What is newsworthy? Longitudinal study of the reporting of medical research in two British newspapers

Vaccination News Home Page

http://bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/325/7355/81

BMJ
 

Home Help Search/Archive Feedback Table of Contents
Full text of this article
PDF of this article
Email this article to a friend
Respond to this article
Read responses to this article
See related This week in BMJ item
PubMed citation
Related articles in PubMed
Download to Citation Manager
Search Medline for articles by:
Bartlett, C. || Egger, M.
Alert me when:
New articles cite this article
 
Collections under which this article appears:
Other Journalology
Other Medical Informatics
Information in Practice (journal section)

BMJ 2002;325:81-84 ( 13 July )
 

Information in practice

What is newsworthy? Longitudinal study of the reporting of medical research in two British newspapers

Christopher Bartlett, research associate,  Jonathan Sterne, reader in medical statistics,  Matthias Egger, professor of clinical epidemiology. 

MRC Health Services Research Collaboration, Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 2PR

Correspondence to: M Egger, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, Finkenhubelweg 11, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland egger@ispm.unibe.ch

Objective: To assess the characteristics of medical research that is press released by general medical journals and reported in newspapers.
Design: Longitudinal study.
Data sources: All original research articles published in Lancet and BMJ during 1999 and 2000.
Main outcome measures: Inclusion of articles in Lancet or BMJ press releases, and reporting of articles in Times or Sun newspapers.
Results: Of 1193 original research articles, 517 (43%) were highlighted in a press release and 81 (7%) were reported in one or both newspapers. All articles covered in newspapers had been press released. The probability of inclusion in press releases was similar for observational studies and randomised controlled trials, but trials were less likely to be covered in the newspapers (odds ratio 0.15 (95% confidence interval 0.06 to 0.37)). Good news and bad news were equally likely to be press released, but bad news was more likely to be reported in newspapers (1.74 (1.07 to 2.83)). Studies of women's health, reproduction, and cancer were more likely to be press released and covered in newspapers. Studies from industrialised countries other than Britain were less likely to be reported in newspapers (0.51 (0.31 to 0.82)), and no studies from developing countries were covered.
Conclusions: Characteristics of articles were more strongly associated with selection for reporting in newspapers than with selection for inclusion in press releases, although each stage influenced the reporting process. Newspapers underreported randomised trials, emphasised bad news from observational studies, and ignored research from developing countries.

 

What is already known on this topic
Newspapers are an important source of information about the results of medical research

There are two stages on the path to newspaper coverage---selection by medical journal editors of articles to be press released and the selection of newsworthy articles by journalists

What this study adds
Examination of press releasing by the Lancet and BMJ and reporting by the Times and Sun showed that selection processes acted at both stages

The net effect meant that newspapers emphasised results from observational studies, in particular studies of women's health, reproduction, and cancer

Good news and bad news were equally likely to be press released, but bad news was more likely to be reported in newspaper articles



 


 

© BMJ 2002

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Bad news for research
Lesley J Fallowfield
bmj.com, 15 Jul 2002 [Full text]
Keep the Faith, Fight the Good Fight etc. etc...
Tony Floyd
bmj.com, 16 Jul 2002 [Full text]
What is newsworthy and the HRT controversy.
Michael Baum
bmj.com, 17 Jul 2002 [Full text]


 

 

Home Help Search/Archive Feedback Table of Contents

BMJ Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry
 

 

Vaccination News Home Page

ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE.  THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.