Underground press
The terms underground press or clandestine press refer to periodicals and publications that are produced without official approval, illegally or against the wishes of a dominant group. In specific recent Asian and Western European context, the term "underground press" has most been employed to refer to the independently published and distributed underground papers associated with the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s in India and Bangladesh in Asia, in the United States and Canada in North America, the United Kingdom and other western nations, it can refer to the newspapers produced independently in repressive regimes. In German occupied Europe, for example, a thriving underground press operated in association with the Resistance. Other notable examples include the samizdat and bibuła, which operated in the Soviet Union and Poland during the Cold War. In Western Europe, a century after the invention of the printing press, a widespread underground press emerged in the mid-16th century with the clandestine circulation of Calvinist books and broadsides, many of them printed in Geneva, which were secretly smuggled into other nations where the carriers who distributed such literature might face imprisonment, torture or death.
Both Protestant and Catholic nations fought the introduction of Calvinism, which with its emphasis on intractable evil made its appeal to alienated, outsider subcultures willing to violently rebel against both church and state. In 18th century France, a large illegal underground press of the Enlightenment emerged, circulating anti-Royalist, anti-clerical and pornographic works in a context where all published works were required to be licensed. Starting in the mid-19th century an underground press sprang up in many countries around the world for the purpose of circulating the publications of banned Marxist political parties; the French resistance published a large and active underground press that printed over 2 million newspapers a month. Each paper was the organ of a separate resistance network, funds were provided from Allied headquarters in London and distributed to the different papers by resistance leader Jean Moulin. Allied prisoners of war published an underground newspaper called POW WOW.
In Eastern Europe since 1940, underground publications were known by the name samizdat. The countercultural underground press movement of the 1960s borrowed the name from previous "underground presses" such as the Dutch underground press during the Nazi occupations of the 1940s; those predecessors were "underground", meaning they were illegal, thus published and distributed covertly. While the countercultural "underground" papers battled with governmental authorities, for the most part they were distributed through a network of street vendors and head shops, thus reached a wide audience; the underground press in the 1960s and 1970s existed in most countries with high GDP per capita and freedom of the press. Published as weeklies, monthlies, or "occasionals", associated with left-wing politics, they evolved on the one hand into today's alternative weeklies and on the other into zines; the most prominent underground publication in Australia was a satirical magazine called OZ, which owed a debt to local university student newspapers such as Honi Soit and Tharunka, along with the UK magazine Private Eye.
The original edition appeared in Sydney on April Fools' Day, 1963 and continued sporadically until 1969. Editions published after February 1966 were edited by Richard Walsh, following the departure for the UK of his original co-editors Richard Neville and Martin Sharp, who went on to found a British edition in January 1967. In Melbourne Phillip Frazer and editor of pop music magazine Go-Set since January 1966, branched out into alternate, underground publications with Revolution in 1970, followed by High Times and The Digger; the Digger The Living Daylights High Times OZ Sydney New Dawn magazine Nexus magazine Revolution In London, Barry Miles, John Hopkins and others produced International Times from October 1966 which, following legal threats from The Times newspaper was renamed IT. Richard Neville arrived in London from Australia, he launched a British version, A4. The relaunched Oz shed its more austere satire magazine image and became a mouthpiece of the Underground, it was the most colourful and visually adventurous of the alternative press, with designers like Martin Sharp.
Other publications followed, such as Friends, based in the Ladbroke Grove area of London, more overtly political, Gandalf's Garden which espoused the mystic path. Neville published an account of the counterculture called Playpower, in which he described most of the world's underground publications, he listed many of the regular key topics from those publications including Vietnam, Black Power, pol
Yellow journalism
Yellow journalism and the yellow press are American terms for journalism and associated newspapers that present little or no legitimate well-researched news while instead using eye-catching headlines for increased sales. Techniques may include exaggerations of scandal-mongering, or sensationalism. By extension, the term yellow journalism is used today as a pejorative to decry any journalism that treats news in an unprofessional or unethical fashion. In English, the term is chiefly used in the US. In the UK, a equivalent term is tabloid journalism, meaning journalism characteristic of tabloid newspapers if found elsewhere. Other languages, e.g. Russian, sometimes have terms derived from the American term. A common source of such writing is called checkbook journalism, the controversial practice of news reporters paying sources for their information without verifying its truth or accuracy. In the U. S. it is considered unethical, with most mainstream newspapers and news shows having a policy forbidding it.
