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. 2024 Oct 7;7(4):ooae104. doi: 10.1093/jamiaopen/ooae104

Comparing public health-related material in print and web page versions of legacy media

Ann Gaba 1,✉, Richard Bennett 2
PMCID: PMC11458554  PMID: 39386067

Abstract

Objectives

The objectives of this study were to create a database of public health content from a sample of legacy media, and to compare the prevalence of public health themes in print and web-based versions over time.

Materials and Methods

A database was created from eleven nationally published magazines as a sample of legacy media content. Relevant material was extracted and coded by the title of the article, periodical, print or web edition, month of publication, item type, and 1-3 public health theme codes.

Results

Theme codes emerged as the documents were reviewed based on the primary discussion in each piece. A total of 2558 unique documents were extracted from print issues and 6440 from web-based issues. Seventeen public health themes were identified. Individual coded documents were saved with file names identical to the code string, thus creating a searchable database.

Discussion

Legacy media are those that existed before the internet and social media. Publishers target readership groups defined by age, gender, race, sexual orientation, and other commonalities. Although legacy media have been identified as trusted sources of health information, they have not been examined as sources of public health communication. Because both print and web-based versions exist as unstructured textual data, these are rarely examined with informatics methods.

Conclusion

The process described can serve as a model for application of informatics approaches to similar data and assist development of targeted public health communications. Having a better understanding of what types of health content is distributed through legacy media can help to target health messages to specific demographic and interest groups in ways that are understandable and appealing to them.

Keywords: health communication, health information interoperability, periodicals, public health informatics

Background and significance

Legacy media are those that existed before the internet and the dawn of social media, including newspapers, newsletters, and magazines. Most of these now also publish online via dedicated websites which are often found behind a paywall and accessible only to subscribers, or to non-subscribers on a very limited basis (eg, 1 or 2 articles per month). Because magazine subscription is an opt-in choice, readers choose the type of content to which they will be exposed. In addition to paid subscriptions, there are casual readers who might buy a copy at a newsstand or bookstore, share someone else’s subscription copy, or read a copy at a public venue, such as a barber shop, beauty salon, or library. Analysis of the content provided within these sources is limited. However, there is evidence that users of these media consider them trusted sources of information.1–5

The importance of identifying trusted sources of information was amplified by the public’s need for guidance during the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), in early 2020. In the setting of this global health crisis, individuals sought solutions about how to manage a wide array of concurrent issues, ranging from the acquisition of daily necessities and changes to work, school, and social routines, along with how to maintain their physical and mental health and protect themselves from infection with the virus itself. An increasing amount of information being provided from all sources presented challenges as to the accuracy and relevance of what was being said.

As a result of experiences with public health communications around COVID-19, the term infodemic has been applied to describe an excessive array of information of varying accuracy being communicated simultaneously to the public.6 Since so much of this communication was in the form of social media, the majority of research in this area has focused on this medium.7–10 While this work makes important contributions to the understanding of public health communication, it has excluded communication that has happened via legacy media. This risks presenting an incomplete picture of public health communications, especially for less tech-savvy and underserved populations.

Disparities in the communication of health information have been recognized as a significant public health issue.11–15 Compounding these differences are the means by which various demographic groups seek health information, including via print media and the Internet. There is an extensive body of literature examining information-seeking behavior, or the “pull” side of exposure to health information,5,16–18 as well as trust in various media formats.3,17,19

Likewise, there have also been many studies looking at exposure to the content of both websites and print media, with a specific focus on the presentation of one or another aspect of health and/or disease. In particular, there is a focus on how the media push health information to readers.20–24 However, these have been limited to 1, or at most 2, groups of users. Furthermore, in identifying a specific content area or population in advance, these studies miss emergent data and essential elements of what and how health and illness messages are conveyed to the general public and to a broader range of demographic groups.

Although print media use has been decreasing, many popular magazines have combined their media footprints, to produce both a print version and web-based content that may or may not be limited to subscribers.4 To date, there have been no studies that examined health information across demographic groups in this hybrid matrix.

Media readership analysis by industry sources

One source of information about magazine readership access and usage is analysis from the publishing industry. In order to promote the sale of advertising, media producers keep track of readership data. Information about the specific demographics of readership, number of subscriptions, and monthly unique webpage views is typically available in a media kit for potential advertisers.25–35 These statistics show a wide range of total readership, from 160 000 for MS31 to 26 million for Time.35

Industry organizations also collect survey data about the reading habits and preferences of readers and the general public. The 2023 Market Report: News and Magazine Media: Providing a Trusted, Brand Safe Source for Reaching Engaged & Influential Audiences compiled information extracted from MRI-Simmons surveys, Nielson Scarborough surveys, and The Edelman Trust Barometer.36–39 This report states that 87% of Americans say that they have read a magazine within the past 6 months. They also note that according to the surveys cited, magazines have a greater appeal to minority groups, with Black, Hispanic, and LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transexual) Americans reading more magazines per month than the US average. Not surprisingly, this report also mentions that the average magazine reader is somewhat older (49.6 years) than the US average (47.7 years). This analysis can begin to provide some initial structure for examination of legacy media.

