Telling the Public Health Story: The News Media as Key Stakeholders
Creators: name: Crowe, Amanda
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2005

description: The news media contribute significantly to the public's awareness and understanding of health and medical issues. Studies reveal Americans rely on news reports as a primary source of health information (Campion, 2004; Voss,2003). As such, public health professionals must recognize the news media as an effective conduit to relay important health messages. Winett and Wallack (1996) write, "Because the media provide ready-made, regularly attended venues through which millions of Americans can be accessed at any given moment, they also provide powerful resources for advancing public health goals." Recognizing this, the Institute of Medicine (IOM, 2003) has called on the news media to be actors and partners in public health, citing the "potential of mass media in assuring population health." Yet, most journalists would argue their job is not to serve as health educators, but to be impartial and independent players, and provide balanced news reports to inform their audiences. Such differing expectations complicate what the American Public Health Association characterizes as a "natural connection" between public health and journalism. It is against this backdrop that many national organizations including the American Medical Association, the Association of Health Care Journalists and Research!America, among others, are hard at work to provide forums for leaders in the medical and public health fields to come together with health communicators and journalists to develop a working understanding of the other (Schwartz & Woloshin, 2004). Given the extensive reach and effectiveness of the news media, outreach to journalists should be incorporated into health education, promotion and policy work. By developing a keener understanding of the news gathering process, clinicians, researchers and public health officials will be better equipped to work collaboratively with journalists to help ensure the accuracy and quality of information imparted to the public (Stamm et al., 2003). This is particularly urgent given the shift from the traditional clinical, treatment-oriented paradigm to one focused on preventive medicine, which typically comprises behavioral interventions not readily reported in the news (Cabumay et al., 2003). To raise awareness of such issues, public health officials and researchers will need to become increasingly media savvy in relaying the story of public health. This includes messages about early diagnosis, as well as the excess [incidence of] morbidity and mortality that could be prevented if the public was more aware of multiple determinants of health and the tools needed to improve their well being. This paper highlights the pervasiveness of the news media in calling attention to health and medical issues, as well as the apparent disconnect that exists between public health professionals and medical health journalists. Existing resources and strategies to reconcile the divergence of these two cultures will be examined. Also discussed are future challenges and implications for practice.