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Public Solicitation and The Canadian Media: Two Cases of Living Liver Donation, Two Different Stories
BACKGROUND: . Two stories of public solicitation for living liver donors received substantial Canadian media attention in 2015: The Wagner family, with twin toddlers, each needing transplants, and Eugene Melnyk, wealthy owner of a professional hockey team. This study compared the print media coverag...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Wolters Kluwer Health
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7004592/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32095503 http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/TXD.0000000000000950 |
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author | Marcon, Alessandro R Caulfield, Timothy Toews, Maeghan |
author_facet | Marcon, Alessandro R Caulfield, Timothy Toews, Maeghan |
author_sort | Marcon, Alessandro R |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: . Two stories of public solicitation for living liver donors received substantial Canadian media attention in 2015: The Wagner family, with twin toddlers, each needing transplants, and Eugene Melnyk, wealthy owner of a professional hockey team. This study compared the print media coverage of these 2 stories to understand how public solicitation was portrayed and whether coverage differed depending on the individual making the plea. METHODS. We conducted a content analysis on 155 relevant Canadian newspaper articles published between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2016. Articles were analyzed for their description of public solicitation, benefits and issues associated with public solicitation, and overall tone with respect to public solicitation. RESULTS. The foregrounding of public solicitation and associated ethical issues featured heavily in articles focused on Melnyk but were largely absent when discussing the Wagner family. The fairness of Melnyk's solicitation was the most prominent ethical issue raised. Laws and policies surrounding public solicitation also featured in the Melnyk story but not in articles focused on the Wagners. Public solicitation was portrayed more negatively in the Melnyk articles, but overall, was portrayed positively in relation to both Melnyk and the Wagner family. CONCLUSIONS. Public solicitation was generally portrayed as a positive phenomenon in Canadian print media, yet there were stark differences in how these cases were presented. The Wagner story was largely portrayed as a human-interest piece about a family in dire circumstances, whereas Melnyk's wealth, status, and influence raised questions of the fairness of his transplant. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7004592 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | Wolters Kluwer Health |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-70045922020-02-24 Public Solicitation and The Canadian Media: Two Cases of Living Liver Donation, Two Different Stories Marcon, Alessandro R Caulfield, Timothy Toews, Maeghan Transplant Direct Organ Donation and Procurement BACKGROUND: . Two stories of public solicitation for living liver donors received substantial Canadian media attention in 2015: The Wagner family, with twin toddlers, each needing transplants, and Eugene Melnyk, wealthy owner of a professional hockey team. This study compared the print media coverage of these 2 stories to understand how public solicitation was portrayed and whether coverage differed depending on the individual making the plea. METHODS. We conducted a content analysis on 155 relevant Canadian newspaper articles published between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2016. Articles were analyzed for their description of public solicitation, benefits and issues associated with public solicitation, and overall tone with respect to public solicitation. RESULTS. The foregrounding of public solicitation and associated ethical issues featured heavily in articles focused on Melnyk but were largely absent when discussing the Wagner family. The fairness of Melnyk's solicitation was the most prominent ethical issue raised. Laws and policies surrounding public solicitation also featured in the Melnyk story but not in articles focused on the Wagners. Public solicitation was portrayed more negatively in the Melnyk articles, but overall, was portrayed positively in relation to both Melnyk and the Wagner family. CONCLUSIONS. Public solicitation was generally portrayed as a positive phenomenon in Canadian print media, yet there were stark differences in how these cases were presented. The Wagner story was largely portrayed as a human-interest piece about a family in dire circumstances, whereas Melnyk's wealth, status, and influence raised questions of the fairness of his transplant. Wolters Kluwer Health 2019-11-15 /pmc/articles/PMC7004592/ /pubmed/32095503 http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/TXD.0000000000000950 Text en Copyright © 2019 The Author(s). Transplantation Direct. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) , where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially without permission from the journal. |
spellingShingle | Organ Donation and Procurement Marcon, Alessandro R Caulfield, Timothy Toews, Maeghan Public Solicitation and The Canadian Media: Two Cases of Living Liver Donation, Two Different Stories |
title | Public Solicitation and The Canadian Media: Two Cases of Living Liver Donation, Two Different Stories |
title_full | Public Solicitation and The Canadian Media: Two Cases of Living Liver Donation, Two Different Stories |
title_fullStr | Public Solicitation and The Canadian Media: Two Cases of Living Liver Donation, Two Different Stories |
title_full_unstemmed | Public Solicitation and The Canadian Media: Two Cases of Living Liver Donation, Two Different Stories |
title_short | Public Solicitation and The Canadian Media: Two Cases of Living Liver Donation, Two Different Stories |
title_sort | public solicitation and the canadian media: two cases of living liver donation, two different stories |
topic | Organ Donation and Procurement |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7004592/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32095503 http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/TXD.0000000000000950 |
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