Medical journalism is the dissemination of health-related information through mainstream media outlets. Medical issues are widely reported, and these reports influence doctors, the general public, and the government. The coverage is often criticized for being misleading, inaccurate, or speculative.[1] Several web sites and journals review medical journalism.

Contents

Accuracy

News coverage is often criticized for being misleading, inaccurate, or speculative, and this has been traced to several problems that include lack of knowledge by reporters, lack of time to prepare a proper report, and lack of space in the publication.[1] Most news articles fail to discuss important issues such as evidence quality, costs, and risks versus benefits.[2] Although medical news articles often deliver public health messages effectively, they often convey wrong or misleading information about health care, partly when reporters do not know or cannot convey the results of clinical studies, and partly when they fail to supply reasonable context.[3] A 2009 study found small improvements in some areas of medical reporting in Australia, but the overall quality remained poor, particularly in commercial human-interest television programs.[4]

Conflict of interest

Medical journalists also face challenges due to potential conflicts of interest. The pharmaceutical industry has sponsored journalism contests that carry large prizes in cash or in overseas trips. The Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) urges journalists to consider these contests carefully before entering, and most journalists avoid them. The AHCJ does not accept industry funding, but does accept funding from independent nonprofit foundations and academic medical centers; in contrast, the National Association of Science Writers maintains a much smaller staff and does not accept such funding. The changing nature of news media has caused more reporters to work freelance, outside of traditional news organizations such as major metropolitan newspapers, which may have created more ways to sidestep conflict-of-interest standards, and the rise of blogs has allowed nontraditional providers of news that lack these standards entirely.[5]

Reviews

Sources for evaluating health-care media coverage include the review websites Behind the Headlines, Health News Review, and Media Doctor (see External links), along with specialized academic journals such as the Journal of Health Communication. Reviews can also appear in the American Journal of Public Health The American Journal of Public Health is a peer reviewed monthly journal of the American Public Health Association (APHA). The Journal also regularly publishes editorials and commentaries and serves as a forum for the analysis of health policy, the Columbia Journalism Review The Columbia Journalism Review is an American magazine for professional journalists published bimonthly by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961, Ben Goldacre Ben Goldacre is a British medical doctor and journalist, and the author of the The Guardian newspaper's weekly Bad Science column. He works full-time as a junior doctor for the National Health Service and is a registered psychiatrist. His first book, also called Bad Science, was published by Fourth Estate in September 2008. Goldacre is the nephew's "Bad Science" column in The Guardian The Guardian is a British national daily newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. Founded in 1821, it is unique among major British newspapers in being owned by a foundation (the Scott Trust, via the Guardian Media Group). It is known for its left-of-centre political stance. At the 2010 election it supported the Liberal Democrats, and others. Health News Review has published criteria for rating news stories.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Larsson A, Oxman AD, Carling C, Herrin J (2003). "Medical messages in the media—barriers and solutions to improving medical journalism". Health Expect 6 (4): 323–31. doi A digital object identifier is a character string used to uniquely identify an electronic document or other object. Metadata about the object is stored in association with the DOI name and this metadata may include a location, such as a URL, where the object can be found. The DOI for a document is permanent, whereas its location and other metadata:10.1046/j.1369-7625.2003.00228.x. PMID A PMID is a unique number assigned to each PubMed citation of life sciences and biomedical scientific journal articles. The related Pubmed Central archive may additionally assign a separate number, a PMCID (PubMed Central Identifier), normally written with a PMC prefix 15040794.
  2. ^ Schwitzer G (2008). "How do US journalists cover treatments, tests, products, and procedures? an evaluation of 500 stories". PLoS Med 5 (5): e95. doi A digital object identifier is a character string used to uniquely identify an electronic document or other object. Metadata about the object is stored in association with the DOI name and this metadata may include a location, such as a URL, where the object can be found. The DOI for a document is permanent, whereas its location and other metadata:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050095. PMID A PMID is a unique number assigned to each PubMed citation of life sciences and biomedical scientific journal articles. The related Pubmed Central archive may additionally assign a separate number, a PMCID (PubMed Central Identifier), normally written with a PMC prefix 18507496. http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050095. Lay summary – Guardian (2008-06-21).
  3. ^ Dentzer S (2009). "Communicating medical news—pitfalls of health care journalism". N Engl J Med 360 (1): 1–3. doi A digital object identifier is a character string used to uniquely identify an electronic document or other object. Metadata about the object is stored in association with the DOI name and this metadata may include a location, such as a URL, where the object can be found. The DOI for a document is permanent, whereas its location and other metadata:10.1056/NEJMp0805753. PMID A PMID is a unique number assigned to each PubMed citation of life sciences and biomedical scientific journal articles. The related Pubmed Central archive may additionally assign a separate number, a PMCID (PubMed Central Identifier), normally written with a PMC prefix 19118299. http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/360/1/1.
  4. ^ Wilson A, Bonevski B, Jones A, Henry D (2009). "Media reporting of health interventions: signs of improvement, but major problems persist". PLoS ONE 4 (3): e4831. doi A digital object identifier is a character string used to uniquely identify an electronic document or other object. Metadata about the object is stored in association with the DOI name and this metadata may include a location, such as a URL, where the object can be found. The DOI for a document is permanent, whereas its location and other metadata:10.1371/journal.pone.0004831. PMID A PMID is a unique number assigned to each PubMed citation of life sciences and biomedical scientific journal articles. The related Pubmed Central archive may additionally assign a separate number, a PMCID (PubMed Central Identifier), normally written with a PMC prefix 19293924. PMC PubMed Central is a free digital database of full-text scientific literature in biomedical and life sciences. It grew from the online Entrez PubMed biomedical literature search system. PubMed Central was developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine as an online archive of biomedical journal articles 2652829. http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0004831.
  5. ^ Greene J (2009). "Pharma's influence on the fourth estate: health care journalists' conflicts also scrutinized". Ann Emerg Med 53 (3): 18A–20A. doi A digital object identifier is a character string used to uniquely identify an electronic document or other object. Metadata about the object is stored in association with the DOI name and this metadata may include a location, such as a URL, where the object can be found. The DOI for a document is permanent, whereas its location and other metadata:10.1016/j.annemergmed.2009.01.010. PMID A PMID is a unique number assigned to each PubMed citation of life sciences and biomedical scientific journal articles. The related Pubmed Central archive may additionally assign a separate number, a PMCID (PubMed Central Identifier), normally written with a PMC prefix 19244660.
  6. ^ "How we rate stories". Health News Review. 2008. http://healthnewsreview.org/how_we_rate.php. Retrieved 2009-03-26.

