Assessing the Quality of Health Reporting in Pakistan: A Content Analysis of Daily the Nation Newspaper
Author(s): Rameez Mahesar*, Yasra Naeem Pasha, Mubina Pathan and Zareen Qadeer
Abstract
Newspapers are the most important sources of information about health. They are the most influential tools to educate the masses about health. Therefore, it was of a profound significance to understand how they work on health sector of Pakistan. The content analysis of health news was carried out throughout the whole year of 2020. For this, an English newspaper of Pakistan “Daily the Nation” was selected to carry out the research because the English newspapers are believed to have the responsible reporting style as they have the well-educated-cum-trained reporters who work on their assignments responsibly. To collect the data, the archive service for newspaper was used, and 101 health news were identified. The news was further split into two portions, 1) those having optimistic claims, and 2) those having pessimistic claims.
However, the news which carried positive connotations within their contents were named as the news of optimistic claims, whereas the news which brought negative connotations inside their contents were named as the news of pessimistic claims. To this end, health reporting was found of a poor quality as the newspaper, on the first hand, covered the news of pessimistic claims more than those of optimistic claims. On the other hand, newspaper has given insufficient coverage to the health topics with average 8.5 health news in each month throughout the whole year. This problem can be countered only, when the reporters are well-trained and well-educated with special health background knowledge. Further study should be executed to make editors and reporters aware of how important the health reporting in the country is–Pakistan.