Abstract
Background This research is an investigation into the role of expert quotes in health news, specifically whether news articles containing a quote from an independent expert are less often exaggerated than articles without such a quote. Methods Retrospective quantitative content analysis of journal articles, press releases, and associated news articles was performed. The investigated sample are press releases on peer-reviewed health research and the associated research articles and news stories. Our sample consisted of 462 press releases and 668 news articles from the UK (2011) and 129 press releases and 185 news articles from The Netherlands (2015). We hand-coded all journal articles, press releases and news articles for correlational claims, using a well-tested codebook. The main outcome measures are types of sources that were quoted and exaggeration of correlational claims. We used counts, 2x2 tables and odds ratios to assess the relationship between presence of quotes and exaggeration of the causal claim. Results Overall, 99.1% of the UK press releases and 84.5% of the Dutch press releases contain at least one quote. For the associated news articles these percentages are: 88.6% in the UK and 69.7% in the Netherlands. Authors of the study are most often quoted and only 7.5% of UK and 7.0% of Dutch news articles contained a new quote by an expert source, i.e. one not provided by the press release. The relative odds that an article without an external expert quote contains an exaggeration of causality is 2.6. Conclusions The number of articles containing a quote from an independent expert is low, but articles that cite an external expert do contain less exaggeration.
Highlights
News media coverage influences health outcomes (CatalanMatamoros & Peñafiel-Saiz, 2019; Matthews et al, 2016; Sambrook et al, 2010)
We identified exaggeration when the code number for the press release or news article was higher than the code for the scientific article
Upon being asked by a reporter of De Volkskrant, said that the news articles “did not give a fully correct representation of the journal article’s results” and that the suggested causal relation might be reversed. She explains that the results in some other media were over-simplified and thereby gave a false conclusion (Barbier, 2015). This example shows that calling an expert for a quote can improve the accuracy of a news article and ensure that the results are represented in the right light
Summary
News media coverage influences health outcomes (CatalanMatamoros & Peñafiel-Saiz, 2019; Matthews et al, 2016; Sambrook et al, 2010). Journalists lack the time to do proper research and have to respect maximum word limits or air time (Entwistle, 1995; Schwitzer, 2008). In the case of medical news, journalists may be hampered by a lack of knowledge, as many have no specialized training in health subjects (Tanner, 2004). Training journalists and/or cooperation with independent physicians might help to reduce the gaps in knowledge and shortcomings of medical news (Schwitzer, 2008). This research is an investigation into the role of expert quotes in health news, whether news articles containing a quote from an independent expert are less often exaggerated than articles without such a quote
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