Journalism as applied to science and medicine

Medical Journalism: Exposing Fact, Fiction, and Fraud provides comprehensive guidance to this specialized segment of the journalism field. From journalism fundamentals to niche topics such as separating science fact from science fiction, this book provides in-depth insight while applying the industry's rigorous standards to a specialty that has come to be treated more like entertainment than news. Extensive discussion on pitfalls shows you how to avoid the hallmarks of bad scientific reporting, and a central theme throughout focuses on the importance of quality sources.

Ragnar Levi is the author of Medical Journalism: Exposing Fact, Fiction, Fraud, published by Wiley.

Foreword

ix

Preface

xi

Acknowledgments

xviii

The Media Meet Medicine

3

(16)

What is medical journalism?

3

(2)

Who does it and where?

5

(2)

What issues are covered?

7

(3)

What sources are used?

10

(4)

How are stories told?

14

(5)

Barriers to Serving the Audience

19

(10)

News production routines

19

(1)

Limited audience contact

20

(1)

Economic pressures

21

(3)

Reliance on sources

24

(1)

Conflicting interests

25

(1)

Professional ideals

26

(3)

Scientific Fact or Science Fiction?

29

(18)

A story of hope and hype

30

(1)

The stakeholders, and the strings attached

31

(2)

What is truth anyway?

33

(2)

Scientific evaluation of the benefits of health care

35

(4)

Evidence used in verifying or disproving medical claims

39

(4)

The best intentions, but . . .

43

(1)

Trial basics: Big enough, long enough, tight enough?

43

(4)

Observation, Interpretation, Persuasion

47

(10)

The qualitative approach

47

(2)

Scrutinizing arguments and reasoning

49

(3)

Four reasons to question ``promising'' treatments

52

(1)

What are the sacrifices?

53

(1)

Interviewing patients and their families

54

(3)

Pitfalls in Medical Reporting

57

(16)

Reducing reporting to quoting

58

(1)

Treating specialists as generalists

59

(1)

Confusing science fiction with scientific facts

60

(1)

Being misled by number games

61

(1)

Depending on anecdotes for evidence

62

(2)

Failing to question findings about a treatment's effects

64

(1)

Extrapolating from research to clinical practice

65

(2)

Hyping a study's clinical implications

67

(2)

Mistaking risk factors for diseases

69

(1)

Misjudging risks

70

(3)

Critical Medical Journalism

73

(22)

The reporter-source relationship

75

(2)

Journalistic standards

77

(3)

The backbone of critical medical reporting

80

(8)

Finding and using systematic reviews

88

(1)

Self-deception in reporting

89

(2)

Tolerating and describing uncertainty

91

(4)

Some Challenging Topics

95

(10)

Investigating promotion of health and medical products

95

(2)

Investigating alternative medicine

97

(3)

Investigating scientific fraud

100

(1)

Some issues to explore

101

(4)

Medical Journalism Online

105

(18)

Searching for health and medical information online

106

(3)

Accuracy of health and medical Websites

109

(2)

Scientific databases

111

(3)

Public-relations services on the Internet

114

(1)

LISTSERVs and newsgroups

114

(2)

Searching the Web for books on health and medicine

116

(1)

Using commerical databases

116

(1)

Websites of medical journals

117

(1)

E-interviewing

118

(1)

Precision journalism

118

(1)

Journalistic research on the Web: Summary points

119

(1)

Online publishing

120

(3)

Glossary

123

(10)

References

133

(12)

Index

145

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Medical Journalism Exposing Fact, Fiction, Fraud

9780813803036

0813803039

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