. Sourabh Paul; . Akoijam Brogen Singh
Volume 6, Issue 1 , 2016, , Pages 1-5
Abstract
Background: Newspapers have immense potential for generating health awareness on diverseissues such as hygiene, immunization, environmental pollution, and communicable disease. Thepresent ...
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Background: Newspapers have immense potential for generating health awareness on diverseissues such as hygiene, immunization, environmental pollution, and communicable disease. Thepresent study was conducted to determine the frequency of coverage and types of health‑relatedarticles published in local newspapers of Manipur. Materials and Methods: This was across‑sectional study conducted among the most regularly published 10 local newspapers(4 English and 6 Manipuri) of Manipur from February 2011 to January 2012. Health‑relatedarticles published in everyday local newspapers were collected after careful search and finallyentered into a design Proforma under different categories. Data were analyzed using SPSSversion 16. Results: Total health‑related articles published were 10,874 and maximum articleswere published during February (12.8%). Maximum health‑related articles were published onWednesday (16.1%). Among all the health‑related articles, almost half were related with injuryfollowed by public health articles. Maximum public health and injury‑related articles werepublished on Monday, but medical topics were published more on Wednesday. Newspapersof both the languages were publishing public health articles more compared to medicaltopics. Public health (72.9%) and injury‑related articles (95.9%) were published maximum inthe news items section, but medical topics (45.8%) were published maximum in the healthsection of the newspaper. Newspapers of both the languages published maximum small sizearticles. Conclusions: There is a room for improvement for newspapers of both the languagesregarding number of health‑related articles’ publication, section of publication, and size of thehealth articles.