Authors
Department of Community Medicine, Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal, Manipur, India
Abstract
Background: Newspapers have immense potential for generating health awareness on diverse
issues such as hygiene, immunization, environmental pollution, and communicable disease. The
present study was conducted to determine the frequency of coverage and types of health‑related
articles published in local newspapers of Manipur. Materials and Methods: This was a
cross‑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‑related
articles published in everyday local newspapers were collected after careful search and finally
entered into a design Proforma under different categories. Data were analyzed using SPSS
version 16. Results: Total health‑related articles published were 10,874 and maximum articles
were published during February (12.8%). Maximum health‑related articles were published on
Wednesday (16.1%). Among all the health‑related articles, almost half were related with injury
followed by public health articles. Maximum public health and injury‑related articles were
published on Monday, but medical topics were published more on Wednesday. Newspapers
of both the languages were publishing public health articles more compared to medical
topics. Public health (72.9%) and injury‑related articles (95.9%) were published maximum in
the news items section, but medical topics (45.8%) were published maximum in the health
section of the newspaper. Newspapers of both the languages published maximum small size
articles. Conclusions: There is a room for improvement for newspapers of both the languages
regarding number of health‑related articles’ publication, section of publication, and size of the
health articles.
Keywords
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