Indirect audiences and conflicting narratives about oral contraception: Emergent coverage of “the pill” in The New York Times, 1951–1965

When the first oral contraceptive pill was approved in the United States in 1960, scientific information for potential users was scant. Newspapers were one of the few sources of lay pill-related content. This study offers a critical-rhetorical analysis of the earliest New York Times coverage of the oral contraceptive pill (N = 292), to assess how audiences were guided to understand and interpret this new technology. Findings reveal that, of the major news genres represented (e.g. stock, religion, and science reports), all provided indirect information about the pill for potential consumers, with conflicting news-genre-specific narratives highlighting the pill’s: (a) volatility and unpredictability, (b), divisiveness and complexity, and (c) placement within the trajectory of scientific progress, respectively. Lay people interested in using the pill were not primary audiences for this coverage but were, instead, unintended or secondary audiences, and evidence of women’s thoughts or professional opinions about the pill were rarely included.