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Medical Journalism
Sunday, January 17 – 11:30am – 12:35pm
A. Medical journalism – Walter Jessen and Karl Leif Bates
Description: It could be argued that healthcare already has a “killer app” – search. According to research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 61% of us look online for medical information. In an age of horizontal information distribution and social networks, what sort of medical information, disinformation and misinformation does one find? How do we fight publishers of medical information that is inaccurate, misleading or wrong? Is a website sponsored by a drug company more reliable than one sponsored by a disease group? Can a University PR site be trusted? How about an M.D or Ph.D. that blogs on medicine or medical research? What about a federal agency such as the FDA or CDC? What difference does a seal of approval from the Health on the Net Foundation (HONcode) make if Google, Bing, Yahoo or Ask’s algorithms don’t value it?
Discuss:
1. ABC News: Data don’t mean squat if you don’t have a playboy playmate for a spokesperson
2. Gary Schwitzer: 10 trends in health care journalism going into 2010
An updated look at the first 900 stories reviewed on HealthNewsReview.org shows that:
- 71% fail to adequately discuss costs
- 71% fail to explain how big (or small) is the potential benefit
- 66% fail to explain how big (or small) is the potential harm
- 66% fail to evaluate the quality of the evidence
- 60% fail to compare new idea with existing options
3. Journalistics: Most News Still Comes From Traditional Media
A new study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism finds that much of the “news” people receive contains no original reporting. Said another way, only a few traditional outlets report on the news, the rest repeat it.
4. Columbia Journalism Review: Flatlining Despite Healthcare Overhaul
With one of the most significant and expensive overhauls of the American health care system about to begin, the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Graduate School of Journalism recently decided to suspend its health/medical reporting concentration due to low student interest.
Session follow-up
The Medical Journalism session at ScienceOnline2010 focused on several current issues, including:
- recent scientific recommendations regarding breast and prostate cancer screening
- the frequent lack of statistical understanding when it comes to journalists reporting on medical research
- the difficulty in finding quality medical information on the first few pages of Google search results
- pharma and FDA regulations surrounding social media engagement
Quite often in medical reporting, anecdote trumps data; participants in the session agreed that the best way to report on research is to tell a story, backed by facts.
A transcript of Twitter conversation during the session can be found here.
