Healthy Skepticism Library item: 9164

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

van Trigt AM, de Jong-van den Berg LT, Voogt LM, Willems J, Tromp TF, Haaijer-Ruskamp FM.
Setting the agenda: does the medical literature set the agenda for articles about medicines in the newspapers?
Soc Sci Med 1995 Sep; 41:(6):893-9
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VBF-3YS8D6X-31&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=39fe059004d64ad38a65edd922fe376e

Abstract:

The source of ideas and information on medicines most important to journalists in the Netherlands, and most commonly consulted by them, is known to be the scientific medical literature. In this study we therefore, explored the relation between the kind of medicines discussed in the scientific medical literature and those discussed in newspapers. A content analysis of scientific medical journals was combined with a content analysis of Dutch daily newspapers. The results show an agreement in the main groups of medicines discussed in the scientific medical literature and newspapers. In both the newspapers and the professional journals anti-infective medication and drugs for the central nervous system are the groups of medicines most frequently discussed. Although it has been suggested that ‘bad news’ is more newsworthy then ‘good news’, the negative consequences of the use of medicines received proportionally more attention in the professional literature than in the newspapers.

Keywords:
Drug Therapy Health Education* Humans Netherlands Newspapers* Periodicals as Topic* Publishing*