promoted by health workers, including the processes of press officers. This trend favours the gradual visibility of organized sources, neglecting in a consequent way those who, with a relevant speech to include in journalistic discourse on health, are dispersed. The need to find accessible, credible and reliable sources leads journalists to find sources on governmental institutions that provide health, the so-called organized or official sources. Hence, dangers may arise (homogeneity of topics, angles and interlocutors that are perpetuated in the media stage) due to a professionalization of press officers that keep these sources impossible to avoid. According to our study, less than 4% of all used sources are patients or their respective families. When the patient is a news source, journalists prioritize topics like portraits of situation or clinical practices to the detriment of health policies, which, in a general, are the predominant theme.