This study considered genetic research relating to cancer outcomes and behaviors, specifically investigating the extent to which claims made in press releases (N=23) and mainstream print media (N=71) were fairly derived from their original presentation in scholarly journals (N=20). Central claims expressing gene-outcome relationships were evaluated by a large pool (N=40) of genetics graduate students. Raters judged press release claims as significantly more representative of material within the original science journal article compared with news article claims. Claims originating in news articles which demonstrated contact with individuals not directly involved in the research were judged by experts to be more representative of the original science as compared with those that demonstrated contact with individuals directly involved in the research.
Understanding how genetic science is communicated to the lay public is of great import, given that media coverage of genetics is increasing exponentially and that the ways in which discoveries are presented in the news can have significant effects on a variety of health outcomes. To address this issue, this study examines the presentation of genetic research relating to cancer outcomes and behaviors (i.e., prostate cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, smoking and obesity) in both the press release (N = 23) and its subsequent news coverage (N = 71) by using both quantitative content analysis and qualitative textual analysis. In contrast to earlier studies reporting that news stories often misrepresent genetics by presenting biologically deterministic and simplified portrayals (e.g., Mountcastle-Shah et al., 2003; Ten Eych & Williment, 2003), our data shows no clear trends in the direction of distortion toward deterministic claims in news articles. Also, other errors commonly attributed to science journalism, such as lack of qualifying details and use of oversimplified language (e.g., “fat gene”) are observed in press releases. These findings suggest that the intermediary press release rather than news coverage may serve as a source of distortion in the dissemination of science to the lay public. The implications of this study for future research in this area are discussed.
This study considers two news ticker formats-the update ticker and the scrolling ticker-to determine the impact of ticker format on memory for news items in the tickers as well as for news program content presented in the background. Postviewing responses between two treatment groups were compared, revealing better recognition of both types of news content when tickers updated rather than scrolled. Also, viewers report no differences in perceived clutter or program liking, suggesting there is no downside to using an update format.Several studies conducted in the last decade demonstrate an increasing tendency, primarily among the younger generations, to use multiple media simultaneously and/or multitask while consuming media (Carrier,
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