Setting the agenda: Does the medical literature set the agenda for articles about medicines in the newspapers?

Coverage by the News Media of the Benefits and Risks of Medications

“…Other issues are whether news stories cover potential adverse effects as well as benefits 24 and whether stories report on the ties of cited experts or study groups to industry. 25 Because evidence suggests that commercial funding may sometimes be associated with study outcomes that are more favorable to sponsors' products, disclosure of such funding in media stories, as is done in a number of major peer-reviewed journals, may be desirable.…”

Frequently cited sources in cancer news coverage: a content analysis examining the relationship between cancer news content and source citation

“…Journalists report that the likelihood of reporting medical research is influenced by pre-written press releases [36]. Previous research has found that press releases were more likely to be written for articles deemed newsworthy by that medical journal, and articles in medical journals that are accompanied by press releases were more likely to be published in mainstream news compared to articles not accompanied by a press release [43].…”

“…Journalists reported also needing to turn to sources for assistance in explaining and interpreting information [30]. Another survey of 468 local and national news reporters demonstrated that sources directly influence health reporters and news stories [32], a relationship supported by the extant literature [21,29,31,[33][34][35][36].…”

“…If the cancer epidemic is to be abated, the news media and the sources they turn to for cancer information can likely have a considerable effect on the public's health. By demonstrating the sources utilized for reporting cancer news, and exploring the relationships between features of a news story and the sources cited therein, this analysis adds to our understanding of how news stories are shaped, which is particularly important because news sources can influence news content [22,36,39], thereby influencing the public and the public health.…”

Fortnightly Review: How can impact factors be improved?

“…But only a fraction of doctors do research. Dissemination of research results to the press may increase general awareness 9. But that role in research is played primarily by current awareness services such as Current Contents, by contacts at meetings, reprint exchange, and reading primary journals.…”