How can I create a comparative study of breast cancer awareness using newspapers?

Comparative analysis typically refers to comparing and contrasting 2 or more ideas. In reference to your question, your instructor could be asking you to compare and contrast 2 or more newspapers or compare/contrast how newspapers located within 2 different countries/states have brought awareness to breast cancer issues during a specific time frame.  For example, a question could be the following: over the past 10 years, how have Paper A and Paper B covered breast cancer issues or brought awareness to breast cancer issues?

The essay could then discuss how often articles referring to this topic have been published, where in the newspaper have these types of articles been published (front page, health section, etc.), the average length per article, and what topic/issue these articles typically covered (i.e., detection, prevention, treatment, etc.). I would strongly suggest that you contact your teacher and ask him/her to give you more specific information on how to compose this paper. Does your instructor want you to conduct a comparative analysis of 2 or more different newspapers, 2 different publishers, etc.? Would the comparative analysis cover information that has been published during the past 5 years or more? What specific information would your instructor like for you to include/cover within your paper (i.e., information regarding how often certain types of articles were covered)?

Also, you would want to confirm that your instructor would like for you to conduct a comparative study and not compose a comparative essay. The purpose of a comparative study is very similar to the definition of comparative analysis. However, a comparative study is usually a comprehensive overview and would involve a collection/analysis of qualitative and quantitative information. If this is the case, then your study design could be a case study and your approach to analyze the data could be grounded theory. For example, in case studies, researchers collect data using observations, interviews, tests, records, surveys, etc. in order to answer a descriptive question (what is happening or what has happened?) or an explanatory question (how or why did something happen?), or to address how effective an initiative is in producing a particular outcome. Grounded theory refers to your qualitative approach: you develop a theory about a phenomenon of interest. This theory is usually grounded in or developed from observations. In the written report, the sections of a comparative study would typically include an Abstract, Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Results/Findings, and Conclusion.

I hope this helps!

Information about Comparative Analysis can be found here and here.

Information about Theoretical Approaches is here and here.

Here are some examples of case studies and comprehensive analysis related to your topic.