| Summary/Abstract |
Israeli medical ethics require that physicians avoid participating in commercials for medical and other products. Journalistic ethics require exclusion of commercial content from journalistic texts, and stipulates that media coverage of controversial issues be balanced and objective. Moreover, direct-to-consumer-advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs and embedded marketing is banned in Israeli media. This article examines whether both norms were met in coverage of medication in three Israeli newspapers to provide the public with balanced and objective information. The level of balance in coverage was assessed by the ratio between promotional and limiting contents, using framing theory and evaluating the relative prominence of information sources, applying advanced countervailing powers theory. Results show promotional content almost three times greater than limiting contents. Prescription drug citations comprised 88% of journalistic articles. About half of these articles cited sources perceived as objective: researchers or physicians. However, given their funding dependence on drug companies, such coverage is arguably embedded marketing, which has societal implications.
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