@inproceedings{7010815,
  abstract     = {{News on health-related issues is gaining importance in traditional news media (Dunwoody, 2008; Peters, 2008; Trench, 2008; Kaiser Family Foundation & Pew Research Center, 2009; Picard & Yeo, 2011; Secko, Amend & Friday, 2013). Health journalists browse through the large amount of incoming health news every day to act as gatekeepers (Levi, 2001). Previous research indicates that the selection and framing of health-related news is largely influenced by elitist sources, as for instance, by stakeholders from the pharmaceutical sector and researchers of academic and commercial research institutions (Caulfield, 2004; Abelson & Collins, 2009; Kruvand, 2009; Len-Rios, Hinnant, Sun, Cameron, Frisby & Young, 2009; Hinnant, Len-Rios & Oh, 2012). Sourcing practices are strongly connected to professional standards and routines, a combination of efficiency and power considerations (Reich, 2011). Since journalists have stressing  deadlines,  they prefer sources that do not need to pass the extensive process of reliability and believability checks (Gans, 1979; Herman & Chomsky, 2012). Digital media however have rocked sourcing practices and daily routines in newsrooms (Mitchelstein & Boczkowski, 2009). The world wide web has given access to a broader range of information as provided also by civil society actors and citizens (Hermida & Thurman, 2008).
In this paper we confront the traditional elitist newsroom sourcing practices with a broad range of civil society actors, who act as bottom-up sources using social media to spread their messages. Our main goal therefore is to detect whether, in health journalism, sourcing practices can be linked with strategies of  empowerment of non-institutional stakeholders. 
We use a quantitative content analysis to examine the content of health journalism in a broad range of news media, enriched with more in-depth analysis on framing. The analysis is not limited to content variables as such, but mainly highlights sourcing practices as visible in the media texts, and gives an overview as well of the different stakeholders represented in the content flow. Our content analysis includes 1014 features from 5 newspapers (Het Laatste Nieuws, Het Nieuwsblad, De Morgen, De Standaard and Metro), 2 television news programs (Het Nieuws and Het Journaal), 11 news-related programs on the commercial and public broadcasts, 6 weeklies (Libelle, Dag Allemaal, Flair, Humo, Knack and P Magazine), 5 monthlies (Bodytalk, Plus Magazine, Vitaya Magazine, Goed Gevoel and Eos), 2 radio broadcasts (Radio 1 and Q Music) and 2 health news websites (Gezondheid & Wetenschap and Gezondheid.be). We decided to monitor the total amount of health news that appeared in February 2015 to explore the broad field of health journalism. A coding guide and registration form were developed to ensure a high level of uniformity in the coding output. A critically composed sample of 10% of the articles was tested for inter-coder reliability with an outcome of Cohen’s Kappa values ranging from 0.68 up to 1.00. Analysis was carried out using PASW Statistics 22. 
In the news coverage on health, we often notice patients and their family in the news. On one hand,  patients do make a valuable contribution to the health news coverage as actors being quoted. Personal testimonies and stories about patients that were able to overcome their disease after a severe treatment or patients that struggle with a similar disorder, give a personal touch to health by which the readers are more attracted to health issues. These findings confirm different international studies (Weigold, 2001; Bubela & Caulfield, 2004) that classify personalization and identification as news values. On the other hand, our results offer proof that patients and patient associations do not play an important role as source. In what Allan (2011) called the ‘hierarchy of credibility’, he states that the role of ordinary citizens in the hierarchy of sources is rather limited. Power and efficiency considerations lead to the traditional sourcing practices, thus still relying on long-established, professional sources (Gans, 1979). With regard to health news, we connect this to the importance of experts and academics. In our research, we also add the pharmaceutical industry to the list.}},
  author       = {{De Dobbelaer, Rebeca and Stroobant, Joyce and Van De Wal, Karin}},
  booktitle    = {{Etmaal van de Communicatiewetenschap 2016, Abstracts}},
  keywords     = {{sourcing practices,bottom-up communication,health journalism,content analysis,empowerment,media monitoring}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  location     = {{Amsterdam, the Netherlands}},
  title        = {{Mobilizing the crowd or sticking to the elite? A quantitative media monitoring study on sourcing practices of Belgian health journalists}},
  url          = {{https://nefca.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/programmaboekje-etmaal-van-de-communicatiewetenschap-2016-def3.pdf}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}