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Aurora top 20 - October 2009

Posted on 06. Nov, 2009 by phaedrus in Health, News

The nights are drawing in, the clocks have gone back (or anti-clockwise to avoid confusion) and hats and scarves are at the ready as temperatures drop and cheeks become rosy. To keep warm and healthy this season, the Aurora team have lots of social jollities planned as well as a very busy working run-up to Christmas and the New Year. That may seem a premature forecast, but the festive season will be here and bringing an end to the noughties before you can say two-thousand-and-ten! Below is an analysis of how news coverage of health issues is being shaped by seasonal progression and other social and media trends.

H1N1, the stubborn swine, insists on bathing in the media mud at the top of the Aurora chart for its sixth month on the trot. Besides a three-month-run from cancer last winter and one from heart disease in the chart’s first months back in early 2007, swine flu eclipses all other entrants on longevity in pole position and three months more would see it equalling cancer and nutrition as the most prolific top 20 toppers.

Whereas swine flu subsided last month in its volume of media coverage, in October the number of column inches has expanded significantly. This is presumably due to colder weather and the school and university terms being well under way. As we approach Christmas and the New Year, fears and concerns about swine flu picking up pace again are being expressed in the media and by some experts. However, extrapolating from the impact of swine flu in the Southern Hemisphere, whose winter flu season has now passed, it is debatable as to whether these fears will be fully realised. Only time will tell.

Elsewhere in the table however, there has been some interesting movement. There were seven re-entries this month, with some old media favourites, including depression, exercise and heart disease, returning to top 20 status as well as the first time inclusion of life expectancy in the chart.

As ever, it is interesting to analyse and speculate on the influential factors behind the proliferation of various therapeutic areas in UK print media so the broader picture around some of these health issues is explored in more detail in the full version of the Aurora top 20.

Tags: aurora top 20, Media relations