Healthy Skepticism Library item: 18693

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Wilson A, Robertson J, McElduff P, Jones A, Henry D
Does It Matter Who Writes Medical News Stories?
PLoS Med 2010 Sep 14;
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000323

Abstract:

Summary Points
The media can influence health literacy and health seeking behaviours, but few studies have looked at the quality of news stories. We examined whether experienced specialist health reporters write better stories than other categories of journalists
We compared the quality of stories written by specialist and non-specialist journalists, and those sourced from major news organisations, in Australia from 2004–08.
We found that it does matter who writes news stories that cover the benefits and harms of health care interventions. Stories written by specialist health journalists working for a single media outlet scored more highly than those written by less experienced writers.
Our findings are important because this source of health literacy is currently under pressure as falling revenues threaten the future of the traditional media.