Bad press for doctors: 21 year survey of three national newspapers

摘要

Many doctors believe that the media are portraying an increasingly negative image of doctors. Is this true? An Australian study found that negative stories were counterbalanced by positive ones, yet the newspaper coverage of the General Medical Council investigation into the Bristol paediatric cardiac surgeons was considered to be "emotive and largely hostile." We tested the hypotheses that newspapers have published more negative than positive stories about doctors, and that the ratio of negative to positive stories has increased. We studied the Daily Telegraph, Guardian, and Daily Mail so that we could include both broadsheet and tabloid newspapers, and newspapers with different political views. We studied all articles published in November, from 1980 to 2000, choosing November to exclude both holidays and winter bed crises, while parliament was sitting.