Department of Journalism Thesis

TITLE: Health journalism online: A study of major Philippine news websites’ reportage

Baldemor, M.A.V. (2011). Health journalism online: A study of major Philippine news websites’ reportage, Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication. ABSTRACT: The thesis examines how mainstream online news websites—as represented by top Philippine publications ABS-CBNnews.com, Inquirer.net and Philstar.com—report health or health-related issues. To analyze their methods, the study looks into articles published in June 2010. It was found that topics that appeal to the most number of readers are typically chosen and although this, by itself, is not detrimental to communicating health to the public, media tread a fine line between popularizing and oversimplifying health issues. While much of what is regarded by online news publications as legitimate health reports are long in terms of word count, maximizing the space allotted is not tantamount to an optimal presentation of a journalistic report. Reports covered in the regular health sections largely adopt a moderate tone to neutralize health threats or diseases. The potential for mainstream online news websites is great and the space afforded by the Internet as a medium is virtually unlimited. These are reasons enough to formulate official standards on covering health reports, develop relevant sources and recognize health journalism as a serious and credible field.

KEY WORDS: health journalism, health reporting, health advocacy, health communication, online reporting, online news, online news site, content analysis, meda gatekeeping, health, Web news, Web reporting, Internet reporting, Internet news