'...a story that's got all the right elements': Australian media audiences talk about the coverage of a health-related story from the developing world

Abstract

Australian news coverage of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) generally, and of their health contexts specifically, has long been criticised as problematic. This paper considers an exemplary LMIC health story and presents findings of an audience reception study that examined how different groups of Australian participants responded to it, the possible implications for future LMIC health coverage and for domestic perceptions of global public health. In particular, the paper examines how audiences talked about three of the story’s principal themes and suggests that greater audience engagement with LMIC health news may be possible as the mass-media landscape continues to evolve.