This study provides an insight into medical journalism practice by examining how news media have framed who is responsible for causing and solving the growing problem of medical disputes in Mainland China. We identified responsibility-attribution information presented in 490 news articles about medical disputes published in the People's Daily, Health News, and Southern Metropolis Daily between 2012 and 2017. Our data reveal that, mentions of personal causes have significantly outnumbered those of societal causes. Specifically, health workers were discussed most often as being responsible for the occurrence of medical disputes. In terms of how to solve the problem, the media were focusing heavily on societal-level efforts, while post-event solutions were addressed more frequently than preventative actions. City press was less likely to discuss societal causes and solution suggestions compared with party press and professional newspapers. In the conclusion, we discussed the potential consequences of such framing patterns, and how media professionals can be meaningfully engaged in the future reporting on public health problems.
Keywords: Chinese press; content analysis; medical disputes; news framing; patient–physician relationship; responsibility attribution.