Accessibility of legacy media to informatics analysis

Given the large volumes of information about health communications, informatics methods have been employed to examine these as they appear in social media and websites.40–43 However, the application of these methods to legacy media has not followed suit. Print media are not formatted in a way that lends itself to detailed analytics. Legacy media websites are not indexed for searches that would facilitate data extraction and analysis. Both data extraction and analysis exist as unstructured textual data, lacking in standardization. This leaves them bereft of the critical feature of interoperability needed for application of informatics methods.44 These media require substantial processing to render them accessible to informatics applications. This effort is a worthwhile endeavor since it can unlock understanding of health communications to target populations.

Objectives

The current study was undertaken to examine the public health-related content of legacy media in both print and website editions and to create a multi-periodical database for content analysis.

Materials and methods

Content analysis methodology

In settings such as open-ended survey questions, transcripts of interviews or videos, and other texts, content analysis is a method to categorize and examine objective and subjective ideas and themes embedded in these sources. Content analysis has a long history of use in the social sciences,45 and also in health professions.46–48 Bengtsson provides a concise overview of the content analysis methodology.49

Data collection

Periodicals in English available for purchase at newsstands in Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal in New York City in November 2019 were screened for broadly defined public health-related content by visual inspection. This content included articles or advertisements discussing any topics that could be relevant to any area of public health, such as smoking, exercise, pollution, climate change, diet and nutrition, or mental health. Sixteen periodicals were identified and purchased for a more detailed review. Eleven met the inclusion criteria of including public health-related content and also having a corresponding website available to subscribers. One-year subscriptions were purchased for the selected periodicals. The timeline for this is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Figure 1 show the progression of data set development, starting from the initial screening for inclusion through data collection.

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Data selection and collection process.

Data extraction and coding

Each printed issue was reviewed, and any articles, editorials, or advertisements, including public health-related content, were coded, then scanned and saved as individual MS Office files. Codes included the full title of the article, the periodical in which it appeared, print or web edition, month of publication, item type (article, advertisement, or editorial), and 1-3 public health theme codes.

Utilizing an inductive content analysis approach, theme codes emerged as the documents were reviewed. New themes were added as the periodicals were reviewed, until no more new general categories were found. These were based on the primary themes of each piece. Where there were possibly more than 3 themes under discussion, coding was based on the largest amount of text devoted to each theme. Theme codes were intentionally kept as broad categories. This inclusive method was designed to capture as many relevant items as possible, and to leave room for more detailed sub-analysis of these data across content areas. While all categories were initially very general, as analysis proceeded, some narrower categories emerged.

To examine content validity, the completed list of theme codes was compared to topics in public health listed on prominent public health websites.50–52 While, as expected, there were many topics of public health significance not included in these lay publications, there were no identified themes derived from the legacy media examined that were found to be extraneous to public health.

Development of dataset

Since websites of popular media are not optimized for content searches following research criteria, documents from each monthly issue were extracted through a hand search. These were then downloaded, coded, and filed in MS Office files, the same as was done with scanned copies of the printed versions. Coded documents were saved in MS Office with file names identical to the coding string. This created a searchable database of these files utilizing the MS Office search box. The database thus created will be utilized for subsequent studies, as well as serve as a model for additional database development.

Results

Descriptive data

Following this process, 2558 unique documents were extracted and coded from print issues and 6440 unique documents were extracted and coded from websites. The numbers of total documents in each item type—articles, advertisements, and editorials—appearing in the print issues are shown in Table 1. Print editions included 41.4% public health-related content, whereas web-based versions were only 15%. These proportions showed a statistically significant difference when compared by a Z-test (P < .001).

Table 1.

Periodicals by Public Health (PH) document type.

Print issues All 2020 Total PH (% PH) Articles Advertisements Editorials
The Advocate 204 89 (43.6) 132 65 7
Elle 764 234 (30.6) 175 578 10
Essence 393 166 (42.2) 169 224 0
GQ 383 118 (30.8) 112 263 8
Men’s Journal 321 191 (59.5) 127 188 6
MS 74 31 (41.9) 56 16 2
Oprah (O) 653 368 (56.3) 247 385 22
Out 172 71 (41.3) 93 72 7
Scientific American 852 274 (32.1) 543 278 31
Time 1585 757 (47.7) 1065 503 17
Vogue 771 259 (33.6) 225 535 11
Totals 6172 2558 (41.4) 2944 3107 121
Website issues All 2020 Total PH (% PH) Articles Advertisements Editorials
The Advocate 834 251 (30.1) 248 3 0
Elle 759 328 (43.2) 290 37 1
Essence 4342 171 (3.9) 142 28 1
GQ 2674 346 (12.9) 301 45 0
Men’s Journal 1980 528 (26.7) 284 244 0
MS 2027 638 (31.5) 638 0 0
Oprah (O) 950 332 (34.9) 279 53 0
Out 793 323 (40.7) 310 12 1
Scientific American 7741 1446 (18.7) 1433 6 7
Time 12 113 1005 (8.3) 952 53 0
Vogue 8645 1072 (12.4) 860 203 9
Totals 42 858 6440 (15.0) 5737 684 19
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Distribution of public health-related items in each periodical by month is shown in Table 2. Not every periodical generated 1 print issue per month. For those with fewer than twelve issues, the first month of issue was used as the publication month. Website articles were tabulated by the month they first appeared online.

