Sources and Coverage of Medical News on Front Pages of US Newspapers

Background: Medical news that appears on newspaper front pages is intended to reach a wide audience, but how this type of medical news is prepared and distributed has not been systematically researched. We thus quantified the level of visibility achieved by front-page medical stories in the United States and analyzed their news sources. Methodology: Using the online resource Newseum, we investigated front-page newspaper coverage of four prominent medical stories, and a high-profile non-medical news story as a control, reported in the US in 2007. Two characteristics were quantified by two raters: which newspaper titles carried each target front-page story (interrater agreement, >96%; kappa, >0.92) and the news sources of each target story (interrater agreement, >94%; kappa, >0.91). National rankings of the top 200 US newspapers by audited circulation were used to quantify the extent of coverage as the proportion of the total circulation of ranked newspapers in Newseum. Findings: In total, 1630 front pages were searched. Each medical story appeared on the front pages of 85 to 117 (67.5%-78.7%) ranked newspaper titles that had a cumulative daily circulation of 23.1 to 33.4 million, or 61.8% to 88.4% of all newspapers. In contrast, the non-medical story achieved front-page coverage in 152 (99.3%) newspaper titles with a total circulation of 41.0 million, or 99.8% of all newspapers. Front-page medical stories varied in their sources, but the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Times and the Associated Press together supplied 61.7% of the total coverage of target front-page medical stories. Conclusion: Front-page coverage of medical news from different sources is more accurately revealed by analysis of circulation counts rather than of newspaper titles. Journals wishing to widen knowledge of research news and organizations with important health announcements should target at least the four dominant media organizations identified in this study

Characteristics of Health News provided by the BBC: online medical information

Conference Theme: Emerging Mode of Communication: Technology Enhanced InteractionThe Conference program's website is located at http://www.coms.hkbu.edu.hk/conference0903

Quantification of mdical news coverage in US Newspapers

The Conference paper abstracts' website is located at http://www.aejmc.org/home/scholarship/abstracts-archive/Science Communication Interest GroupThis study investigates front-page newspaper coverage of two prominent medical stories reported in the United States, with a hard news story chosen as a control. For each story, over 300 newspaper front pages were surveyed to quantify the extent of coverage (interrater agreement for all stories: >96 percent observed agreement, kappa>0.84), and identify different news sources (all stories: >90 percent observed agreement, kappa>0.80).link_to_OA_fulltex

National and international impact of domestic news

Conference Theme: The Changing World of International News in the 21st Century: The Impact of Digital Technolog

Avian influenza news from China. Is China coming clean on bird flu?

International Communication DivisionThe Conference paper abstracts' website is located at http://www.aejmc.org/home/scholarship/abstracts-archive/Based on a report published in Science in November 2006 titled: “Is China coming clean on bird flu?” we sought to answer this question by comparing media coverage of avian influenza from two English-language newspapers in China. We coded bird flu stories from the China government-sanctioned China Daily and Hong Kong’s independent South China Morning Post newspapers during a one-year period.link_to_OA_fulltex

Do Men Have a Higher Case Fatality Rate of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome than Women Do?

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has been reported in 30 countries and regions, with a cumulative total of 8,099 probable cases and 774 deaths as of July 31, 2003, according to the World Health Organization. In Hong Kong, People's Republic of China, 1,755 SARS cases and 299 deaths had occurred as of September 22, 2003. The authors analyzed data from the Department of Health, Hong Kong SAR. The data series includes details regarding sex, age, and chronic disease history. Using data from early March to September 22, 2003, the authors found that males had a significantly (p < 0.0001) higher case fatality rate than females did, 21.9% versus 13.2%; the relative risk was 1.66 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.35, 2.05), and it was 1.62 (95% CI: 1.21, 2.16) after adjustment for age. Subgroup analysis was conducted by excluding health care workers (n = 386) from the analysis. The overall crude relative risk of mortality was 1.41 (95% CI: 1.15, 1.74), and the adjusted relative risk was 1. 48 (95% CI: 1.10, 2.00). Thus, among SARS patients, males may be more severely affected by the disease than females are. This finding could be related to a nonuniform case definition of SARS disease, a different treatment regimen, a past smoking history, work-environment factors, or gender-specific immune-defense factors, for instance.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Effects of horticultural therapy : perspectives of frail and pre-frail older nursing home residents

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When Medical News Comes from Press Releases—A Case Study of Pancreatic Cancer and Processed Meat

The media have a key role in communicating advances in medicine to the general public, yet the accuracy of medical journalism is an under-researched area. This project adapted an established monitoring instrument to analyse all identified news reports (n = 312) on a single medical research paper: a meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Cancer which showed a modest link between processed meat consumption and pancreatic cancer. Our most significant finding was that three sources (the journal press release, a story on the BBC News website and a story appearing on the 'NHS Choices' website) appeared to account for the content of over 85% of the news stories which covered the meta analysis, with many of them being verbatim or moderately edited copies and most not citing their source. The quality of these 3 primary sources varied from excellent (NHS Choices, 10 of 11 criteria addressed) to weak (journal press release, 5 of 11 criteria addressed), and this variance was reflected in the accuracy of stories derived from them. Some of the methods used in the original meta-analysis, and a proposed mechanistic explanation for the findings, were challenged in a subsequent commentary also published in the British Journal of Cancer, but this discourse was poorly reflected in the media coverage of the story