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Cultural and social scientific media researchers often study the same topics—but they ask different types of questions about those topics. For example, two studies recently analyzed news coverage of cancer. The study informed by the cultural approach, titled “Constructing Breast Cancer in the News: Betty Ford and the Evolution of the Breast Cancer Patient,” explored a historical turning point in how the media and consumers interpret breast cancer. The study centered on how the news media covered First Lady Betty Ford’s mastectomy operation in 1974. The author of the study concluded that coverage of Ford’s mastectomy still influences contemporary news coverage of breast cancer today. Specifically, many stories about breast cancer patients emphasize “the need for breast cancer patients to maintain their femininity.”⁶

Research by social scientists asked a question about cancer news coverage that was perhaps less expansive, but more measurable. In an article titled “A Comprehensive Analysis of Breast Cancer News Coverage in Leading Media Outlets Focusing on Environmental Risks and Prevention,” researchers analyzed the contents of newspaper, television, and magazine accounts of the topic over a two-year span. The researchers didn’t interpret the meanings of the news stories (as cultural researchers might have). Instead, they focused on the data they gathered, describing it in more objective terms. For example, the authors noted that “about one-third of the stories included prevention content, primarily focusing narrowly on use of pharmaceutical products. Little information described risk reduction via other individual preventive behaviors (e.g., diet, exercise, and smoking), parental protective measures, or collective actions to combat contamination sites.”⁷