The Production of Medical News

Health knowledge and development have both direct and indirect consequences on people’s lives. Mass media, which functions as an intermediary between the medical community, government and the lay people, plays a central role in the transfer of information about health. However, the main medical criticism of the media is that it is alarmist and sensationalizing, provoking controversy. This situation will increase the inaccuracy of health and medical information. This study examines reporters’ newsgathering and source reliance by conducting in-depth interviews with seven journalists and conducting a content analysis of three local newspapers in Hualien County, Taiwan. The findings suggest that medical journalists are dependent on experts from the medical community for information and that journalists are not used to cross-checking information because this might have consequences for one’s relationship with informants or experts. Finally, all journalists are aware of the fact that news about medicine might create false perceptions. They all claim to be very careful when rewriting medical press releases based on a single medical source. The Production of Medical News News is information transmitted from sources to audiences through journalists who are both employees of bureaucratic press organizations and members of the profession. Usually, the work of a journalist is to summarize, refine, and alter what becomes available to them from sources in order to make the information suitable for their audience (Gans, 1999). Since health knowledge and development have major consequences both directly and indirectly on people’s lives, journalists who cover health news play a central role in transferring information about health; they function as intermediaries between the medical community, the government, and the lay public. Yet, the main medical criticism of the media is that it is alarmist and sensationalist. The media might frame controversy by focusing on the exceptional, glamorous and life threatening disease rather than more common diseases (Karpf, 1988; Wallack et. al, 1993; Trigt, 1995; Lawrence et. al, 2002; Swallen, 2003). A study of sources of health news may help to examine the relations between journalists and medical related individuals and organizations that attempt to define and manage the relationship between journalists and information. The selection and production of news is well researched in media studies with work ranging across the political economy of media through organizational studies, and going into broader cultural concerns with the form and content of news (Schlesinger & Tumber, 1994). For instance, White (1950) believed that news is shaped by the professional news judgment of journalists. In other words, journalists are gatekeepers, an important role in the complex