Table 2.

Total PH documents per periodical by month.

Print issues All 2020 Total PH (% PH) Jan 2020 Feb 2020 Mar 2020 Apr 2020 May 2020 Jun 2020 Jul 2020 Aug 2020 Sep 2020 Oct 2020 Nov 2020 Dec 2020
The Advocate 204 89 (43.6) X 16 X 15 X 24 13 X 13 X 8 X
Elle 764 234 (30.6) 13 9 18 30 23 47 X X 37 21 19 17
Essence 393 166 (42.2) 28 X 27 X 23 X 34 X 27 X 27 X
GQ 383 118 (30.8) X 12 8 13 13 13 X 13 17 7 9 13
Men’s Journal 321 191 (59.5) 19 X 33 42 34 X X X 28 X 35 X
MS 74 31 (41.9) 10 X X X 9 X X X 12 X X X
Opera (O) 653 368 (56.3) 34 27 34 34 39 30 31 X 41 27 33 38
Out 172 71 (41.3) X 7 X 11 X 15 15 X 12 X 11 X
Scientific American 852 274 (32.1) 25 29 19 26 15 35 16 32 15 23 18 21
Time 1585 757 (47.7) 19 49 69 131 72 82 73 72 35 47 71 37
Vogue 771 259 (33.6) 17 15 29 23 29 23 X 25 40 18 18 22
Totals 6172 2558 (41.4) 165 164 237 325 257 269 182 142 277 143 249 148
Website issues All 2020 Total PH (% PH) Jan 2020 Feb 2020 Mar 2020 Apr 2020 May 2020 Jun 2020 Jul 2020 Aug 2020 Sep 2020 Oct 2020 Nov 2020 Dec 2020
The Advocate 834 251 (30.1) 18 17 33 34 22 20 9 22 16 18 13 29
Elle 759 328 (43.2) 10 7 44 64 36 25 24 19 21 31 19 28
Essence 4342 171 (3.9) 10 5 22 19 32 15 18 12 6 6 15 11
GQ 2674 346 (12.9) 32 32 40 27 33 20 15 21 23 43 35 25
Men’s Journal 1980 528 (26.7) 102 90 89 55 26 29 23 27 25 20 23 19
MS 2027 638 (31.5) 15 21 60 117 79 33 53 42 62 71 44 41
Opera (O) 950 332 (34.9) 12 13 55 46 45 31 19 18 23 18 23 29
Out 793 323 (40.7) 5 8 24 37 28 36 38 28 34 36 21 28
Scientific American 7741 1446 (18.7) 123 118 154 188 131 174 93 88 87 117 91 82
Time 12 133 1005 (8.3) 85 84 157 130 84 70 58 67 50 69 76 75
Vogue 8645 1072 (12.4) 17 21 206 230 113 75 89 67 58 69 57 70
Totals 42 878 6440 (15.0) 429 416 884 947 629 528 439 411 405 498 417 437
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Figure 2 compares the total numbers of public health-related items by month. The shapes of the curves are similar, with changes in the line for print lagging somewhat behind changes in the web-based line from January to August. From August to December, these trends reverse, with print issues increasing public health content ahead of an increase shown on websites. For further comparison, monthly totals were converted into proportions of the total items published by print or web-based sources. Once again, these proportions were compared by month using Z-tests. The proportions differed significantly in the months of March (P < .001), April (P = .014), June (P < .001), September (P < .001), October (P < .001), and November (P < .001), indicating a difference in the amounts of articles published by each media type in those months.

Figure 2.

Figure 2 is a line graph showing a comparison over time between public health related content in print and web-based issues.

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Public health-related content by month in print and web-based issues.

Analysis of public health-related content

Through the iterative process of data extraction and coding, 17 public health-related themes were identified. These were: child health, COVID-19, diet-food-nutrition, environment, health policy and practices, housing-built environment, LGBTQ+, men’s health, mental health, non-COVID-19 infectious diseases, physical activity and sports, self-care, sex-sexuality, sleep, substance use/abuse, violence, and women’s health.

In order to observe any changes or patterns by specific themes across the year, the number of items coded under each theme per month was tabulated for print and web-based material. As an assessment of the relative importance given to each of these themes, they were ranked by the total number of items coded under each theme. These ranked data are shown in Table 3. For print issues, the top 3 themes were self-care, health policy and practices, and COVID-19. For web-based issues, COVID-19 was the most frequent theme, followed by health policy and practices and mental health. Statistical comparisons by Z-tests were carried out using MS Excel.

