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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1484828
This article is part of the Research Topic Health and Risk Communication View all articles

Toward the stakeholders' understanding for the media reporting on doctor-patient relationship issues: trust, unfamiliar and uncertain in Chinese context

Provisionally accepted
Zhenghan Gao Zhenghan Gao 1Junyang Huang Junyang Huang 2Bowen Zhang Bowen Zhang 3*Xinwen Zhang Xinwen Zhang 4
  • 1 School of Humanities and Foreign Languages, Qingdao University of Technology, Qingdao, Shandong, China
  • 2 School of Media, Film and Television, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
  • 3 School of Business, Shenzhen Technology University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
  • 4 Shenzhen Mental Health Centre, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: This study explores doctors' and patients' understandings of citizen journalism on doctor-patient relationship issues. It also examines the communication effect of citizen journalism as a communication platform on doctors and patients who are taking part in the doctor-patient relationship in contemporary China. Method ： This study draws on the analysis of 24 semi-structured interviews with doctors from both publicly funded and privately operated hospital, and 9 focus groups which included 36 patients with different socio-economic backgrounds.Result： The empirical research present the following results: (1) authority and witness are the two key factors to construct the stakeholders'(doctors' and patients') awareness and trust of citizen journalist reporting on the doctor-patient relationship issues. (2) stakeholders' perception on citizen journalism will construct them concern on the uncertain and unfamiliar knowledge during the hospital activities. Discussion：The interpretation of doctor-patient relationship reports by doctors and patients affects their mutual trust. Authority and witnessing are two key factors that citizen journalists should consider when reporting on doctor-patient relationship news. Doctors from different types of hospitals and patients with different income levels have different understandings of the authority and witnessing of the reported content. Reading the content of doctor-patient conflicts reflected in citizen journalist reports can exacerbate the emotional fluctuations of doctors and patients. After reading these reports, doctors and patients may experience increased anxiety about uncertainty and unfamiliarity in doctor-patient communication.Contribution：This study provides a framework for public health research from the relationship between communication content and audience. It also provides answers from the perspectives of media and stakeholders to investigate the tension in doctor-patient relationships in China.

    Keywords: Doctor-patient relationship, citizen journalism, Hospital, audience, Public Health

    Received: 22 Aug 2024; Accepted: 08 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Gao, Huang, Zhang and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Bowen Zhang, School of Business, Shenzhen Technology University, Shenzhen, 518118, Guangdong, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.