This appeared a little while ago.
Health reporting at risk
Nicole MacKee
Monday, 23 September, 2013
THE loss of experienced journalists from some mainstream media outlets could lead to the “dumbing down” of health reporting, says a long-term observer of health in the media.
Professor David Henry, co-founder of the online health reporting watchdog Media Doctor, said the sudden exodus of experienced journalists from major media outlets last year due to the restructuring in two of Australia’s most influential media companies would have consequences for health literacy in the community.
“The existence of an independent media and in particular one that includes journalists that have the skills and the knowledge to report accurately on health care interventions, is really quite critical”, said Professor Henry, who is now a professor of clinical pharmacology at the University of Toronto, Canada.
He was commenting on an MJA article in which the authors, including Dr Christopher Jordens of the University of Sydney’s Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine, raised concerns about the public health impact of the extensive loss of experienced journalists from major newspapers. (1)
The authors cited a Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance estimate that one in seven journalism jobs in major Australian newspapers were made redundant in 2012.
“Given that the loss of journalism jobs affected some of the highest quality newspapers, there is clearly cause for concern about their effect on the future quality of health reporting in this country”, they wrote.
Carol Bennett, CEO of Consumers Health Forum, said the departure from newspapers of journalists with years of experience in reporting health issues had weakened the coverage of often complex issues.
Lots more here:
Can I say this is a really serious trend that I am sure we have all noticed. The loss of people like Karen Dearne (News) and Mark Metherall (Fairfax) has really meant the level of coverage in e-Health has fallen away as well as the general level of Health coverage overall.
As reported in the article there really has been a night of the long knives in print journalism in the last year or two and some good people have surely been lost. It is also obvious from the coverage we now see that those who survived have been more thinly spread than is reasonable - especially as we are now asked to pay more for access to what is a clearly inferior overall product. Note this is no criticism of those remaining - there are simply not enough of them!
At least the Guardian in Australia (http://www.theguardian.com/au) and The Conversation (https://theconversation.com/au/health) are helping to fill the gap.
Sadly with the loss of general coverage we also seem to be getting less e-Health coverage from the technical press.
What is now your best source of e-Health information? Pulse + IT must be up there http://www.pulseitmagazine.com.au/) . How unbiased are you finding coverage and do you see some coverage as being distorted by sponsorship and the like?
Are there any blogs you like that are not listed here as being worth a read?
Are there any blogs you like that are not listed here as being worth a read?
Comments welcome.
David.
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