scholarly journals Lista de comprobación para mejorar la información sobre fármacos en la prensa: la importancia de informar sobre las fases y la incertidumbre de la investigación = A checklist for improving drug information in the general press: the importance of reporting on the phases and uncertainty of research

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 203
Author(s):  
Fèlix Bosch ◽  
Clàudia Escalas ◽  
Ainoa Forteza ◽  
Elisabet Serés ◽  
Gonzalo Casino
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
Drug Information ◽  
Qualitative Studies ◽  
Current Phase ◽  
Quality Of Reporting ◽  
Interest In Science ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Medios De Comunicacion

Resumen: El interés de la ciudadanía por la ciencia es consecuente con que los medios de comunicación difundan también información sobre fármacos. Sin embargo, se requieren más estudios cuantitativos y cualitativos que analicen este tipo de información en la prensa generalista. En este artículo se revisan los estudios que han analizado las noticias sobre fármacos, así como las herramientas disponibles para evaluar su calidad. Se revisan aspectos cualitativos a considerar al informar sobre fármacos en investigación o ya comercializados: la necesidad de contrastar las fuentes, citar la publicación de origen y emplear un lenguaje comprensible. Asimismo, se recomienda informar tanto de beneficios como de riesgos, y hacerlo con valores relativos y absolutos; evitar la generación de falsas expectativas y contextualizar los aspectos relacionados con la financiación. Además, se sugiere explicitar la fase de investigación en la que se encuentra el fármaco para así orientar sobre las posibilidades y plazos para su comercialización, y sobre las fuentes de información más adecuadas. Con esta revisión y las consideraciones planteadas, este artículo pretende promover una reflexión general para mejorar la calidad de las noticias sobre fármacos, a la vez que proporciona una primera lista de comprobación útil para comunicadores y periodistas científicos.Palabras clave: comunicación en salud; divulgación; fármacos; información; investigación; medicamentos; medios de comunicación; prensa.Abstract: Given the public’s interest in science, it is logical that the mass media disseminate information about drugs. However, few quantitative or qualitative studies have analyzed the way this type of information is presented in the lay press. This article reviews the studies that have analyzed news reports about drugs and discusses the tools that are available to evaluate the quality of such reports. It also examines qualitative aspects when reporting on drugs in research or when have already been marketed: the need to check the sources, to cite the original reports, and to use language that is easy to understand. To avoid creating false expectations, news reports should inform readers about risks as well as benefits in both relative and absolute terms and put financial aspects in context. Moreover, it is important to specify the drug’s current phase of development to inform if and when it is likely to be commercialized. Finally, news reports about drugs should point readers to the most appropriate sources to obtain further information. This article aims to promote general reflection and ultimately to improve the quality of reporting about drugs in the general press and to provide a checklist for science communicators and journalists.Keywords: health communication; popularization; drugs; information; investigation; medicines; media; press.

Health Communication for Hospice Care through Chinese media: Digital Topic Modeling Approach (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qian Liu ◽  
Zequan Zheng ◽  
Jingsen Chen ◽  
Winghei Tsang ◽  
Jin Shan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
Topic Modeling ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Hospice Care ◽  
Patient Treatment ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Second Period

BACKGROUND Hospice care, a type of end-of-life care provided for dying patients and their families, has been rooted in China since the 1980s. It can improve receivers’ quality of life as well as ease their economic burden. The Chinese mass media have continued to actively dispel misconceptions of hospice care and deliver the latest information to citizens. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to retrieve and analyze news reports on hospice care to gain insight into whether any differences exist in delivered heath information as time went by and the role the mass media played in health communication in recent years. METHODS We searched the Huike (WiseSearch) database for related news from Chinese mass media between 2014 and 2019. We set January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2016 as the first time period and January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2019 as the second time period. Python was used to complete the data cleaning process. We determined appropriate topic numbers for these two periods based on coherence score and applied the latent Dirichlet allocation topic modeling. Keywords of each topic and corresponding topics’ names were then generated. The topics were plotted into different circles and their distances on the two-dimensional plane was represented by multidimensional scaling. RESULTS After removing the duplicated and irrelevant news articles, we obtained a total of 2227 articles. We chose eight as the suitable topic number for both time periods and generated topics’ name and their keywords. The top three most reported topics in the first period were patient treatment, hospice care stories, and development of health care services and health insurance, accounting for 18.68% (n = 178), 16.58% (n = 158), and 14.17% (n = 135) of the collected reports, respectively. The top three most reported topics in the second period were hospice care stories, patient treatment, and development of health care services, accounting for 15.62% (n = 199), 15.38 (n = 15.38), and 14.27% (n = 182), respectively. CONCLUSIONS Topic modeling of news reports gives us a better understanding of patterns of health communication about hospice care by mass media. Chinese mass media frequently reported on hospice care in April due to a traditional Chinese festival. An increase in coverage in the second period was observed. These two periods share six similar topics, among which patient treatment outstrips hospice care stories as the most-reported topic in the second period, showing the humanistic spirit behind the reports. We suggest stakeholders cooperate with the mass media when planning to update policies.

