Framing of news in the context of specialization in health journalism and professional ethics: Organ donation and transplantation news in Türkiye (1975-2022)

The media, which sets the agenda of public opinion and politics with the issues it highlights, goes beyond what people talk about and decides how they think. People's health-related cognitions and therefore their attitudes and behaviors are affected by the news and information they receive from the media, which they interact with in a significant part of their daily lives. Within the scope of the media's responsibility to raise awareness on health issues and to correct misinformation in order to guide people towards the right health behavior, the thesis focuses on how and in what manner news on health issues are presented. In raising awareness for organ donation, the media, which has the power to influence people, has a role and should take responsibility, it is stated by a wide range of circles from politics to non-governmental organizations and opinion leaders. In order to make periodic comparisons and to see the development of health news in the historical process, copies of Hürriyet newspaper from November 1975 to January 2023 were scanned in the archive of the State Library, and the news on "organ donation and organ transplantation" were analyzed within the scope of specialization, professional ethics and Framing Theory. A mixed content analysis method was applied as a combination of quantitative and qualitative content analysis methods in order to understand the ways of presentation, the meanings of the texts and the possible effects of the health news produced and published, ensuring that the analyzes are complementary and developmental. As a result, although important steps have been taken in terms of specialization and organization in health journalism since 1991, it is seen that developments in specialization are not reflected in the news when compared to the 1975-1990 period. It has been determined that health news on organ donation and transplantation are mostly produced by news agencies, expert opinions are rarely included, human stories are mostly covered after 1991, the rate of compatibility of news headlines and visuals with the news content is at low levels, ethical principles for medical and health journalism are not paid attention, especially in news reports after 2011, emotional narratives are more oriented and identity use and visual violations still continue today. It is seen that the frames of health news on organ donation and transplantation are presented episodically, that it is not aimed to inform and raise public awareness, that a dramatic narrative with a high emotional content is used, and that there is a framing approach in which the news is more personalized. Due to its power to influence the society by creating an agenda through the published health news, it is recommended to specialize in the production of health news, to comply with the professional ethical principles of health and medicine, and to frame the news attentively.