Table 3.

Themes ranked by totals print vs websites.

Print issues Total items by theme for year Jan 2020 Feb 2020 Mar 2020 Apr 2020 May 2020 Jun 2020 Jul 2020 Aug 2020 Sep 2020 Oct 2020 Nov 2020 Dec 2020
Self-Care 782 50 35 91 76 87 58 47 34 114 50 89 51
Health Policy, Practices 728 35 51 53 121 65 73 59 60 74 44 58 35
COVID 656 1 6 25 117 58 137 51 63 53 42 65 38
Diet, Food, Nutrition 370 33 23 41 46 41 22 22 12 32 20 43 35
Mental Health 341 23 17 30 41 32 35 31 14 47 18 32 21
Environment 228 18 26 19 32 21 12 21 16 22 12 18 11
Women’s Health 162 20 12 22 19 17 11 4 5 20 11 14 7
Physical Activity, Sports 154 18 10 14 22 19 3 8 5 22 5 26 2
Violence 152 7 10 4 12 6 22 27 17 27 5 7 8
LGBTQ+ 106 1 16 2 15 3 23 22 1 14 0 9 0
Housing, Built Environment 92 3 6 12 13 13 3 2 8 11 6 8 7
All Non-COVID-19Infectious Diseases 88 4 15 2 11 5 17 5 3 8 4 11 3
Substance Use, Abuse 88 6 3 7 12 10 9 6 5 12 4 8 6
Child Health 72 9 9 9 10 10 2 5 4 4 2 6 2
Sleep 46 8 3 5 1 2 5 1 8 5 4 2 2
Sex, Sexuality 40 5 5 6 5 5 3 2 0 5 1 3 0
Men’s Health 5 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 2
Total N for all documents in print issues 4110 241 247 343 553 394 436 313 255 470 228 400 230
Website issues Total items by theme for year Jan 2020 Feb 2020 Mar 2020 Apr 2020 May 2020 Jun 2020 Jul 2020 Aug 2020 Sep 2020 Oct 2020 Nov 2020 Dec 2020
COVID 1617 20 25 261 359 214 148 98 96 94 129 77 96
Health Policy, Practices 1188 63 75 122 150 108 100 91 80 95 120 91 93
Mental Health 561 36 38 54 53 59 68 45 40 38 62 34 34
Environment 551 55 44 47 58 46 51 41 45 42 41 45 36
LGBTQ+ 490 21 22 35 51 37 57 44 41 41 56 30 55
Women’s Health 486 18 22 48 66 58 27 36 29 63 56 36 27
Violence 289 3 8 12 24 28 46 24 32 31 34 25 22
Sex, Sexuality 238 21 18 25 27 25 15 26 12 16 18 16 19
Diet, Food, Nutrition 212 19 22 13 19 22 16 13 18 12 16 22 20
Self-Care 212 17 12 22 20 23 14 12 14 15 18 23 22
Physical Activity, Sports 144 17 13 16 18 10 11 11 9 10 13 11 5
All Non-COVID-19Infectious Diseases 132 10 15 13 18 9 7 12 8 11 12 8 9
Child Health 115 3 7 4 23 15 11 8 13 7 9 8 7
Housing, Built Environment 73 8 4 6 6 11 4 10 5 4 8 2 5
Substance Use, Abuse 41 4 2 4 4 3 3 4 1 1 5 6 4
Men’s Health 29 1 2 1 3 3 4 2 3 2 4 4 0
Sleep 19 3 0 2 3 1 2 2 0 3 0 1 2
Total N for all documents in website issues 6397 319 329 685 902 672 584 479 446 485 601 439 456
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Figure 3 shows a comparison between print and web-based content across the 17 themes. Z-tests comparing the proportion of content dedicated to each theme in print and website issues found significant differences between these for 13 of the 17 themes. The print issues were significantly higher in discussing 6 topics: self-care; diet, food and nutrition; physical activity and sports; housing and built environment; substance use and abuse; and sleep (P < .001 for all of these). Web-based issues had higher proportions of content in 7 areas: COVID-19, environment, women’s health, LGBTQ+, sex and sexuality (P < .001 for all of these), as well as men’s health (P = .004), and violence (P = .041). Discussion of health policy and practices, mental health, non-COVID-19 infectious diseases, and children’s health was comparable in both print and web-based issues (P = .400).

Figure 3.

Figure 3 is a bar graph showing the differences between print and web-based issues for each of the seventeen public health themes.

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Percent by theme comparing print vs web editions. P-values for Z-tests: ***P < .001, **P < .01, and *P < .05.

