Nationwide Newspaper Coverage of Physician-Assisted Suicide: a Community Structure Approach

Using a community structure approach linking city characteristics & variations in media coverge, newspaper stories on physician-assisted suicide were examined. A nationwide sample of 15 city newspapers yielded 288 articles in a 4-year period. Correlation & factor analysis yielded 2 significant city characteristic factors: a stakeholder factor, age (percent over 75) associated with unfavourable coverage of physician-assisted suicide; & an access factor – combining media access & health care access – linked to favourable coverage, combining to account for 46.3% of the variance. Western American newspapers & public opinion are most favourable to physician-assisted suicide. (143 refs.)