TABLE 1.
Characteristics of Articles About Racial/Ethnic Health Disparities (N = 3823): 40 US Newspapers, 1996–2005
| No. of Articles | % | |
| Region | ||
| National (n = 3) | 587 | 15.4 |
| South (n = 12) | 1091 | 28.5 |
| West (n = 12) | 830 | 21.7 |
| Northeast (n = 7) | 703 | 18.4 |
| Midwest (n = 6) | 612 | 16.0 |
| Year | ||
| 1996 | 405 | 10.6 |
| 1997 | 325 | 8.5 |
| 1998 | 470 | 12.3 |
| 1999 | 441 | 11.5 |
| 2000 | 398 | 10.4 |
| 2001 | 415 | 10.9 |
| 2002 | 376 | 9.8 |
| 2003 | 338 | 8.8 |
| 2004 | 337 | 8.8 |
| 2005 | 318 | 8.3 |
| Section of paper | ||
| Front | 1446 | 37.8 |
| Health | 285 | 7.5 |
| Other | 2092 | 54.7 |
| News brief | 318 | 8.3 |
| Opinion vs news | ||
| News | 2258 | 59.1 |
| Editorial/commentary | 1022 | 26.7 |
| Human interest | 406 | 10.6 |
| Letter to editor | 63 | 1.6 |
| Other | 74 | 1.9 |
| Author or source | ||
| Staff writer | 3348 | 87.6 |
| Associated Press | 107 | 2.8 |
| Reuters | 15 | 0.4 |
| Knight-Ridder | 43 | 1.1 |
| Other | 310 | 8.1 |
| Photo or visual graphic | 305 | 8.0 |
| Racial/ethnic health disparities central focus of article | 1656 | 43.3 |
| Social-justice words | 138 | 3.6 |