Upon examining these clusters of thematic differences, more traditional magazine content, such as diet, exercise, and self-care, appeared in the print issues. This may be due to the longer production schedules for this format, as well as inclusion of more “evergreen” articles, such as weight loss advice in January, sun-related skin care tips in the summer months, and health-related gift ideas during the winter holidays. Themes with no difference between print and web issues were also in content areas typically seen in legacy media, although the specific focus may have differed. For example, more traditional mental health topics would include coping with interpersonal stressors with family members or at work, or adjustments to life changes such as getting married or changing jobs. Emerging mental health topics more prevalent in the web-based content were more likely to focus on mental health issues related to COVID-19 or inter-racial tensions.

Themes significantly higher in the web-based versions were more focused on emerging news that could be presented more quickly online. These themes were driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, environmental events such as the California wildfires, women’s health news around the reversal of Roe v Wade, and increased violence in multiple contexts.

In view of the substantial impact of material related to COVID-19, selected themes—diet, food, nutrition, mental health, and environment—were graphed against COVID-19 to provide a visual comparison throughout the year for both print (see Figure 4) and web-based content (see Figure 5). While there was some degree of variability in the first 3 themes, they were all of a similar magnitude in both formats, all of which were dwarfed by the discussion of COVID-19.

Figure 4.

Figure 4 is a line graph showing a comparison over time of the number of items appearing in print issues for the themes COVID-19, Diet, Food, Nutrition, Mental Health, and Environment.

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Themes by month in print editions.

Figure 5.

Figure 5 is a line graph showing a comparison over time of the number of items appearing in website issues for the themes COVID-19, Diet, Food, Nutrition, Mental Health, and Environment.

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Themes by month in web editions.

Given the differences in total percent of content devoted to public health themes between the eleven magazines (shown in Table 1), further analysis was done to examine the prevalence of specific themes in each of these. This varied greatly across the eleven periodicals. These are shown for the print issues in Table 4. These differences reflect the varied interests and focus areas of these readership groups, as well as the format of the content, print or web based.

Table 4.

Distribution of themes by periodical.

