Most cable TV speakers on COVID-19 content are not physicians
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Physicians comprised about one-fifth of unique speakers and provided less than one-third of speaking time on COVID-19 content during 5 weeks of primetime programming on cable television this past spring, data showed.
Of the speakers who were physicians, most were men, according to researchers.
“Given the news media’s longstanding role in shaping public consciousness, we sought to investigate whose voices are being broadcast,” Alangoya Tezel, BA, an MD candidate at the University of Michigan Medical School, and colleagues wrote.
The researchers analyzed primetime programming on Fox News Network, CNN and MSNBC from 8 to 11 p.m. Eastern/Pacific Time, a timeslot “with the highest ratings.” The analysis was conducted from May 18 to June 19, 2020.
Tezel and colleagues reported that of 220 unique guests providing 351 interviews on COVID-19 content, 21.4% were physicians. These MDs (n = 45) and DOs (n = 2) delivered 32.4% of the 1,304.5 minutes of COVID-19 content. Of these unique physicians, 25.5% were women who accounted for 14.7% of all physician interviews and 15.5% of the speaking time. MSNBC had 30.4% unique female physician representation, encompassing 21.2% of the 33 interviews and 18% of the 119.5 minutes allocated to COVID-19 content. Fox News Network had 0% female physician representation throughout the study period.
Women were also less often interviewed multiple times across the studied networks: 83.3% appeared once while 16.7% appeared three or more times. Conversely, 54.3% of men appeared once and 28.6% appeared three or more times.
Among a separate cohort of nonphysician PhDs, 20.7% of the 29 speakers were women, who made up 17.1% of these interviews and 15.1% of the 152 minutes total speaking time. Within this cohort, 100% of the women and 87% of the men only appeared once.
“This study provides informative descriptive information on the representation of medical experts and gender gap in media representation during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Tezel and colleagues wrote. “This inconsistency with the composition of the workforce could detract from the perceived legitimacy of female doctors amid a national crisis.”