scholarly journals Newspaper depiction of mental and physical health in Qatar

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khalid Elzamzamy ◽  
Abdulkarim Alsiddiqi ◽  
Ali Khalil ◽  
Hassan Elamin ◽  
Mustafa Abdul Karim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Substance Use ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
General Information ◽  
Quality Of Reporting ◽  
Daily Newspapers ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Mental And Physical Health

This study provides an overview of the extent, nature and quality of reporting on mental health compared with physical health in Qatari newspapers. We analysed 1274 news reports from daily newspapers in Qatar. The majority of the articles provided general information and were either positive or neutral in tone, reporting purely on physical health matters. A small proportion made associations with violence or reported on suicide or substance use. Our results highlight the underrepresentation of mental health in Qatari newspapers. A collaboration between media and health professionals is recommended to improve reporting on mental health.

scholarly journals The law of Social Responsibility and the quality of the television in Venezuela

Comunicar ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 13 (25) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elda Moraleses ◽  
Liliana González
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Public Discussion ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Law ◽  
Medios De Comunicacion

The approval of the Law of Social Responsibility in Radio and Television to regulate the programmatic contents of the private television transmitters caused a collective debate. After that discussion, it is possible to be affirmed that the general intention of the Law is to order the operation of regional and national mass media, to take care of the quality of the programmatic content and to fill a legal emptiness in relation to a so strategic matter. The content of the Law means allows the public discussion of innovating procedures that can modify the interactions between the citizens and the average ones to obtain greater quality in the content of their habitual programming. Este análisis parte de una teoría explicativa sobre el poder de los medios decomunicación y la garantía de los derechos ciudadanos en democracia. En Venezuela hoy como nunca antes, los medios de comunicación audiovisuales, específicamentela televisión, deben fortalecer su función informativa en respuesta a las demandas ciudadanas y ser responsables por el desarrollo de una cultura política democrática. Con este propósito se debe profundizar en la reflexión sobre el rol de los periodistas y de las escuelas de comunicación socialen el fortalecimiento de lafunción social de los medios regionales y nacionales. Para demostrar estas premisas del trabajo, se ha seleccionado dentro del amplio espectro de temas que han provocado un debate colectivo en la sociedad venezolana, la pertinencia de la aprobación de la Ley de Responsabilidad Socialen Radio yTelevisión para regular los contenidos programáticos de las televisoras privadas y del Estado venezolano. Esta Ley entró en vigencia en diciembre del 2004. Se presenta un análisis interpretativo de la Ley, fundamentado en: el texto constitucional, las disposiciones de convenios internacionales, la evaluación crítica de periodistas en ejercicio, columnistas, escritores y docentes; además del aporte del pensamiento político de autores latinoamericanos. Entrelas conclusionesmás importantes se consideran las siguientes: se puede afirmar que el propósito general de la Ley es ordenar el funcionamiento de los medios de comunicación regionales y nacionales, cuidar la calidad del contenido programático y llenar un vacío legal en relación a una materia tan estratégica, como lo es el espectro radioeléctrico delpaís. Esta Ley de ninguna manera limita o coarta la libertad de expresión o el libre derecho a dar y recibir información de los ciudadanos.El contenido de la Ley Resorte permite la discusión pública de innovadores procedimientosque puedan modificar las interacciones entre los ciudadanos y los medios para lograr mayor calidad en el contenido de su programación habitual. Entre otros: 1) abrir nuevos espacios para la difusión de la producción nacional; 2) diversificar la oferta de programas educativos y culturales dirigidos a los niños y adolescentes; 3) regular el tiempo de transmisión de la publicidad comercial y 4) establecer tipos y bloques de horarios de transmisión, considerando el contenido de los mensajes y el público al cual se dirige. La nueva legislación de la comunicación en Venezuela abre una interesante oportunidad para queel ciudadano pueda ejercer la contraloría social frente a los medios.

