Entertainment programming provides a unique opportunity for cancer education, particularly for higher risk racial and ethnic minority groups. Cultural relevancy is key to quality narrative cancer communication, and minorities often prefer media content produced by and featuring members of their own cultural in-group. However, little is known about whether cancer depictions or the television programs they appear in are culturally diverse. Using media content analysis, this study aims to assess the cultural diversity of cancer depictions on primetime scripted television to reveal opportunities to improve cancer education through entertainment. Indicators used to assess cultural diversity at the program level and depiction levels were collected. Out of 111 television programs, 10 (9.01%) programs mentioned cancer, from which 37 cancer depictions were identified. However, the majority of cancer depictions involved White patients and White health providers. Depictions of coping and treatment also dominated with less than 10% of depictions discussing cancer prevention. These patterns reveal a missed opportunity in existing cancer narratives on primetime scripted television and a lack of representation of cultural, social, and environmental factors that affect the health of minority communities, who need to hear these messages the most.

娱乐节目为癌症教育提供了独特的机会，特别是对于高风险种族和少数民族群体。文化相关性是高质量叙事癌症传播的关键，少数群体通常更喜欢由他们自己的文化群体成员制作并以其为特色的媒体内容。然而，人们对癌症描述或它们出现的电视节目是否具有文化多样性知之甚少。使用媒体内容分析，本研究旨在评估黄金时段脚本电视中癌症描述的文化多样性，以揭示通过娱乐改善癌症教育的机会。收集了用于评估节目级别和描述级别的文化多样性的指标。在 111 个电视节目中，有 10 个 (9.01%) 节目提到癌症，从中确定了 37 个癌症描述。然而，大多数癌症描述都涉及白人患者和白人医疗服务提供者。应对和治疗的描述也占主导地位，只有不到 10% 的描述讨论癌症预防。这些模式揭示了黄金时段电视上现有癌症叙事中错失的机会，以及缺乏对影响少数族裔社区健康的文化、社会和环境因素的代表性，他们最需要听到这些信息。