An interesting article appears in the Journal of Medical Ethics, December 2012, vol. 38, pp. 768-770, titled “Medicine, the media and political interests,” by Wendy Lipworth, Ian Kerridge, Bronwen Morrell, Catriona Bonfiglioli, and Rowena Forsyth.
The authors mention how the news media is often criticized for failing to support the goals of government health programs. The authors mention a statement in the American Journal of Public Health
“(i)nadequate, misleading or incomplete news reporting constitutes a public health threat. Such reporting can lead people to make misguided choices that may put their health at risk or influence policymakers to adopt inadequate or harmful laws, regulations, or policies.”
Some have even argued that the media should consider it’s health functions to be more important than it’s other functions.
The authors state
“News journalism prides itself on providing a public service as a ‘watch-dog’, exposing wrong-doing, revealing hidden conflicts of interest, holding both business and government accountable, giving citizens information they need for self-governance, and informing democratic decision-making. Journalists also highly value reporting that is accurate, fair, relevant and complete, and that does not cause preventable harm. And in seeking to give voice to the voiceless, journalists may, at times, take positions on health-related issues, rather than present a ‘neutral’, balanced and impartial perspective, advocating for, or against, any sectional interest, including those of government.”
The author state
“The rise of the internet and social media, and the dependence of mainstream journalists for employment on media organisations competing for profits in a commercial world, or public service media organisations dependent on falling levels of government funding have all contributed to erosion of independent media in Europe, the USA and elsewhere.”
I have previously commented on the Big Media Monopoly which the authors of this paper don’t seem to comment on particularly.
The authors state
“While considerable attention has been given to the ways in which uncritical publication of industry perspectives by news media can negatively impact on public understandings of health and health behaviours, we would argue that it is equally important that journalists not become the ‘lapdogs’ of government interests. Further, we suggest that the interests of public health may be served more by supporting the ongoing existence of an independent media than by seeking to overdetermine its purpose or scope.”
Personally, I thought this article was a little weak and didn’t go into all the issues quite as articulately as I would have liked but even so it does do a good job at covering the issue of how the media and medicine is intertwined. The key points are that the media needs to have integrity and not too intertwined with others to maintain it’s independence.