Abstract
BackgroundMedia coverage of the vegetative state (VS) includes refutations of the VS diagnosis and describes behaviors inconsistent with VS. We used a quality score to assess the reporting in articles describing the medical characteristics of VS in Italian newspapers.Methodology/Principal FindingsOur search covered a 7-month period from July 1, 2008, to February 28, 2009, using the online searchable databases of four major Italian newspapers: Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, La Stampa, and Avvenire. Medical reporting was judged as complete if three core VS characteristics were described: patient unawareness of self and the environment, preserved wakefulness (eyes open), and spontaneous respiration (artificial ventilator not needed). We retrieved 2,099 articles, and 967 were dedicated to VS. Of these, 853 (88.2%) were non-medical and mainly focused on describing the political, legal, and ethical aspects of VS. Of the 114 (11.8%) medical articles, 53 (5.5%) discussed other medical problems such as death by dehydration, artificial nutrition, neuroimaging, brain death, or uterine hemorrhage, and 61 (6.3%) described VS. Of these 61, only 18 (1.9%) reported all three CORE characteristics and were judged complete. We found no differences among the four investigated newspapers (Fisher's exact = 0.798), and incomplete articles were equally distributed between journalistic pieces and expert opinions (χ2 = 1.8854, P = 0.170). Incorrect descriptions of VS were significantly more common among incomplete articles (13 of 43 vs. 1 of 18; Fisher's exact P = 0.047).Conclusions/SignificanceCore VS characteristics are rarely reported in Italian newspaper articles, which can alter adequate comprehension of new developments and (mis)inform political, legal, and ethical decisions.
Highlights
IntroductionThe popular media are commonly the initial source of medical research news for both medical professionals and the public, and interest in reporting quality is widespread[1,2].Studies of the accuracy and completeness of newspaper reporting of scientific issues have found that most newspaper articles contain errors or omit important information and include little scientific explanation or critique of the quality or relevance of scientific evidence[3,4,5,6,7,8].Vegetative state (VS) is a clinical condition of wakefulness without awareness caused by traumatic and non-traumatic brain injuries[9,10]
Legal, and ethical topics dominated in La Repubblica, La Stampa, and Corriere della Sera, whereas legal, ethical, and personal pieces dominated in Avvenire
Commentators have frequently observed that the media fuelled the controversy about vegetative state (VS) by providing incorrect representation of VS[11,13,54], which is substantiated by our results
Summary
The popular media are commonly the initial source of medical research news for both medical professionals and the public, and interest in reporting quality is widespread[1,2].Studies of the accuracy and completeness of newspaper reporting of scientific issues have found that most newspaper articles contain errors or omit important information and include little scientific explanation or critique of the quality or relevance of scientific evidence[3,4,5,6,7,8].Vegetative state (VS) is a clinical condition of wakefulness without awareness caused by traumatic and non-traumatic brain injuries[9,10]. Quality of reporting was not explicitly evaluated; these authors found that a significant proportion of news media articles described behaviors inconsistent with VS[11]. As noted in an accompanying Editorial[12], a videotape showing that Ms Schiavo was able to open and move her eyes ignited the public skepticism over her diagnosis of VS because most viewers had no idea that VS patients can have periods of sleep alternating with periods of an awake-like state in which eyes are open and may move about. Media coverage of the vegetative state (VS) includes refutations of the VS diagnosis and describes behaviors inconsistent with VS. We used a quality score to assess the reporting in articles describing the medical characteristics of VS in Italian newspapers
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