Reporter examines ethics of interviewing patients
After joining a panel on media, ethics and trauma at the Anxiety Disorders Association of America’s annual conference, New Orleans Times Picayune reporter John Pope found himself questioning the sourcing practices he’d developed and followed during almost 20 years on the health beat.
As he writes for the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma, he had no idea of the legion of ethical dilemmas each time he, like countless other health journalists around the country, simply called a specialist in a relevant field and asked for help finding patients who would be willing to talk.
At the panel, Pope suddenly found himself confronted with the questions his innocent requests were raising on the other end of the line. I’ve reproduced his list below, as it’s pretty thought-provoking material.
- Would a therapist be exerting undue influence by asking a patient to speak to a reporter?
- Would the patient feel obligated to comply as a condition of treatment?
- If the therapist were present during the interview, would that inhibit the patient?
- If the therapist weren’t present, would the patient exaggerate to help the reporter get a terrific story?
- Would talking to a reporter reopen psychic wounds if no professional were on hand to guide the conversation?
They are questions that defy easy answers. Many physicians assembled even said that they viewed allowing a patient to speak to a reporter as “unethical in all circumstances.” Nevertheless, a few folks provided suggestions such as posting solicitations for sources in waiting rooms, thus allowing reporters to bypass the doctor-patient relationship, or perhaps asking physicians to maintain source lists of willing and qualified patients.
Neither seems practical or satisfactory on deadline, and in the end their may really be no solution other than Pope’s own, that physicians and reporters form long-term relationships and build the sort of trust necessary in delicate situations.
Dallas Morning News explores effects of war on military families
For the paper’s series on military families, Dallas Morning News reporter Dave Tarrant has spent four months investigating what he calls the “relentless cycle of crisis and stress” that affects soldiers’ loved ones. The broad series touches on everything from the Fort Hood suicides to the Army’s preventative measures to Tarrant’s latest, “Wife faces life-or-death decision for her war-injured husband.”
Most of the content is behind the Morning News paywall, but there’s enough on the landing pages to, at the very least, help you understand where Tarrant’s investigation has taken him and just how wide-ranging the health effects of prolonged war can become.
Conference discusses reporting on disasters
Filed under: Health journalism, Hot Health Headline, Public health
While everyone’s attention was focused on some conference in Philadelphia, the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting and Boston University were busy putting on a show of their own, this one focused entirely on reporting on disasters (agenda).
As is the fashion, the highlights of the conference were on Twitter (#disasterstrikes) within seconds (and aggregated in this CoverItLive feed seconds after that), which means it’s time to speed-read through the conference with a little Covering Health roundup. @BUPublicHealth coordinated the live discussion and thus we relied heavily on their work. I edited tweets to add attribution where appropriate.
Photo by EDV Media Director via Flickr- @BUPublicHealth: (John Hammock of Tufts University, former director of Oxfam America) International aid is very helpful but most people survive using their own coping strategies #DisasterStrikes
- @BUPublicHealth: (Carroll Bogert from the Human Rights Watch): We at Human Rights Watch are reporters who advocate for policy change. (Human Rights Watch is an NGO btw) #DisasterStrikes
- @BUPublicHealth: (USA Today reporter Donna Leinwand Leger): Self sufficiency crucial. “You can’t, as a journalist with any ethical compunction, be a burden on these countries.” #DisasterStrikes
- @BUPublicHealth: Dorsinville: Size of conference and attendance dispels myth that Haiti has been forgotten #DisasterStrikes
- @gonevertigo: #DisasterStrikes (Nancy Dorsinville, senior policy adviser of UN Office to Special Envoy to Haiti): the relationship between stretched-thin government resources and deadline journalists can be tense
- @BUPublicHealth: (Boston Medical Center physician Thea James): The training we have is not to speak to the media unless given direct permission. #DisasterStrikes
- @BUPublicHealth: (Monica Onyango, BU professor in the department of international health) It’s important to recognize the local responders. They are heroes as well. #DisasterStrikes
- @BUPublicHealth: (Konbit Sante executive director Nate Nickerson) 1. if tell a story, it has to be factually accurate; 2. it needs to be contextualized somehow; (cont) #DisasterStrikes
- @BUPublicHealth: Doing it right: 3. Story sheds light doesn’t just generate sensationalism; 4. Story gives voice to ppl being impacted #DisasterStrikes
- @BUPublicHealth: (Mass. General physician Larry Ronan): Having a large media presence at these events can influence policy at a large level. #DisasterStrikes
- @BUPublicHealth: (Kerry Sanders, Miami-based NBC correspondent): Journos need to know first aid. #DisasterStrikes
- @BUPublicHealth: Sanders: Journos can be obnoxious. After Chilean miners rescued, journos tried to sneak into hospital dressed as drs. #DisasterStrikes
Related
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Awards for Excellence in Health Care JournalismDeadline: Feb. 3
- How I did it: Falsified charts in nursing homes linked to patient care
- Access Denied: Looking at a lack of health care availability
- Transparency & medical errors: Public reporting of patient harm is a potent force
- Focus on freelancing: Tips for buying liability insurance
- Why do some patients get stuck in hospitals for weeks, months?
- Investigate health professionals and the boards that regulate them
- Presidents of AHCJ, SPJ call for more openness from Obama administration
