Most people depend on newspapers for information about the latest medical research. Yet, as an examination of two British publications suggests, it is common to see medical articles generated by press releases rather than independent investigation. Newspapers also tend to select the most sensationalistic stories, re-word the press releases to make the results sound more definite, and often use fear tactics to "sell" the story.

According to researchers who examined articles in Britain's London Times and Sun newspapers, "Newspapers' reporting of health issues has been criticised for attributing too much certainty to research findings, for premature representation of findings as breakthroughs, and for being alarmist, incomplete, or inaccurate. Qualitative research has described how journalists seek health stories that will seize readers' attention and how they tend to present issues using straightforward, stereotyped themes, sometimes contradicting earlier reports about the same issue."

The researchers looked at all original research articles published in The Lancet and the British Medical Journal (BMJ) during 1999 and 2000, then assessed the characteristics of articles that were press released and subsequently reported in the Friday and Saturday issues of the Times and Sun.

They found that 43% of all the research articles had press releases written about them — and every one of the articles published about research results were based on those releases.

But not all press releases were turned into articles. In fact, newspapers often ignored findings from randomized trials, even though these studies provide the strongest evidence and were more likely to be included in press releases.

Instead, the papers tended to emphasize results from observational studies (emphasis added), which are more prone to bias, said the BMJ authors.

Studies of women's health, reproduction, and cancer were more likely to be press released and covered in newspapers, while research from developing countries was ignored. (Of 121 research reports that pertained to developing countries, 52 were press released, but none was reported in a newspaper article.)

The authors admitted that press releases may be compiled, to some extent, with a view to accommodating popular tastes, but added that the selective process by newspaper journalists compounds the problem.

"We are concerned that many aspects of medical research are not well represented in newspapers," the report noted.

SOURCE: "What is newsworthy? Longitudinal study of the reporting of medical research in two British newspapers," British Medical Journal, No. 7355 Volume 325(3), July 13, 2002.