External links

Journalism Journalism is the investigation and reporting of events, issues, and trends to a broad audience. Although there is much variation within journalism, the ideal is to inform the citizenry. Besides covering organizations and institutions such as government and business, journalism also covers cultural aspects of society such as arts and entertainment
Professional Journalism also includes opinion and analysis. Besides covering powerful organizations and institutions such as government and business, journalists also cover cultural areas, such as sports, arts and entertainment. Features include profiles of interesting and noteworthy people issues

News News is the communication of information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience • Writing News style is the prose style used for news reporting in media such as newspapers, radio and television. News style encompasses not only vocabulary and sentence structure, but also the way in which stories present the information in terms of relative importance, tone, and intended audience • Ethics Journalism ethics and standards comprise principles of ethics and of good practice as applicable to the specific challenges faced by journalists. Historically and currently, this subset of media ethics is widely known to journalists as their professional "code of ethics" or the "canons of journalism". The basic codes and canons • Objectivity Objectivity is a significant principle of journalistic professionalism. Journalistic objectivity can refer to fairness, disinterestedness, factuality, and nonpartisanship, but most often encompasses all of these qualities • Values News values, sometimes called news criteria, determine how much prominence a news story is given by a media outlet, and the attention it is given by the audience. A. Boyd states that: "News journalism has a broadly agreed set of values, often referred to as 'newsworthines'..." News values are not universal and can vary widely between •