scholarly journals Health Communication Through News Media During the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Outbreak in China: Digital Topic Modeling Approach (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qian Liu ◽  
Zequan Zheng ◽  
Jiabin Zheng ◽  
Qiuyi Chen ◽  
Guan Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
News Media ◽  
Topic Modeling ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Community Education ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

BACKGROUND In December 2019, a few coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases were first reported in Wuhan, Hubei, China. Soon after, increasing numbers of cases were detected in other parts of China, eventually leading to a disease outbreak in China. As this dreadful disease spreads rapidly, the mass media has been active in community education on COVID-19 by delivering health information about this novel coronavirus, such as its pathogenesis, spread, prevention, and containment. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to collect media reports on COVID-19 and investigate the patterns of media-directed health communications as well as the role of the media in this ongoing COVID-19 crisis in China. METHODS We adopted the WiseSearch database to extract related news articles about the coronavirus from major press media between January 1, 2020, and February 20, 2020. We then sorted and analyzed the data using Python software and Python package Jieba. We sought a suitable topic number with evidence of the coherence number. We operated latent Dirichlet allocation topic modeling with a suitable topic number and generated corresponding keywords and topic names. We then divided these topics into different themes by plotting them into a 2D plane via multidimensional scaling. RESULTS After removing duplications and irrelevant reports, our search identified 7791 relevant news reports. We listed the number of articles published per day. According to the coherence value, we chose 20 as the number of topics and generated the topics’ themes and keywords. These topics were categorized into nine main primary themes based on the topic visualization figure. The top three most popular themes were prevention and control procedures, medical treatment and research, and global or local social and economic influences, accounting for 32.57% (n=2538), 16.08% (n=1258), and 11.79% (n=919) of the collected reports, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Topic modeling of news articles can produce useful information about the significance of mass media for early health communication. Comparing the number of articles for each day and the outbreak development, we noted that mass media news reports in China lagged behind the development of COVID-19. The major themes accounted for around half the content and tended to focus on the larger society rather than on individuals. The COVID-19 crisis has become a worldwide issue, and society has become concerned about donations and support as well as mental health among others. We recommend that future work addresses the mass media’s actual impact on readers during the COVID-19 crisis through sentiment analysis of news data.

Comfortably Numb: Effects of Prolonged Media Coverage

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (9) ◽  
pp. 1666-1692
Author(s):  
Aaron M. Hoffman ◽  
José Kaire
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Design ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Quality Of Reporting ◽  
Biometric Data ◽  
The Mass Media

Exposure to a single report about terrorism in the mass media can trigger a range of emotional and political reactions. The consequences of exposure to several terrorism reports in row, however, are a matter of controversy. We examine the effects of prolonged terrorism coverage using an experimental design that combines self-report measures of emotions and political attitudes with instantaneous biometric data on emotions. Consistent with research on nonassociational learning, we find that exposure to multiple videos habituates people to depictions of terrorism: the longer people watch terrorism coverage, the less intense their reactions are to the images of terrorism they see. Some images and videos, however, contribute to this result more than others. This suggests that the ultimate effects of terrorism coverage depend on the interplay between the quantity and quality of reporting, not the quantity alone.

scholarly journals A meta-review demonstrates improved reporting quality of qualitative reviews following the publication of COREQ- and ENTREQ-checklists, regardless of modest uptake

