An analysis of health reporting in three South African women's magazines: Fairlady, Sarie and True Love

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Health reporting in South African women's magazines has not previously been assessed. Therefore, a content analysis of health reporting in three South African monthly women's magazines, Sarie (S), Fairlady (F), and True Love (T), was carried out from February 2005–January 2006. Total coverage of health issues was analysed, as well as coverage of 11 specific aspects of health, namely: sexual and reproductive ('Sexual'), men's, women's, cardiac ('Heart'), spiritual 'Spirit'), mental and emotional ('Mental'), diet and nutrition ('Diet'), sport and exercise ('Sportex'), health-related items not covered by the other categories ('General'), pseudoscience with regard to health issues ('Pseudo') and parenting and child care ('Parent'). True Love devoted most space to all health items combined (17,7% of total subject material), compared with 13,8% for Sarie and 11,7 % for Fairlady. The top three categories (20,1%, 19,7% and 16,3% of total health coverage) were the 'Mental', 'General' and 'Sexual' categories, respectively. Comparisons of categories among the magazines showed the following trends for the most coverage: 'Sexual' (T); women's (F), 'Spirit' (T), 'Mental' (S); and 'Diet' (F). T was the only magazine to carry articles in the 'Parent' category. However, statistical analyses showed that the only significant differences were in women's (F>T); 'Spirit' (F>S; T>S); 'Mental' (S>F) and 'Diet' (F>S). The reporting in the magazines was not found to be balanced as regards the emphasis given to certain aspects of health. The most striking imbalance was that no information was given regarding prevention of HIV/Aids, now the leading cause of death in South Africa.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University