Attribution In journalism, a source is a person, publication, or other record or document that gives information. Outside journalism, sources are sometimes known as a "news source". Examples of sources include official records, publications or broadcasts, officials in government or business, organizations or corporations, witnesses of crime, • Defamation Defamation—also called calumny, vilification, slander , and libel (for written, broadcast, or otherwise published words)—is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government, or nation a negative image. It is usually, but not always, • Editorial independence Editorial independence is the freedom of editors to make decisions without interference from the owners of a publication. Editorial independence is tested, for instance, if a newspaper runs articles that may be unpopular with its advertising customers • Education Historically, in the United Kingdom entrants used first to complete a non media-studies related degree course, giving maximum educational breadth, prior to taking a specialist postgraduate pre-entry course. However, this has changed over the last ten years with journalism training and education moving to higher educational institutions. There are • Other topics News • Writing style • Ethics • Objectivity • Values • Attribution • Defamation • Editorial independence • Education • Other topics
Fields Arts Arts journalism is a branch of journalism concerned with the reporting and discussion of the arts. This can include, but is not limited to, film, literature, music, theater, and architecture. Traditionally, journalists and critics writing about the arts had a background in writing and the arts; there was no formal advanced training in this field • Business This form of journalism covers news and features articles about people, places and issues related to the field of [[business]. Most newspapers, magazines, radio, and television news shows carry a business segment. However, detailed and in depth business journalism can be found in publications, radio, and television channels dedicated specifically • Entertainment Entertainment journalism is an umbrella term used to describe all forms of journalism that focus on the entertainment business and its products. Like fashion journalism, entertainment journalism covers industry-specific news while targeting general audiences beyond those working in the industry itself. Common forms include television and film • Environment Environmental journalism falls within the scope of environmental communication, and its roots can be traced to nature writing. One key controversy in environmental journalism is a continuing disagreement over how to distinguish it from its allied genres and disciplines • Fashion Fashion journalism is an umbrella term used to describe all aspects of published fashion media. It includes fashion writers, fashion critics or fashion reporters. The most obvious examples of fashion journalism are the fashion features in magazines and newspapers, but the term also includes books about fashion, fashion related reports on • Medicine • Military • Politics Political journalism is a frequent subject of opinion journalism, as current political events are analyzed, interpreted, and discussed by news media pundits and editorialists • Science Science journalism is a branch of journalism that uses the art of reporting to convey information about science topics to a public forum. The communication of scientific knowledge through mass media requires a special relationship between the world of science and news media, which is still just beginning to form • Sports Sports journalism is a form of journalism that reports on sports topics and events. While the sports department within some newspapers has been mockingly called the toy department, because sports journalists do not concern themselves with the 'serious' topics covered by the news desk, sports coverage has grown in importance as sport has grown in • Tech Technical journalism is a branch of journalism that uses the art of reporting to convey information about technology to the public • Trade Trade journalism reports on the movements and developments of the business world by way of articles or analysis. Trade journalism also refers to industry-specific news, such as exclusive focus on commodities or sectors (finance, travel, food). Due to its business nature, trade journalism is often expected to process and interpret a substantial • Traffic Traffic reporting is the distribution of information about road conditions such as traffic congestion, detours, and traffic accidents, generally as part of a radio or television broadcast program. The reports help commuters anticipate and avoid traffic problems. Many reports mention alternate travel routes to avoid the traffic problems. In • Weather Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a future time and a given location. Human beings have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia, and formally since at least the nineteenth century. Weather forecasts are made by collecting quantitative data about the current
Genres Advocacy Advocacy journalism is a genre of journalism that intentionally and transparently adopts a biased viewpoint, usually for some social or political purpose. Because it is intended to be factual, it is distinguished from propaganda. It is also distinct from instances of media bias and failures of objectivity in media outlets, which attempt to be—or • Churnalism Churnalism is a form of journalism in which press releases, wire stories and other forms of pre-packaged material are used to create articles in newspapers and other news media in order to meet increasing pressures of time and cost without undertaking further research or checking • Citizen Citizen journalism should not be confused with community journalism or civic journalism, which are practiced by professional journalists, or collaborative journalism, which is practiced by professional and non-professional journalists working together. Citizen journalism is a specific form of citizen media as well as user generated content • Civic The civic journalism movement is, according to professor David K. Perry of the University of Alabama, an attempt to abandon the notion that journalists and their audiences are spectators in political and social processes. In its place, the civic journalism movement seeks to treat readers and community members as participants. With a small but • Collaborative Collaborative journalism is a mode of journalism where multiple reporters or news organizations, without affiliation to a common parent organization, report on and contribute news items to a news story together. It is practiced by both professional and amateur reporters • Community If it covers wider topics, community concentrates on their effect on local readers. Community newspapers, often but not always published weekly, also tend to cover subjects larger news media do not, such as students on the honor roll at the local high school, school sports, crimes such as vandalism, zoning issues and other details of community • Conspiracy Conspiracy journalism represents a genre of journalism that has elements of advocacy journalism, yellow journalism and investigative journalism. It typically intends to expose or reveal a plan, plot or conspiracy towards a group of innocents. Conspiracy journalism usually exists in the lesser known sections of media and may have significant • Database Database journalism was born in the 1950's as a synonym for computer-assisted reporting. Since then, computers have become ubiquitous, to the point that database journalism in its original meaning has come to merge with the very definition of journalism • Gonzo • Investigative Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, often involving crime, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing a report. Most investigative journalism is done by newspapers, wire services and • Literary • Muckraker • Narrative • New • Opinion • Peace • Special Interest • Visual • Watchdog
Social impact Fourth Estate • Fifth Estate • Freedom of the press • Infotainment • Media bias • Public relations • Yellow journalism
News media Newspapers • Magazines • News agencies • Broadcast • Online • Photojournalism • Alternative media
Roles Journalist • Marketer • Reporter • Editor • Columnist • Commentator • Photographer • Presenter • Meteorologist • Production manager • Media proprietor • Intern
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Any opportunities for doing Phd in Health Journalism in India or from overseas by distance mode.?
Q. I am a MDS doctor having recently completed Masters in Journalism and Mass Communication. Now I am very keen to do some research work in Health Journalism. Medical Journalism happens to be my mission in life. Kindly suggest some institutions which can be approached in India or overseas institutions which provide such facilities by distance learning mode.
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A. One journal is the Indian Journal of Critical Care Medicine. Congrats in getting more degrees, yes there's a need for more articles on Myelodysplastic syndromes and other heath problems etc.
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