Representación de la incidencia y de la mortalidad por cáncer en los medios de comunicación chilenos / Portrayal of cancer prevalence and mortality in Chilean digital media

ABSTRACT

Background: Cancer is the second death cause in Chile. The Chilean National Cancer Act will secure treatment and labor protection for people diagnosed with cancer. Aim: To answer questions regarding the media portrayal of cancer. Material and Methods: Through data-mining and the conduction of content analysis, 2,523 news titles about cancer were analysed. The news titles were obtained from 345 Chilean digital media which published cancer related news on Twitter between January and December 2019. An attempt was made to answer two research questions, namely are cancer incidence and mortality rates portrayed in a corresponding magnitude in the Chilean digital media? and what words are commonly used for this purpose? Results: There is not a coherence between the incidence and mortality of the main cancer types in Chile and the amount of content published in communication media. Conclusions: Our results are consistent with international studies. We should expect the delivery of complete, timely and effective information about cancer in communication media, aiming to educate the population and reinforce prevention.