Masters Theses

Date of Award

5-2004

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Communication

Major Professor

Bonnie P. Riechert

Committee Members

Candace White, Michael Betz, Ben Bates

Abstract

This exploratory study examines how the news media coverage of acupuncture changed during the first three and one-half decades of diffusion in the United States. It specifically looks at amount of coverage and framing. In doing so, this study is one f the few to date to examine framing during the diffusion process. This study compares changes in news media coverage to major milestones in diffusion in an attempt to determine if media lead or follow in the diffusion of an innovation at the societal level.

Acupuncture was introduced to mainstream American culture in the 1970s. This study examines its diffusion at the macro, or societal, level of diffusion using a longitudinal approach over a 35-year period. The research methods used are bibliometric counts, computer-assisted content analysis, cluster analysis, and interpretative analysis. Research focuses on the national print news media with the bibliometric counts involving the New York Times, medical journals, and The Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature, and framing analysis involving The New York Times, Newsweek, and the Washington Post.

This study concluded that both the amount of coverage and framing of acupuncture changed significantly over a 35-year period and that the media sometimes led and sometimes followed in the diffusion process. There were two significant peaks in amount of coverage over the 35 years. The first and largest occurred during the early 1970s and began with the “trigger event” of New York Times columnist James Reston receiving a successful postoperative acupuncture treatment while traveling in China with Kissinger. It appears that this “trigger event” set the media agenda in the 1970s, and that the media were instrumental in introducing acupuncture to the American public. It also appears that the media helped to set the policy for many states, which began taking regulatory and legislative action concerning acupuncture about one year after the peak in coverage began. The second peak in amount of coverage occurred in 1997 when a panel appointed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) endorsed acupuncture for some health conditions. In the 1990s, it appears that the media agenda followed the federal government’s policy agenda.

Framing changes in news media coverage of acupuncture most often followed milestones of diffusion, and they almost always involved an increase in or sometimes the beginning of a particular frame. The most notable examples follow: The frame involving the study of acupuncture and the frame involving its regulation and legislation both began shortly after Reston’s treatment. The “Alternative Medicine” frame began with the establishment of an NIH office to study complementary and alternative medicine. A frame involving the safety, effectiveness, and usefulness of acupuncture increased incrementally after each of the three positive actions by the federal government in the 1990s. There was one notable case when frame changes occurred before a milestone. In the late 1980s and in 1990, the media focused on the use of acupuncture to treat drug addiction. This focus may gave possibly had an influence, by increasing acupuncture’s credibility with policy elites, on the passage of legislation in 1991, which mandated the establishment of an NIH office to study complementary and alternative medicine.

This study also found that framing evolved in such a way that three phases of media coverages could be identified. The first, which occurred in the 1970s, is the “Introduction” phase. The stories contain themes that might result from the introduction of any innovation and include the subthemes “Uses,” “Regulation,” and “Caution and Skepticism.” The second phase, which occurred in the 1980s, is named “Unmet Need” because the stories involve experimentation with using the innovation, acupuncture, to treat drug addiction, a need that was not being satisfactorily met by Western medicine at the time. The third, the “Legitimacy” phase, occurred in the 1990s. In this phase, the media frame acupuncture with a legitimacy that they did not give to it before. This is attributed to the positive actions toward acupuncture taken by the federal government coupled with the media’s tendency toward supporting the ruling interests of society.

Overall, it appears that the media led the way in introducing acupuncture to mainstream American culture in the 1970s. During this time, it focused on themes logical for any society trying to understand a new innovation: its uses, its regulation, and caution and skepticism toward an unknown. Although there was a small and possibly influential cluster of stories in the late 1980s and in 1990 that focused on the use of acupuncture in addressing the unmet need of treatment for drug addiction, acupuncture was not a significant topic again until 1997 when an NIH panel gave its endorsement. At this time, the media followed the federal government’s lead in the diffusion process. The amount of coverage increased by media framing became more positive in response to this legitimizing action by the federal government.

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