WASHINGTON, D.C.- A new survey recently confirmed that the media is the primary source for health and medical information for many consumers and found that one in three Americans crave more information.
Given this growing national appetite for health news and the increasing importance of responsible media coverage of critical, life-improving and life-saving news, the need for more sophisticated media relations is a PR must.
Top media heavyweights tackled this often controversial topic at The National Health Council's (NHC) "21st Century Housecall: The Link Between Medicine and the Media" press conference, here last month. Co-sponsored by PBS's "HealthWeek," a national weekly television program, the Council released key findings about how Americans receive health/medical news and how credible they think the information is.
According to the survey among adults (18+):
- More people look to TV (40%) as their primary resource for health/medical information than from doctors (36%), with another 35% referring to magazines. (But for those with chronic diseases, doctors are the primary resource.)
- For the most part, Americans believe health/medical reports can help them lead healthier lives at 82%, with 58% reporting a change in their behavior to improve their health. In addition, 76% say they took the advice offered in a news story they heard or read.
- In terms of health news's credibility, the respondents found media sources like TV newsmagazines ("20/20" and "60 Minutes"), to be the most believable, followed by public service announcements, TV news broadcasts, daily newspapers and news magazines. Only 4% reported that they get their news from the radio and 2% mentioned the Internet.
- But health news is confusing for many Americans as 68% said that health and medical information is often contradictory and difficult to understand.
The Confusion Factor
By far, this finding on consumer confusion is the hardest to resolve for reporters and editors who cover complex medical news and communicators at healthcare organizations responsible for delivering critical medical updates, trends and studies.
Given the limited space and time media outlets can devote to medical news, the onus is on healthcare organizations "to understand the parameters" of various media outlets and to help reporters simplify the complexities of health and medical information, stressed Myrl Weinberg, NHC's president.
For PR pros, these parameters should include understanding newsroom dynamics of a media outlet like who reports the health/medical news, who writes the headlines (often headlines are written by editors who did not write the story), providing more accessible background resources and information on healthcare issues (especially for new or local reporters who might not have expertise in health news) and most importantly putting yourself in the shoes of reporters who need soundbite information, tips and accessible spokespeople. (NHC, Myrl Weinberg, 202/785-3910)