In the United States, there is a significant racial gap in health care utilization and health outcomes (Do, Frank and Finch 2012; Hill 2016; Meyers et al. 2019). Research shows that race has an independent effect on health outcomes (Arya et al. 2016; Chou et al. 2013; Do, Frank and Finch 2012; Popescu et al. 2018). Several factors contribute to the racial gap in health care including chronic stress associated with racism and discrimination, systematic barriers to access, health illiteracy, and health care providers lacking cultural competency. Culturally congruent health care, or care tailored to the cultural values, beliefs, traditions, practices, and lifestyles of its clients, may moderate the effects of race on health care outcomes (Cross et al. 1989; Jefferys 2010). In this study, I use content analysis to examine how Boston area hospitals’ media communications portray racial diversity in the hopes of uncovering whether hospitals are perhaps contributing to the racial disparities in health care by lacking cultural competency, or if they are taking the appropriate steps to put forth media images that proportionally represent the ethnic and racial make-up of their target population and/or proximal geographical area. To understand if hospitals’ social media activities may be contributing to the racial gap in health care, I ask the following research questions: Does the racial composition in hospitals’ media communications accurately represent the racial make-up of the communities they serve? How are the individuals portrayed in the social media posts (as indicated by the post’s caption)? Do trends, regarding portrayal, emerge along racial lines?
