What is it about?
It's important to understand what and why medical research makes newspaper front-page headlines and if the news can be trusted. This study tracked medical news topics, where the news actually came from, and the strength of the research findings behind the news.
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Why is it important?
Readers need to know how believable the medical claims are. They need to be able to find the original source of news to allow them to verify the accuracy of the reporting and find out more. This study showed that less than three-fifths of 734 medical stories reported in 2 years came from peer-reviewed journals. The rest came from preliminary sources and tended to have weaker evidence, but most of those stories did not say this.
Perspectives
To avoid misleading the public and to let readers find out more for themselves, newspapers should clearly say where medical news comes from and how strong the research evidence is.
Dr Trevor Lane
University of Hong Kong
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Characteristics of Medical Research News Reported on Front Pages of Newspapers, PLoS ONE, July 2009, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0006103.
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