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. de Jong ◽  
E. M. van der Willik ◽  
J. Milders ◽  
C. G. N. Voorend ◽  
Rachael L. Morton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reporting Quality ◽  
Publication Rate ◽  
T Test ◽  
Qualitative Studies ◽  
Positive Trend ◽  
Bonferroni Correction ◽  
Quality Of Reporting ◽  
Meta Review ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Background Reviews of qualitative studies allow for deeper understanding of concepts and findings beyond the single qualitative studies. Concerns on study reporting quality led to the publication of the COREQ-guidelines for qualitative studies in 2007, followed by the ENTREQ-guidelines for qualitative reviews in 2012. The aim of this meta-review is to: 1) investigate the uptake of the COREQ- and ENTREQ- checklists in qualitative reviews; and 2) compare the quality of reporting of the primary qualitative studies included within these reviews prior- and post COREQ-publication. Methods Reviews were searched on 02-Sept-2020 and categorized as (1) COREQ- or (2) ENTREQ-using, (3) using both, or (4) non-COREQ/ENTREQ. Proportions of usage were calculated over time. COREQ-scores of the primary studies included in these reviews were compared prior- and post COREQ-publication using T-test with Bonferroni correction. Results 1.695 qualitative reviews were included (222 COREQ, 369 ENTREQ, 62 both COREQ/ENTREQ and 1.042 non-COREQ/ENTREQ), spanning 12 years (2007–2019) demonstrating an exponential publication rate. The uptake of the ENTREQ in reviews is higher than the COREQ (respectively 28% and 17%), and increases over time. COREQ-scores could be extracted from 139 reviews (including 2.775 appraisals). Reporting quality improved following the COREQ-publication with 13 of the 32 signalling questions showing improvement; the average total score increased from 15.15 to 17.74 (p-value < 0.001). Conclusion The number of qualitative reviews increased exponentially, but the uptake of the COREQ and ENTREQ was modest overall. Primary qualitative studies show a positive trend in reporting quality, which may have been facilitated by the publication of the COREQ.

scholarly journals The right to the screen: from media education to educommunication in Brazil

Comunicar ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (31) ◽  
pp. 77-82
Author(s):  
Ismar de-Oliveira-Soares
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Time Slot ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Television Time ◽  
The Right ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Medios De Comunicacion

Nowadays in Brazil, some social organizations, governments and mass media are discussing the need to establish an oversight committee to guarantee the quality of television programmes, as well as the need to set a system to determine what kind of program is appropriate for every television time slot. Across Brazil, a representative body of children and young people have come to the conclusion that the right to receive quality television programmes is not enough. The children of the new generations think they have the right to access new technologies and the production of their own messages, in accordance with their own creativity, interests and lifestyle projects within society. Es ya tradicional que organizaciones sociales, administraciones políticas, educadores y medios de comunicación debatan en Brasil la necesidad de cuestionar la calidad de los programas televisivos y la necesaria discusión sobre los horarios de exhibición. Pero además de este permanente y creciente debate, por primera vez, una cantidad representativa de niños y jóvenes de distintas partes del país han comenzado a reclamar ellos mismos el derecho de recibir una programación de calidad. Las nuevas generaciones comienzan a reconocer sus derechos al acceso a las tecnologías y a la producción de mensajes, en virtud a su creatividad, formación y proyectos de vida en la sociedad.

scholarly journals Health Communication Through News Media During the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Outbreak in China: Digital Topic Modeling Approach

10.2196/19118 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. e19118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qian Liu ◽  
Zequan Zheng ◽  
Jiabin Zheng ◽  
Qiuyi Chen ◽  
Guan Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
News Media ◽  
Topic Modeling ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Community Education ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

