Distortions in genetic research news – the rocky road from science journal to the news
Thursday, November 11, 2010
News stories about cancer research in the mass media often do not fairly represent the original science. The primary source of this problem seems to occur in the transmission of information from press release to final news story, although the process of turning highly technical scientific research into a press release is itself fraught with errors.
That was the finding of an analysis by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, who looked at news reports of genetic cancer research that appeared in the press between 2004 and 2007. Researchers Jean M. Brechman, Ph.D.; Chul-joo Lee, Ph.D.; and Joseph Cappella, Ph.D. used a panel of genetic science experts to rate the accuracy of news stories about genetic cancer research. Their work, “Distorting Genetic Research about Cancer: From Bench Science to Press Release to Published News” is in press with
The Journal of Communication.
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