Across three national news networks, physician voices accounted for just one-fifth of unique guest speakers and less than one-third of speaking time on COVID-19 content, according to research published in JAMA Internal Medicine Dec. 14.
The study considered special guests on news programming from May to June across Fox News Network, CNN and MSNBC. Any non-anchor individual who wasn't affiliated with the network was considered a guest.
A total of 220 guests spoke on COVID-19 content during the observation period. A total of 351 interviews were conducted with the guests, totalling 1,304.5 minutes. Here is a breakdown of the findings:
- Sixty-six (30 percent) guests were women. Women spoke in 97 interviews (27.6 percent) and accounted for 347.5 total minutes of speaking time (26.6 percent.)
- Networks conducted a total of 116 physician interviews featuring 47 physician speakers (21.4 percent). Physicians accounted for 423 minutes of guest speaking time (32.4 percent). A total of 12 physicians were women (25.5) percent who contributed 17 physician interviews (14.7 percent,) totalling just 65.5 (15.5 percent) minutes of physician interview speaking time.
The study found no significant gender distribution speaker difference between COVID-19 content compared to other content. While men accounted for more guest speaker slots across all networks, MSNBC had the highest proportion of female speakers, followed by CNN and Fox.
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