Heart disease and cancer accounted for 56 per cent of analysed deaths in the United States during 2023 yet received just 7 per cent of media coverage, while terrorism and homicides dominated headlines despite causing a tiny fraction of fatalities, according to new research from Our World in Data.
The analysis examined causes of death representing 76 per cent of all US deaths in 2023 against coverage in the New York Times, Washington Post and Fox News, reports Our World in Data.
Terrorism caused 16 deaths in 2023 but received more than 18,000 times the media attention its death toll would suggest. Homicides similarly received 43 times more coverage than their share of deaths warranted. Together, these dramatic but rare events accounted for more than half of all media coverage analysed.
“Heart disease and cancer accounted for 56% of deaths but received just 7% of the coverage,” the researchers stated. Nearly 2,000 Americans die from heart disease daily, yet chronic conditions including strokes, respiratory problems, diabetes, and kidney and liver disease were vastly underrepresented in news reporting.
The study revealed striking similarity across the three outlets despite their different political leanings. Whilst Fox News mentioned homicides slightly more frequently and the New York Times gave terrorism marginally more attention, the overall distribution of coverage proved remarkably consistent.
“While right- and left-wing media might differ in how they cover particular topics, what they choose to write or talk about is similar,” the researchers noted.
The research team, led by Hannah Ritchie, Tuna Acisu and Edouard Mathieu, used Media Cloud, an open-access platform for media analysis, to count article mentions. Their methodology included synonyms for each cause of death and only counted articles where causes were mentioned more than once to focus on substantive reporting rather than passing references.
Several studies have documented this long-standing bias toward dramatic, emotive events over everyday mortality risks. The mismatch has persisted for decades, with genuine changes in death rates accounting for only a tiny fraction of changes in media coverage.
The researchers suggested the bias stems partly from the nature of news itself. Common health risks lack novelty, whilst rare events generate unique headlines with individual stories. “People who die from common health risks quickly become mere numbers. On the other hand, those who die in rarer events have a face, a name, and a story that can be told,” they wrote.
Media organisations respond to audience preferences for emotive and engaging content. True crime podcasts remain among the most popular genres, whilst disaster films draw record cinema audiences. This creates a reinforcing feedback loop where rare events dominate headlines and chronic problems receive insufficient attention.
The coverage gap affects public perception significantly. A large survey among US adults found people who consumed local crime news “often” were more than three times more likely to say they were “extremely concerned” about crime affecting them or their family than those who rarely or never read such coverage.
Nearly six-in-10 Americans view international terrorism as a critical threat to the United States despite its minimal domestic impact for two decades. People remain far more anxious about flying than driving, though commercial airline crashes are incredibly rare.
The bias also distorts understanding of how causes of death change over time. In 23 of 27 Gallup surveys conducted since 1993, most Americans said there was more crime than the year before. In reality, rates of crime including homicides and other violent crime have fallen substantially.
Meanwhile, childhood cancer deaths have plummeted over the last 50 years, and death rates from cancer among adults have fallen dramatically since the 1990s. Heart disease death rates have similarly declined, yet these improvements receive limited coverage.
“The frequency of news coverage doesn’t reflect what’s happening across millions or billions of people, but it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking it does,” the researchers warned.
The study emphasised it does not expect media coverage to exactly match the distribution of causes of death. “A newspaper that constantly covers heart disease and kidney failure would be a boring one that soon goes out of business,” the researchers acknowledged. However, they argued awareness of this selection bias remains crucial for readers to avoid conflating news frequency with reality.
