'Emergency Service' from Press Media Perspective: Content Analysis of the News About Emergency Service in the National Newspapers of Turkey

Abstract

Objectives: Aim of this study is to make a content analysis of the news about emergency service in newspapers in Turkey. Material and Methods: In this study, the news about emergency service between 1st January 2010 and 31st December 2012 of the five highest-circulation newspapers were analysed from their official websites. The news were indicated to be a word about emergency service in headline or at least one pragraph about emergency service in the text. Four researchers graded the selected items blindly according to 5 point Likert scale for content and tone. Then the news categorised as positive (1-2 points), neutral (3 points) and negative (4-5 points). Results: In a total of 604 news, 27% had positive (n=164), 12% had neutral (n=74) and 61% had negative (n=366) content. While the neutral tonned news' percentage was 63% (n=383); newspapers were represented the news negatively in 23% (n=138) items and positively in 14% (n=83) items. While the most common news were about patient transport/112/ambulance, news about violence to physicians and other healthcare workers were in the second line. Conclusion: It was concluded that emergency services in Turkey take part in newspapers negatively and these news are mostly about patient transport/112/ambulance or violence to physicians/other healthcare workers.