Print issuesa The AdvocateN (%) ElleN (%) EssenceN (%) GQN (%) Men’s JournalN (%) MSN (%) Oprah (O)N (%) OutN (%) Scientific AmericanN (%) TimeN (%) VogueN (%) Total Coded items by theme
Self-Care 2 (0.2) 136 (17.4) 100 (12.8) 19 (2.4) 43 (5.5) 3 (0.4) 187 (23.9) 13 (1.7) 7 (0.9) 124 (15.8) 148 (18.9) 782
Health Policy, Practices 16 (2.2) 33 (4.5) 23 (3.2) 21 (2.9) 1 (0.1) 28 (3.8) 34 (4.7) 3 (0.4) 132 (18.1) 412 (56.6) 27 (3.7) 728
COVID 15 (2.3) 52 (7.9) 21 (3.2) 17 (2.6) 5 (0.7) 6 (0.9) 16 (2.4) 16 (2.4) 96 (14.6) 376 (57.3) 44 (6.7) 656
Diet, Food, Nutrition 4 (1.1) 11 (3.0) 21 (5.7) 26 (7.0) 97 (26.2) 0 (0) 83 (22.4) 8 (2.2) 21 (5.7) 76 (21.3) 23 (6.2) 370
Mental Health 12 (3.5) 14 (4.1) 20 (5.9) 11 (3.2) 7 (2.0) 0 (0) 66 (19.3) 6 (1.7) 53 (15.4) 108 (31.7) 34 (10.0) 341
Environment 0 (0) 23 (8.4) 1 (0.4) 7 (2.6) 22 (8.0) 2 (0.7) 9 (3.3) 1 (0.4) 60 (22.0) 105 (38.5) 20 (7.3) 273
Women’s Health 0 (0) 30 (18.5) 5 (3.1) 0 (0) 1 (0.6) 23 (14.2) 30 (18.5) 0 (0) 6 (3.7) 26 (16.0) 42 (25.9) 162
Physical Activity, Sports 3 (1.9) 6 (3.9) 10 (6.5) 18 (11.7) 69 (44.8) 0 (0) 15 (9.7) 8 (5.2) 3 (1.9) 14 (9.1) 8 (5.2) 154
Violence 16 (10.5) 3 (2.0) 7 (4.6) 6 (3.9) 1 (0.6) 9 (5.9) 8 (5.3) 49 (32.2) 3 (2.0) 85 (55.9) 10 (6.6) 152
LGBTQ+ 56 (52.8) 1 (0.9) 2 (1.9) 1 (0.9) 0 (0) 2 (1.9) 3 (2.8) 31 (29.2) 1 (0.9) 7 (6.6) 2 (1.9) 106
Housing, Built Environment 0 (0) 5 (5.4) 3 (3.2) 14 (15.2) 5 (5.4) 0 (0) 6 (6.5) 0 (0) 2 (2.2) 28 (30.4) 29 (31.5) 92
All Non-COVID-19Infectious Diseases 20 (22.7) 0 (0) 7 (7.9) 4 (4.5) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 15 (17.0) 25 (28.4) 16 (18.2) 1 (1.1) s88
Substance Use, Abuse 9 (10.2) 6 (6.8) 1 (1.1) 15 (17.0) 7 (7.9) 0 (0) 3 (3.4) 4 (4.5) 12 (13.6) 26 (29.5) 5 (5.7) 88
Child Health 5 (6.9) 3 (4.2) 2 (2.8) 0 (0) 0 (0) 2 (2.8) 5 (6.9) 1 (1.4) 14 (19.4) 23 (31.9) 7 (9.7) 72
Sleep 0 (0) 5 (10.9) 0 (0) 4 (8.7) 1 (2.2) 0 (0) 11 (23.9) 1 (2.2) 6 (13.0) 10 (21.7) 8 (17.4) 46
Sex, Sexuality 6 (15.0) 7 (17.5) 8 (20.0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 8 (20.0) 3 (7.5) 5 (12.5) 0 (0) 3 (7.5) 0 (0) 40
Men’s Health 0 (0) 1 (20.0) 1 (20.0) 1 (20.0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 1 (20.0) 0 (0) 1 (20.0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 5
Totals 89 (3.5) 234 (9.1) 166 (6.5) 118 (4.6) 193 (7.5) 31 (1.2) 368 (14.4) 71 (2.8) 275 (10.7) 757 (29.5) 259 (10.0) Σ = 2561
Website issuesb The AdvocateN (%) ElleN (%) EssenceN (%) GQN (%) Men’s JournalN (%) MSN (%) Oprah (O)N (%) OutN (%) Scientific AmericanN (%) TimeN (%) VogueN (%) Total Coded items by theme
COVID 117 (3.4) 238 (6.9) 65 (1.9) 183 (5.3) 131 (3.8) 338 (9.8) 169 (4.9) 73 (2.1) 613 (17.7) 665 (19.2) 864 (25.0) 3456
Health Policy, Practices 65 (2.9) 66 (2.9) 15 (0.7) 30 (1.3) 40 (1.8) 291 (13.0) 62 (2.8) 140 (6.3) 581 (26.0) 621 (27.8) 319 (14.3) 2230
Mental Health 59 (6.1) 59 (6.1) 62 (6.4) 65 (6.7) 39 (4.0) 34 (3.5) 72 (7.5) 39 (4.0) 248 (25.7) 97 (10.1) 189 (19.6) 963
Environment 4 (0.5) 14 (1.7) 0 (0) 13 (1.6) 62 (7.4) 24 (2.9) 9 (1.1) 4 (0.5) 492 (59.0) 117 (14.0) 94 (11.3) 833
LGBTQ+ 169 (29.4) 8 (1.4) 2 (0.3) 10 (1.7) 0 (0) 30 (5.2) 19 (3.3) 264 (46.0) 5 (0.9) 42 (7.3) 26 (4.5) 574
Women’s Health 9 (1.4) 36 (5.8) 42 (6.7) 2 (0.3) 1 (0.2) 341 (54.8) 43 (6.9) 7 (1.1) 19 (3.0) 62 (10.0) 60 (9.6) 622
Violence 33 (7.0) 23 (4.9) 6 (1.3) 13 (2.8) 5 (1.1) 124 (25.3) 25 (5.3) 69 (14.6) 21 (4.4) 113 (24.0) 39 (8.3) 471
Sex, Sexuality 26 (9.0) 14 (4.9) 7 (2.4) 24 (8.3) 5 (1.7) 139 (48.3) 19 (6.6) 21 (7.3) 7 (2.4) 6 (2.1) 20 (6.9) 288
Diet, Food, Nutrition 5 (0.9) 29 (5.1) 23 (4.0) 63 (11.0) 173 (30.2) 18 (3.1) 16 (2.8) 6 (1.0) 68 (11.9) 73 (12.8) 100 (17.5) 572
Self-Care 2 (0.2) 58 (5.7) 46 (4.5) 65 (6.4) 132 (13.0) 0 (0) 106 (10.4) 20 (2.0) 21 (2.1) 99 (9.8) 465 (45.8) 1014
Physical Activity, Sports 7 (1.5) 11 (2.4) 33 (7.0) 59 (12.6) 230 (49.1) 2 (0.4) 17 (3.6) 10 (2.1) 22 (4.7) 32 (6.8) 45 (9.6) 468
Child Health 14 (5.9) 11 (4.7) 10 (4.2) 0 (0) 2 (0.8) 45 (19.1) 17 (3.6) 19 (8.1) 18 (7.6) 56 (23.7) 44 (18.6) 236
Housing, Built Environment 2 (1.4) 3 (2.1) 2 (1.4) 6 (4.3) 6 (4.3) 12 (8.6) 9 (6.4) 0 (0) 48 (34.3) 18 (7.6) 34 (24.3) 140
All Non-COVID-19Infectious Diseases 30 (16.7) 1 (0.5) 2 (1.1) 0 (0) 3 (1.7) 0 (0) 3 (1.7) 14 (7.8) 88 (49.2) 34 (19.0) 4 (2.2) 179
Substance Use, Abuse 4 (5.6) 4 (5.6) 4 (5.6) 2 (2.8) 13 (18.0) 0 (0) 1 (1.4) 3 (4.2) 24 (33.3) 7 (9.7) 10 (13.9) 72
Men’s Health 1 (1.7) 3 (5.1) 0 (0) 5 (8.5) 17 (28.8) 9 (15.2) 0 (0) 3 (5.1) 8 (13.6) 7 (11.9) 6 (10.2) 59
Sleep 0 (0) 3 (4.4) 3 (4.4) 4 (4.4) 21 (30.9) 0 (0) 5 (7.4) 0 (0) 9 (13.2) 15 (22.0) 8 (11.8) 68
Totals 547 (4.5) 581 (4.7) 322 (2.6) 544 (4.4) 880 (7.2) 1407 (11.5) 589 (4.8) 696 (5.7) 2292 (18.7) 2064 (16.9) 2327 (19.0) Σ = 12 245
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a

