Birth Control and Depression: Science VS. the Media

honors thesisCollege of HumanitiesCommunicationPrevious research has shown that the media can have a large effect on how readers internalize news and information, as well as on their choices, opinions and behaviors. Research has also shown that the media often reports scientific findings inaccurately or not in their entire form, providing readers with misleading information. The present research explores the accuracy of media reporting about a 2016 JAMA Psychiatry intensive study regarding hormonal contraception usage in females and an association to depression. Through a qualitative content analysis of 44 media articles covering this study, I explored how the media reported the study, including the accuracies and discrepancies, and ultimately what this information could mean for readers-specifically females who are currently or considering using hormonal birth control. Overall, this study found that the media reports inflated the risk involved and conflated all the contraception types into one broad category