Want to understand how Americans viewed long-term care in 1998? Start with media coverage

Purpose: This analysis describes media coverage of long-term care in 1998. Design and Methods: Several sources were used to place coverage of long-term care in 1998 in the context of recent years and other health issues. For the primary analysis, stories in which long-term care was a major topic were collected from Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe. Media sources included major newspapers, network news, CNN, and NPR. Stories were coded for topic, details about the topic, physical placement within the overall coverage, and underlying issues. Results: A small percentage of media coverage in 1998 concerned long-term care. Among long-term care topics, nursing homes received the most coverage. A small percentage of long-term care topics were reported on the front page, and few underlying issues framed these topics. Implications: To ensure that Americans receive a comprehensive view of long-term care issues, gerontologists must work with reporters to influence how they report on long-term care.