Coverage of health-related articles in major local newspapers of Manipur

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.