Alcohol Increases Breast Cancer (CNN vs. Fox News)

I found an article about new research regarding to the link between alcohol and breast cancer while checking my yahoo e-mail account. I decided to look up such an article on cnn.com and foxnews.com in hope for a better comparison and contrast. The CNN article was titled “Alcohol and breast cancer: Weigh your risks” and the content was not as critical as the Fox News article title “All Types of Alcohol Raise Risk of Breast Cancer in Women, Study Finds.” The language in the CNN article discussed the possibility that consuming a drink a day may raise a woman’s risk of getting breast cancer, which still leaves doubt. The article does state that alcohol is negatively related to the increased risk of breast cancer in women, but it does not state that it is a direct cause. The last line of the article is possibly the most important. The sum of the article is that women have to study their family history and medical history, and then conclude their own individual risk of breast cancer based on alcohol consumption. In contrast, the Fox News article leaves no doubt; it states that any alcohol consumption in any women would up the risk of breast cancer. The closest the CNN article came to portraying this message was an image of a wine glass that was only filled fractionally. The image infers consuming less alcohol, but does not depict an empty glass, which may have been more effective. The excessive stress of the importance to cut or end alcohol consumption and the lack thereof was the most obvious difference in the two articles. The professionals that had quote inputs in the articles had the same voice and opinion as the article’s title. Other than these two things, both articles spoke in general about the increased risk that women will have in the future as a result of the popularity of drinking alcohol.

Below are the links to the articles:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/10/05/hfh.alcohol.breast.cancer/index.html

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,298236,00.html?sPage=fnc.health/cancer