Online News Coverage of Preexposure Prophylaxis

Human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV continues to be a serious issue, especially for men who have sex with men (MSM). A new means of HIV prevention, called preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP), significantly reduces the chance of HIV infection. However, adoption of the drug has been slow. In this study, a content analysis of 234 online news articles about PrEP from popular U.S. news Web sites was conducted, focusing on how articles were framed in terms of benefits to PrEP, barriers to PrEP, the severity of HIV, and the susceptibility of MSM to HIV. Results showed that coverage contained conflicting information about PrEP and failed to cast HIV as a serious problem.     

Cast Aside

This paper examines the role of user-generated content in a traditional news organization during the coverage of the Boston marathon bombings. In-depth interviews were conducted with the journalists who made up the interactive team at the Boston Globe. The interactive team was in charge of the live blog during the week-long coverage of the marathon bombings. The study identifies the perceptions journalists hold of user-generated content during crisis reporting and the impact user-generated content had during the tense coverage. The findings suggest that user-generated content has a good way to go before being considered an integral part of breaking news content.