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...
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doaj-881520f0da7e4373a19fe9c04fc2f12d2021-03-03T20:01:54ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032015-01-01106e012784810.1371/journal.pone.0127848When Medical News Comes from Press Releases-A Case Study of Pancreatic Cancer and Processed Meat.Joseph W TaylorMarie LongElizabeth AshleyAlex DenningBeatrice GoutKayleigh HansenThomas HuwsLeifa JenningsSinead QuinnPatrick SarkiesAlex WojtowiczPhilip M NewtonThe 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.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127848 |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Joseph W Taylor Marie Long Elizabeth Ashley Alex Denning Beatrice Gout Kayleigh Hansen Thomas Huws Leifa Jennings Sinead Quinn Patrick Sarkies Alex Wojtowicz Philip M Newton |
spellingShingle |
Joseph W Taylor Marie Long Elizabeth Ashley Alex Denning Beatrice Gout Kayleigh Hansen Thomas Huws Leifa Jennings Sinead Quinn Patrick Sarkies Alex Wojtowicz Philip M Newton When Medical News Comes from Press Releases-A Case Study of Pancreatic Cancer and Processed Meat. PLoS ONE |
author_facet |
Joseph W Taylor Marie Long Elizabeth Ashley Alex Denning Beatrice Gout Kayleigh Hansen Thomas Huws Leifa Jennings Sinead Quinn Patrick Sarkies Alex Wojtowicz Philip M Newton |
author_sort |
Joseph W Taylor |
title |
When Medical News Comes from Press Releases-A Case Study of Pancreatic Cancer and Processed Meat. |
title_short |
When Medical News Comes from Press Releases-A Case Study of Pancreatic Cancer and Processed Meat. |
title_full |
When Medical News Comes from Press Releases-A Case Study of Pancreatic Cancer and Processed Meat. |
title_fullStr |
When Medical News Comes from Press Releases-A Case Study of Pancreatic Cancer and Processed Meat. |
title_full_unstemmed |
When Medical News Comes from Press Releases-A Case Study of Pancreatic Cancer and Processed Meat. |
title_sort |
when medical news comes from press releases-a case study of pancreatic cancer and processed meat. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
series |
PLoS ONE |
issn |
1932-6203 |
publishDate |
2015-01-01 |
description |
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. |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127848 |
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