Themes are listed as ranked for overall totals for all print issues.

b

Themes are listed as ranked for overall totals for all website issues.

Comparisons by readership groups

There was substantial variation in the amount of public health-related content in each of the eleven magazines studied. These ranged from 30.6% (Elle) to 59.5% (Men’s Journal) in print and 3.9% (Essence) to 43.2% (Elle) online (see Table 1). Producers of these magazines are likely to be responding to the needs and preferences of their readership demographics. This may have implications for the receptivity of different demographic groups to health-related content presented in these ways. This can be seen when looking at which themes were included most often in each of the periodicals individually, and in clusters of periodicals targeted to similar readership groups. While for web pages, COVID-19 and mental health were frequent themes across all eleven magazines, LGBTQ+ issues were mentioned much more frequently in The Advocate and Out. Women’s health was most frequently discussed in MS, while diet, food, and nutrition were most frequently discussed in Men’s Journal and Vogue.

As shown in Table 4, the most predominant themes were similar in both formats, but did vary somewhat. The top 5 themes in print issues were: (1) self-care, (2) health policy and practices, (3) COVID-19, (4) diet, food, and nutrition, and (5) mental health. The top 5 themes in web-based issues were: (1) COVID-19, (2) health policy and practices, (3) mental health, (4) environment, and (5) LGBTQ+ issues. With 1-3 possible themes coded for each item, web-based articles were found to have included more complex content, with an average of 1.901 themes per item, as compared to 1.001 for print issues.

Comparisons of themes across periodicals showed substantial differences in predominant content for various readership groups. These also differed between formats. Self-care content, the most prevalent topic in print issues, was concentrated within magazines targeted at women; Vogue (18.9%), Oprah (23.9%), Elle (17.4%), and Essence (12.8%). In web pages, self-care was also predominant in Vogue (45.8%) and Oprah (4.9%) with an additional 13.0% found in Men’s Journal. Health policy and practices in both print and web-based issues were concentrated in Time (56.6% print and 27.8% web) and Scientific American (18.1% print, 26% web). These periodicals included the majority of items about COVID-19 in both print (Time 57.3% and Scientific American 14.6%) and web-based issues (Time 19.2% and Scientific American 17.7%). Another high contributor to COVID-19 material was the web version of Vogue, contributing 25% of items in this category. The diet, food, and nutrition theme was divided across multiple readership groups. In the print issues, the majority of items under this theme appeared in Men’s Journal (26.2%), Oprah (22.4%) and Time (21.3%). Men’s Journal was again the largest proportion of this theme in the web-based issues (30.2%), with the Vogue website being second, with 17.5% of items in this theme. Scientific American had a high number of items under mental health, both in print (15.4%) and web pages (25.7%). However, Time (31.7%) and Oprah (19.3%) had more in print issues. Vogue was second in the web-based editions with 19.6%.

Looking at the predominance of themes within periodicals aimed at specific groups reveals a different perspective. The Advocate and Out have a primarily LGBTQ readership, and this was reflected in the most prevalent themes for these periodicals. The top 3 themes for these 2 periodicals were LGBTQ+ issues, non-COVID-19 infectious diseases, and violence.

Three magazines targeted primarily at women—Elle, MS, and Vogue—had a different thematic focus.. Women’s health, self-care, and health policy and practices were prominent themes in the print issues of these periodicals. Web-based issues had a higher proportion of items about COVID-19, mental health, and self-care. Essence and Oprah with a primary readership of Black women had similar themes to those of the other women’s magazines. Self-care was the most prevalent theme in the print issues of both of these, with self-care, COVID-19, and mental health being the most frequent themes on their websites. The 2 periodicals targeted at men, Gentlemen’s Quarterly (GQ) and Men’s Journal, showed a different pattern of themes being emphasized. Diet, food, and nutrition were important themes in both of these magazines, in both print and web-based issues. Physical activity and sports, self-care, health policy, and practices were also frequently mentioned themes, and on both websites, COVID-19. Although their target readerships are quite different, the predominant themes appearing in Scientific American and Time were very similar. In both print and web-based issues, health policy and practices, COVID-19, mental health, and the environment were the most prevalent themes. One difference was noted; in the web-based version of Time, violence was also a significant theme.

