I was recently asked by the Minnesota News Council for a good source to speak on the quality of news coverage of medical and health stories.
The forums will address the quality of news coverage of health-related matters. How do journalistic decisions like disease-mongering, use of commercial research, and coverage (or lack thereof) of health care policies/reform impact news and health care consumers? What can do to we create more informed and balanced coverage of health issues?
I recommended Brooks Edwards, M.D., who is the Medical Editor-in-Chief for MayoClinic.com, and wrote an article on the topic for Mayo Clinic Women’s HealthSource that is posted here.
Health News Review is another site that does helpful analysis of selected stories, and how they live up to quality standards developed by a group led by Gary Schwitzer, a University of Minnesota journalism professor (who also formerly worked for CNN and MayoClinic.com).
This post is a little off the ALI Conference track, but in responding to the request from the News Council I thought it would be good to share that recommendation with the world.
Technorati: Health News, Quality
