Medical Journalism

Scope of Medical Journalism

Medical journalism can encompass a wide variety of topics, media, and genres. Among major topics of medical journalism are medical research findings, disease outbreaks and other public health concerns, healthful living, and health policy. Traditionally, medical journalism has consisted primarily of newspaper health reporting. Today, however, medical journalism appears in a wide range of media, including not only newspapers but also consumer magazines, specialized magazines for health professionals, radio, television, and Web sites. It also appears in news sections of medical journals. Genres of medical journalism include news stories, various types of feature stories (such as overview stories, narratives, and profiles), columns, and investigative stories.

Skills

The skills entailed in medical journalism include the ability to identify story ideas, gather information, evaluate information, and craft the piece.

Good medical journalism begins with a good story idea. Newly announced research findings that can aid in preventing or treating major diseases tend to be newsworthy, as well as current disease outbreaks, recently discovered threats to public health, newly exposed problems in medical care, newly disclosed diseases of public figures, and current or potential developments in health policy. Topics for medical feature stories can include diseases of current concern, achievements by noteworthy medical researchers and health professionals, and issues in health care.

Gathering information well is essential to high-quality medical journalism. In the popular media, most reports on medical research are based on newly published articles in medical journals. Medical journals are also information sources for other medical stories. In addition, information for medical stories comes from government agencies, such as the U.S. National Institutes of Health, [Page 474]Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Food and Drug Administration. Other information sources include organizations such as the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, medical and other health professional schools, hospitals and other health care institutions, and pharmaceutical companies and other corporations relating to health care.

Much of the information from such sources is now available on the World Wide Web. However, good medical journalism also entails interviewing—for example, to obtain the most recent information, gain additional perspective, and add human interest. People who are interviewed often include researchers, health care providers, and patients as well as health care administrators, medical ethi-cists, and (with permission) family members and friends of patients.

Evaluating information that has been gathered is important in deciding whether—and if so, how—to include the information in a medical story. In this evaluation, basic understanding of research design and statistics can help greatly. Among questions to consider when evaluating medical information are the following: Is the source credible? Was the study large enough and otherwise well designed? Is there more than one possible explanation for the findings? Are the findings from different studies consistent?

In medical journalism, crafting the piece entails following various principles of science writing. Aspects especially applicable to medical journalism include explaining concepts clearly, incorporating human interest, presenting numbers and sizes effectively, and noting sources of further information. Because the information in medical stories can influence decisions affecting health, fact-checking is especially important.

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