What Are the Roles and Responsibilities of the Media in Disseminating Health Information?

Schwitzer, Gary J; Mudur, Ganapati; Henry, David; Wilson, Amanda; Goozner, Merrill; Simbra, Maria; Sweet, Melissa; Baverstock, Katherine

doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0020215

Cited by 136 publications

(128 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

114

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The responsibilities of the media are to disseminate health information [6] and to frequently cover health-related topics and, as such, the media are the leading source of information about important health issues for many individuals. Media coverage of health-related events has become so important that several surveillance systems now rely on active trolling of internet news media to detect emerging disease threats [7,8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamics of an Infectious Disease Where Media Coverage Influences Transmission

Tchuenche

Bauch

2012

ISRN Biomathematics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There is significant current interest in the application of media/psychosocial effects to problems in epidemiology. News reporting has the potential to reach and to modify the knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of a large proportion of the community. A susceptible-infected-hospitalized-recovered model with vital dynamics, where media coverage of disease incidence and disease prevalence can influence people to reduce their contact rates is formulated. The media function is incorporated into the model using an exponentially decreasing function. Qualitative analysis of the model reveals that the disease-free equilibrium is locally asymptotically stable when a certain threshold is less than unity. Numerical results show the potential short-term beneficial effect of media coverage.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamics of an Infectious Disease Where Media Coverage Influences Transmission

Tchuenche

Bauch

2012

ISRN Biomathematics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Studies have shown that media coverage of health issues is many people's main source of body knowledge and health information. (Bell, 1998;Schwitzer et al 2005). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical thinking in Norwegian upper secondary biology education: The cases of complementary-alternative-medicine and health claims in the media

Pettersen

2005

NorDiNa

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sverre Pettersen was a laboratory researcher in the field of coronary heart diseases before he in 1992 became an associate professor at Akershus University College, Lillestrøm, where he teaches biological sciences for nursing students, as well as being supervisor for students attending the college's master programme. He has also taught biology, chemistry and mathematics in Norwegian upper secondary school for 12 years. From the year of 2000 he has followed the doctoral programme in science education at the Institute of teacher training and school development, University of Oslo. In his present research project, he mainly explores the "status" of science and scientific knowledge among students and teachers of Norwegian health sciences. AbstractBy definition, complementary alternative medicine (CAM) treatments are not scientifically proven. Scientific deficient health claiming news seems to flourish in the media. The aims of this questionnaire study was to explore: (1) attitudes towards CAM among 3 rd year students of the health sciences in Norway, who either have immersed themselves in the 2 nd and 3 rd year upper secondary biology courses, or taken the 1 st year compulsory natural science course, exclusively, and (2) these students' skills in requesting for scientific information in highly deficient health news briefs. There were no significant differences in the frequencies of positive attitude towards the use of CAM treatments between the two health sciences student categories, and most students in both categories "failed" in the test set out to measure their skills in requesting for scientific information in four highly scientific deficient health news briefs. The results suggest that teaching of the Norwegian upper secondary biology courses does probably not contribute extensively to pupils' development of scepticism towards CAM, and skills in evaluating health claims, scientifically. [62] 2/05 engage in or think about science (Kuhn, 2001). Intrinsic to epistemic understanding is knowledge of the criteria by which scientific knowledge is evaluated. Such criteria include plausible causal mechanisms, parsimony, consistency with observed data, and consistency with current theories (Lederman, 1992).

show abstract

“…The media has played a prominent role in the dissemination of health information [9]. The current study explores the way tinnitus is represented in the media, specifically in the United…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The ubiquitous nature of mass media, in particular news media, makes it one of the most powerful sources of influence on specific issues (e.g., climate change, political party), including health issues [9]. News media plays an important role in determining the content of our thoughts and opinions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%