How Do Weekly Magazines Provide Information on Urogenital Cancer to the Public in Aged Societies?

doi:10.4236/oju.2013.36045

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Open Journal of Urology, 2013, 3, 246-247

http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oju.2013.36045 Published Online October 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/oju)

How Do Weekly Magazines Provide Information on

Urogenital Cancer to the Public in Aged Societies?

Masayoshi Nagata1*, Tomoko Matsumura2, Masahiro Kami2

1Department of Urology, National Center of Global Health and Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

2Division of Social Communication System for Advanced Clinical Research,

The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Email: *[email protected]

Received September 2, 2013; revised October 1, 2013; accepted October 9, 2013

cense, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ABSTRACT

Little information on cancer coverage rather than newspaper and television is available. Japanese weekly magazines

have a circulation of over 2,700,000 per week. To examine how they delivered urogenital cancer information to the

public, cancer-related articles and advertisements in six major Japanese weekly magazines from 2009 to 2010 was ana-

lyzed. 1.8% of total articles and advertisements were cancer-related. Prostate cancer (n = 119) was the second-most

common topic, following lung cancer (n = 145), whereas only three arti c le s were pu bl i shed on kid ney or bl ad der cancer.

The 53 articles on therapies for prostate cancer comprised radiotherapy (n = 29), surgery (n = 16), chemotherapy (n = 4),

and others (n = 4). All 42 comments or interviews were cited in the article on prostate cancer, while 26 of them were

attributed to only two famous doctor s. Although cancer cover age in weekly magazines could be useful to spread infor-

mation on prostate cancer, w e should recognize their considerable bias based on a disproportionate emphasis.

Keywords: Cancer Coverage; Weekly Magazine; Prostate Cancer

1. Introduction

Cancer is one of the major concerns in aged societies.

Some researchers investigated cancer coverage on media,

while most reports were related to newspapers [1,2] or

television [3]. Little information is available o n the other

media.

Weekly magazines have the second-largest circulation

following newspapers in Japan and provide broad infor-

mation for a large readership, particularly focusing on

middle-aged males. The Japanese weekly magazines

could be thought as equ ivalent to the tabloids in Western

countries. In the previous report, we demonstrated that

cancer articles in weekly magazines were common paper

media for providing cancer information to the public,

although the information provided might place emphasis

on unestablished treatments or biased opinions [4]. After

a famous Japanese comedian, Mr. Kampei Hazama, con-

fessed prostate cancer, numbers of prostate cancer arti-

cles increased over three-fold (2.0 to 6.6) [4]. In this

study, we investigated cancer-related articles and adver-

tisements on weekly magazines, particularly on urogeni-

tal cancer, to demonstrate trends in the public in aged

societies.

2. Materials and Methods

Cancer-related articles and advertisements in six major

Japanese weekly magazines (Weekly Gendai, Sunday Mai-

nichi, Weekly Bunshun, Weekly Asahi, Weekly Shincho,

and Weekly Post) with the circulation of approximately

2,700,000 per week, were investigated from July 2009 to

December 2010. All articles including urogenital cancer

were extracted and classified according to types of pri-

mary sites, topics, and treatment. Comments, interviews,

and serial columns from oncologists cited in cancer-arti-

cles were examined to evaluate their adequateness by

two authors (M. N. and M. K.).

3. Results

We extracted 1037 (1.8%) cancer-related articles and

advertisements in total 58,632. Prostate cancer (n = 119)

was the second-most common topic, following lung c an cer

(n = 145). Only three articles were published on kidney

or bladder cancer. Topics of the 119 articles on prostate

cancer comprised therapies (n = 53), case re ports (n = 28),

checkup of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) (n = 8), and

*Corresponding author.

M. NAGATA ET AL. 247

others (n = 20). The 53 articles on therapies comprised

radiotherapy (n = 29), surgery (n = 16), chemotherapy (n

= 4), and others (n = 4). Many celebrities disclosed

acquiring prostate cancer. Whereas number of prostate

cancer articles increased after publishing Mr. Hazama’s

prostate cancer story, advertisements of an enlightenment

activity which advocate PSA checkup, “Blue Clover

Campaign”, appeared in magazines during the periods.

All 42 comments were cited in the 119 article on prostate

cancer, while 26 of them were attributed to two famous

doctors (a radiologist and an urologist).

4. Discussions

Magazines are useful media for providing information on

urogenital cancer. They could be an effective measure

that assists the enlightenment of prevention and early

detection of prostate cancer, since a large part of the rea-

dership is aged males. However, they have issues to be

discussed. Firstly, prostate cancer was the topic in 97%

of all the articles on urogenital cancer. It should be noted

that morbidities of prostate, bladder and kidney cancer in

Japanese males are 69, 20, and 16 per 100,000 respec-

tively. Magazines are insuffic ient for delivering informa-

tion on bladder or kidney cancer. It would be of interest

if readers in general might be more interested in prostate

cancer as more people are affected and hence, magazines

just mirror that interest. Alternatively it might as well be

possible that magazines are motivated to create an inter-

est.

Secondly, celebrities with cancer probably play a

pivotal role in drawing publics’ attention to cancer.

While most cancer coverage in newspaper is related to

politics and incidents [1], those in magazines are des-

cribed through the eyes of each patient. Interestingly, num-

bers of cancer-related articles increased following con-

fession of affected celebrities. These facts are compara-

ble to previous reports in the Western countries [5,6].

Third, considerable bias exists in cancer-articles. Sur-

gery is a major treatment option for prostate cancer in

Japan [7]. More than half of prostate can cer articles were,

however, on radiotherapy because a famous radiologist

was in charge of serial column. Surprisingly, 62% of the

comments were made by only two doctors. Journalists

hope to use comments of big-name specialists, which

attract attention from readers. Although each comment

was medically pertinent, these situations might easily

cause prejudicial understanding in readers.

Finally, there are some limitations in this study to be

discussed. The observation periods were too short to dr aw

a definite conclusion. Further long-term studies are re-

quired. Next, these articles could be used as platforms for

open or hidden advertisements. Consequently, the num-

ber and potential influence of cancer-related advertise-

ments were probably underestimated, since any invest-

ment or finance to the magazines by hospitals, office

urologists, or pharmaceutical companies might affect th eir

contents. Lastly, there could be a problem with the as-

sumption that these six “Japanese” magazines could rep-

resent other innumerable magazines. We need to extend

over a wide range of magazines, including online maga-

zines and other countries’ magazines.

While cancer coverage in weekly magazines is useful

to spread information on prostate cancer around the pub-

lic, we should recognize their distinctive characteristics

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