Background In December 2019, a few coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases were first reported in Wuhan, Hubei, China. Soon after, increasing numbers of cases were detected in other parts of China, eventually leading to a disease outbreak in China. As this dreadful disease spreads rapidly, the mass media has been active in community education on COVID-19 by delivering health information about this novel coronavirus, such as its pathogenesis, spread, prevention, and containment. Objective The aim of this study was to collect media reports on COVID-19 and investigate the patterns of media-directed health communications as well as the role of the media in this ongoing COVID-19 crisis in China. Methods We adopted the WiseSearch database to extract related news articles about the coronavirus from major press media between January 1, 2020, and February 20, 2020. We then sorted and analyzed the data using Python software and Python package Jieba. We sought a suitable topic number with evidence of the coherence number. We operated latent Dirichlet allocation topic modeling with a suitable topic number and generated corresponding keywords and topic names. We then divided these topics into different themes by plotting them into a 2D plane via multidimensional scaling. Results After removing duplications and irrelevant reports, our search identified 7791 relevant news reports. We listed the number of articles published per day. According to the coherence value, we chose 20 as the number of topics and generated the topics’ themes and keywords. These topics were categorized into nine main primary themes based on the topic visualization figure. The top three most popular themes were prevention and control procedures, medical treatment and research, and global or local social and economic influences, accounting for 32.57% (n=2538), 16.08% (n=1258), and 11.79% (n=919) of the collected reports, respectively. Conclusions Topic modeling of news articles can produce useful information about the significance of mass media for early health communication. Comparing the number of articles for each day and the outbreak development, we noted that mass media news reports in China lagged behind the development of COVID-19. The major themes accounted for around half the content and tended to focus on the larger society rather than on individuals. The COVID-19 crisis has become a worldwide issue, and society has become concerned about donations and support as well as mental health among others. We recommend that future work addresses the mass media’s actual impact on readers during the COVID-19 crisis through sentiment analysis of news data.

scholarly journals Health Communication Through News Media During the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Outbreak in China: A Digital Topic Modeling Approach

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qian Liu ◽  
Zequan Zheng ◽  
Jiabin Zheng ◽  
Qiuyi Chen ◽  
Guan Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
Sentiment Analysis ◽  
Topic Modeling ◽  
Modeling Method ◽  
Search Term ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
News Reports ◽  
The Mass Media ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

AbstractBackgroundIn December 2019, some COVID-19 cases were first reported and soon the disease broke out. As this dreadful disease spreads rapidly, the mass media has been active in community education on COVID-19 by delivering health information about this novel coronavirus.MethodsWe adopted the Huike database to extract news articles about coronavirus from major press media, between January 1st, 2020, to February 20th, 2020. The data were sorted and analyzed by Python software and Python package Jieba. We sought a suitable topic number using the coherence number. We operated Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling with the suitable topic number and generated corresponding keywords and topic names. We divided these topics into different themes by plotting them into two-dimensional plane via multidimensional scaling.FindingsAfter removing duplicates, 7791 relevant news reports were identified. We listed the number of articles published per day. According to the coherence value, we chose 20 as our number of topics and obtained their names and keywords. These topics were categorized into nine primary themes based on the topic visualization figure. The top three popular themes were prevention and control procedures, medical treatment and research, global/local social/economic influences, accounting for 32·6%, 16·6%, 11·8% of the collected reports respectively.InterpretationThe Chinese mass media news reports lag behind the COVID-19 outbreak development. The major themes accounted for around half the content and tended to focus on the larger society than on individuals. The COVID-19 crisis has become a global issue, and society has also become concerned about donation and support as well as mental health. We recommend that future work should address the mass media’s actual impact on readers during the COVID-19 crisis through sentiment analysis of news data.FundingNational Social Science Foundation of China (18CXW021)Evidence before this studyThe novel coronavirus related news reports have engaged public attention in China during the COVID-19 crisis. Topic modeling of these news articles can produce useful information about the significance of mass media for early health communication. We searched the Huike database, the most professional Chinese media content database, using the search term “coronavirus” for related news articles published from January 1st, 2020, to February 20th, 2020. We found that these articles can be classified into different themes according to their emphasis, however, we found no other studies apply topic modeling method to study them.Added value of this studyTo our knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the patterns of health communications through media and the role the media have played and are still playing in the light of the current COVID-19 crisis in China with topic modeling method. We compared the number of articles each day with the outbreak development and identified there’s a delay in reporting COVID-19 outbreak progression for Chinese mass media. We identify nine main themes for 7791 collected news reports and detail their emphasis respectively.Implications of all the available evidenceOur results show that the mass media news reports play a significant role in health communication during the COVID-19 crisis, government can strengthen the report dynamics and enlarge the news coverage next time another disease strikes. Sentiment analysis of news data are needed to assess the actual effect of the news reports.

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