Lieberman: Media bought into heart docs’ fight
Filed under: Health care reform, Health journalism, Hot Health Headline
Using one-sided sentences published by newspapers nationwide as evidence, AHCJ Immediate Past President Trudy Lieberman takes her media peers to task on CJR.com for blindly advancing the agenda of the American College of Cardiology in their push against Medicare reimbursement cuts.
The ACC aggressively fought what Lieberman describes as “a new Medicare rule, which took effect January 1, that cut projected total revenues for cardiologists by 13 percent on average over four years while increasing the revenue of internists, family doctors, and general practitioners.” Lieberman writes that the rule change will effectively put more money toward much-needed primary care specializations and that it was widely mischaracterized in the press, thanks to ACC’s machinations. Lieberman:
… for the most part (news articles) passed along the cardiologists’ complaints, threats, and warnings without any hint that there was another side to the story. Between the slanted newspaper articles and audio news releases from the ACC, millions of Americans learned that the incomes of heart doctors, which can be upwards of $400,000, could take a hit.
Former CNN producer on H1N1 coverage: Retaining audience through fear-mongering
Peter Dykstra, a former executive producer of CNN’s science, tech and weather unit, offers his take on media coverage of the H1N1 virus in a column for Mother Nature News.
Dykstra writes, “The now-waning uproar over the swine flu is a textbook example of a serious story, magnified beyond reason in order to retain an audience by frightening it.” He goes on to say that local television news directors were thankful the flu threat landed just in time for sweeps month.
He points to past events in which he says the media has overreacted, including the case of Andrew Speaker, the man who had tuberculosis and was banned from flying into the United States.
The media’s overreaction and “phony hype” makes it easier for skeptics to ignore peer-reviewed science, according to the column. Dykstra, who has written about the threat of shark attacks for CNN, suspects we have “a better chance of being bitten on the butt by the consequences of bad journalism than by a shark.”
Most say outbreak coverage has been appropriate
Joe Strupp of Editor & Publisher quotes three AHCJ board members about coverage of the swine flu outbreak, all of whom agree that reporters and editors need to take a measured approach. AHCJ president Trudy Lieberman says journalists should be careful not to overplay the danger but also must not minimize it.
AHCJ resources for covering swine flu, pandemics and preparedness“The more history and context you can get, the better. You need to give the how-to advice.”
Ivan Oransky, an AHCJ board member and managing editor for online at Scientific American, says journalists have learned lessons from past scares, such as anthrax and SARS.
Media critic Howard Kurtz writes about swine flu coverage in The Washington Post, saying that “the sheer volume of media attention suggested a full-blown crisis.” Kurtz talks to people from MSNBC and CNN, as well as journalism educators who all seem to back up Kurtz’ assertion.
He does report that flu stories are no longer the exclusive domain of traditional news organizations:
These days, flu stories spread through more than just traditional outlets. Nielsen Online reports that Internet postings about swine flu are nearly 10 times as great as for the salmonella and peanut butter scare last winter, and the subject of nearly 2 percent of Twitter messages.
Gary Schwitzer, a health journalism professor at the University of Minnesota and publisher of HealthNewsReview.org, says he has been “favorably impressed” by most of the coverage, although he says he hasn’t watched television coverage.
The Knight Science Journalism tracker analyzes coverage of the swine flu outbreak so far, finding that “advice in fact sheet and question-answer formats are common” but that there is little coverage of the science. The Tracker does acknowledge that’s to be expected at this early stage but that soon there will be new science to report on.
Kit Eaton of Fast Company reports on the use of Twitter to spread information about the swine flu outbreak. Eaton writes that Twitter seems to be finding use as a live news channel as people use it to report things like passengers at the Atlanta airport using face masks.
However, Eaton points to another issue: “there’s no moderation on Twitter, obviously, so there’s as much a potential for the spread of misinformation as there is for vital or interesting news.”
CNN’s John D. Sutter reports that some people say Twitter has become a “hotbed of unnecessary hype and misinformation about the outbreak.”
Evgeny Morozov, a fellow at the Open Society Institute and a blogger on ForeignPolicy.com, says “there’s incentive for Twitter users to post whatever is on their mind because it helps them grow their online audiences.”
But in an emergency, that tendency means people write about their own fears of symptoms and widespread deaths, which can create an uninformed hysteria, he said.
Al Tompkins, of Poynter Institute, says information about the outbreak needs to be put in context by journalists. Tompkins also says that — so far — television coverage has been responsible.
Update
AHCJ board member and independent journalist Andrew Holtz was interviewed on KCBS radio in San Francisco about media coverage of the outbreak.
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The AHCJ-NLM Fellowships will give four journalists the chance to spend a week on the campus of the National Institutes of Health learning about research and data from NIH and NLM, biomedical statistics, programs and resources and get hands-on training. Applications due Aug. 2.
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