A study was recently released which examined the public health messages conveyed by newspaper coverage of fatal motor vehicle crashes and determined the extent to which press coverage accurately reflects real risks and crash trends.

The study found newspaper coverage did not accurately reflect real risk; rather, papers presented fatal crashes as dramas with a victim/villain storyline. In keeping with this narrative strategy, papers were most likely to cover stories where a driver survived to take the blame. By highlighting crashes that diverge from the norm, focusing on the assignment of blame to a single party, and failing to convey the message that preventive practices like seatbelt use increase odds for survival, newspapers remove crashes from a public health context and position them as isolated issues. Public health practitioners should work with media outlets in their areas to draw attention to misrepresentations and change the way these stories are framed.

Crash details were extracted from two years of newspaper coverage of fatal crashes in four Midwestern cities in the United States. Details and causal factors identified by reporters were compared to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS).

Researchers found the newspapers covered 278 fatal crashes over the two-year period, in contrast to 846 fatal crashes documented in FARS. Papers assigned blame in 90 percent of crashes covered, under-reported restraint use and driver's risk of death, failed to reflect the protective value of restraints, and misrepresented the roles played by alcohol and teen drivers.

Conducted by Susan M . Connor , Ph.D. of the Department of Pediatrics, Case Western Reserve University and Community Safety and Resource Center, Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio and Kathryn L. Wesolowski, BS also of the Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital , the study is detailed in the June 2004, Journal of Injury Prevention.

The journal article entitled, Newspaper framing of fatal motor vehicle crashes in four Midwestern cities in the United States, 1999–2000 (Journal of Injury Prevention, Volume 10, Issue Number 3, page 149-153) is available on-line at http://ip.bmjjournals.com/ . Please contact Dr. Susan M. Connor, smc3@cwru.edu , for additional information regarding this study.

Copyright © 2002, by Injury Prevention.