Media Analysis

Why does kidney disease not receive the same levels of media attention as other Australian health issues, e.g. heart attacks or diabetes?

Your task is to prepare a critical analysis of news and social media reporting about Kidney Tourism (e.g: People in Australia who have kidney disease and they travel overseas for kidney transplant etc.). This should incorporate a comparative analysis of the coverage achieved by similar health campaigns. Drawing on the research you conducted for the Issue Analysis, plus your own, original research, evaluate the extent to which this issue has/ these issues have been reported by Australian news media and on social media, and the nature of the reporting on this issue.

•    Compare media coverage and social media discussion about kidney tourism in Australia with media coverage and social media buzz about another key Australian health issue over the recent 3-month period.
•    Select a sample of media clippings and social media results to analyse (details are given below regarding how many)
•    Media clippings and social media results should be included in an appendix to your assignment
Critique the perceived strategies of both organisations (KHA and one other, e.g. The Heart Foundation).
Consider factors such as:
•    Impact of ambassadors and case studies on media saturation/social media presence
•    Political context
•    Use of tactics such as media outreach, social media, paid advertising
•    Brand reputation
•    How organisations leverage functions/events to create awareness

As a guide, you should select a sample of news media coverage (newspaper, online news sites, radio or television) and social media (Facebook, Twitter) over a three-month period between June and September 2015. You choose the media and sites for analysis. The volume of coverage will vary between issues, but for news media you should aim to select no more than 50 articles for your quantitative research, and no more than 10 of those for your qualitative research. For the social media analysis, choose no more than 20 for qualitative analysis. You will conduct a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative discourse analysis of the mediated discussion of your issue (guidelines to be provided on Moodle and in class).

Your findings should be presented as a short report of no more than 1000 words, plus graphs and tables. You should attach evidence of your data set, in the form of PDFs or screenshots, as an appendix.

Steps in the research process:
1.    Issue identification (from Assessment 1)
2.    Research question(s)
3.    Choice of media for analysis
4.    Timeframe and sample
5.    Collection of data
6.    Analysis and discussion of data
a. Qualitative findings
b. Quantitative findings
7.    Conclusions
The following criteria will be marked holistically:
•    Critical analysis of media reporting and public discussion of an issue
•    Ability to construct an original, independent research project
•    Ability to identify and conduct both quantitative and qualitative research
•    Graphic presentation of quantitative results (tables, graphs)
•    Ability to answer research question(s) and draw conclusions about media representation of your chosen issue