Discussion

The total number of documents on websites was much higher than in print issues due to the relative ease of online publishing vs print and the lower cost per each additional article. Despite this, the percentage of public health-related content in print issues was more than twice that of online content. Given that none of the selected periodicals was specifically focused on health, the proliferation of non-health-related content, especially online, is not surprising. Celebrity gossip, fashion trends, reviews of movies and television shows, travel and other forms of entertainment dwarfed health-related content on the websites, even during an emerging pandemic. However, as was seen in Figure 2, the content of print editions lagged behind that of websites by about 1-3 months. It is possible that editorial decisions in this longer process prioritized including more public health-related material. Alternatively, as the much larger volume of material online included larger totals of health-related material, and especially related to COVID-19, this was published faster. So it may be that the subscribers to legacy media were exposed to both the late-breaking health stories through the websites along with many other pieces, and more traditional health-related content in the print editions. Differential priorities as seen in Figure 3 were consistent with this, showing more traditional material in print issues, with more emerging new themes found in websites. Further analysis of specific content could be of benefit in further understanding these differences, and the ways in which they can inform public health communications.

Applications in public health communications

Having a better understanding of what types of health content is distributed through legacy media can help to target health messages to specific demographic and interest groups in ways that are understandable and appealing to them. Sampling vocabulary use and literary tone could promote improved health literacy by presenting information in a way that appeals to specific groups of readers. This can also help to effectively tailor communications to diverse populations, especially those seeking content-specific periodicals that are trusted sources of information for them.53 Since members of the public use different media sources of information in different ways, identifying the most pertinent channel or channels for targeted messages would improve the efficacy of public health campaigns.20 Having an understanding of how literature targeted to specific groups “talks” to them can help health professionals to couch their messages in engaging and effective ways.

Vocabulary, tone, and language usage, as well as which content is relatable to the target readership are juxtaposed to the complex systems in which people live, and the many needs and desires embedded in those systems.54 Having a better understanding of readers and how they prefer to receive content can help to target public health communications. Closer collaboration between journalists, researchers, health professionals, and community stakeholders to create clear and consistent messages would do much to improve the efficacy of such communications.55

Sampling periodicals targeted to relevant groups prior to launching public health campaigns could aid in the fine-tuning of messages and could make them more likely to be successful. Identifying media sources of trusted health information for specific groups could also be used to “reverse engineer” important health messages to those populations. Accomplishing this translational work requires cross-disciplinary methods and collaboration. Informatics methods are needed to extract and analyze original data. Systems science is needed to understand how that fits into people’s complex lives to optimize focus. Communication skills are needed to close the loop and bring public health messages back to people in a way that makes sense to them, so they can “hear” the messages and take appropriate actions.

Our study has shown that legacy media in both print and web-based formats present a highly varied range of themes to their readers, and that these differ between the 2 formats. Examining media for specific groups may make it easier to target public health messages in a way that is engaging and understandable to their group.

Limitations

The main limitation of this study is the small number of magazines sampled. While the eleven included are all nationally distributed, selecting from those available at newsstands in New York City may not represent the overall landscape of magazines published in the United States. Collecting data during only 1 year of publication may also have introduced bias into the overall findings, especially given the much-discussed COVID-19 pandemic that may have led not only to high interest in pandemic-related content but to greater interest overall in health-related topics during 2020.

Directions for further research

Detailed analysis of specific topics within this data set—both quantitative and in-depth content analysis of documents for themes, vocabulary, tone, and other factors—can help develop an understanding of how health information is delivered to specific readership groups. This may help to guide future efforts at tailoring and fine-tuning public health messages.

Conclusions

The database developed for this study can serve as a model for the development of effective informatics approaches to data extraction and analysis in non-indexed data sources such as legacy media. This has potential for application in other contexts, such as publications in different languages or countries, as well as across different times. Combining novel informatics approaches with a systems science focus may contribute to development of effective precision communications in public health.

Contributor Information

Ann Gaba, Department of Environmental, Occupational, and Geospatial Health Sciences, City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, New York, NY 10027, United States.

Richard Bennett, Department of Environmental, Occupational, and Geospatial Health Sciences, City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, New York, NY 10027, United States.

Author contributions

Conceptualiztion, AG; Funding Aquisition, AG; Methodology, AG; Data Collection, AG and RB; Formal Analysis, AG and RB; Visualization, AG and RB; Writing - Original Draft, AG & RB; Writing - Review & Editing, AG and RB. Both authors approved the final version of this manuscript and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of this work.

Funding

This work was supported by a PSC-CUNY [award number TRADB-51-117].

Conflicts of interest

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Data availability

The data underlying this article will be shared on reasonable request to the corresponding author.

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Associated Data

This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.

Data Availability Statement

The data underlying this article will be shared on reasonable request to the corresponding author.

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