In contrast, tabloid newspapers and tabloid television shows, which rely more on sensationalism engage in the practice. Joseph Campbell describes yellow press newspapers as having daily multi-column front-page headlines covering a variety of topics, such as sports and scandal, using bold layouts, heavy reliance on unnamed sources, unabashed self-promotion; the term was extensively used to describe certain major New York City newspapers around 1900 as they battled for circulation. Frank Luther Mott identifies yellow journalism based on five characteristics: scare headlines in huge print of minor news lavish use of pictures, or imaginary drawings use of faked interviews, misleading headlines, a parade of false learning from so-called experts emphasis on full-color Sunday supplements with comic strips dramatic sympathy with the "underdog" against the system; the term was coined in the mid-1890s to characterize the sensational journalism in the circulation war between Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal.
The battle peaked from 1895 to about 1898, historical usage refers to this period. Both papers were accused by critics of sensationalizing the news in order to drive up circulation, although the newspapers did serious reporting as well. An English magazine in 1898 noted, "All American journalism is not'yellow', though all strictly'up-to-date' yellow journalism is American!"The term was coined by Erwin Wardman, the editor of the New York Press. Wardman was the first to publish the term but there is evidence that expressions such as "yellow journalism" and "school of yellow kid journalism" were used by newsmen of that time. Wardman never defined the term exactly, it was a mutation from earlier slander where Wardman twisted "new journalism" into "nude journalism". Wardman had used the expression "yellow kid journalism" referring to the then-popular comic strip, published by both Pulitzer and Hearst during a circulation war. In 1898 the paper elaborated: "We called them Yellow because they are Yellow."
Joseph Pulitzer purchased the New York World in 1883 after making the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the dominant daily in that city. Pulitzer strove to make the New York World an entertaining read, filled his paper with pictures and contests that drew in new readers. Crime stories filled many of the pages, with headlines like "Was He a Suicide?" and "Screaming for Mercy." In addition, Pulitzer only charged readers two cents per issue but gave readers eight and sometimes 12 pages of information. While there were many sensational stories in the New York World, they were by no means the only pieces, or the dominant ones. Pulitzer believed that newspapers were public institutions with a duty to improve society, he put the World in the service of social reform. Just two years after Pulitzer took it over, the World became the highest circulation newspaper in New York, aided in part by its strong ties to the Democratic Party. Older publishers, envious of Pulitzer's success, began criticizing the World, harping on its crime stories and stunts while ignoring its more serious reporting — trends which influenced the popular perception of yellow journalism.
Charles Dana, editor of the New York Sun, attacked The World and said Pulitzer was "deficient in judgment and in staying power."Pulitzer's approach made an impression on William Randolph Hearst, a mining heir who acquired the San Francisco Examiner from his father in 1887. Hearst read the World while studying at Harvard University and resolved to make the Examiner as bright as Pulitzer's paper. Under his leadership, the Examiner devoted 24 percent of its space to crime, presenting the stories as morality plays, sprinkled adultery and "nudity" on the front page. A month after Hearst took over the paper, the Examiner ran this headline about a hotel fire: HUNGRY, FRANTIC FLAMES, they Leap Madly Upon the Splendid Pleasure Palace by the Bay of Monterey, Encircling Del Monte in Their Ravenous Embrace From Pinnacle to Foundation. Leaping Higher, Higher, With Desperate Desire. Running Madly Riotous Through Cornice and Facade. Rushing in Upon the Trembling Guests with Savage Fury. Appalled and Panic-Stricken the Breathless Fugitives Gaze Upon the Scene of Terror.
The Magnificent Hotel and Its Rich Adornments Now a Smoldering heap of Ashes. The Examiner Sends a Special Train to Monterey to Gather Full Details of the Terrible Disaster. Arrival of the Unfortunate Victims on the Morning's Train — A History of Hotel del Monte — The Plans for Rebuilding the Celebrated Hostelry — Part
Traffic reporting
Traffic reporting is the near real-time distribution of information about road conditions such as traffic congestion and traffic collisions. The reports help drivers avoid traffic problems. Traffic reports in cities, may report on major delays to mass transit that does not involve roads. In addition to periodic broadcast reports, traffic information can be transmitted to GPS units and personal computers. There are several methods in use today to gather traffic speed and incident info, ranging from professional reporters, to GPS crowdsourcing to combinations of both methods. INRIX uses its network of over 175 million vehicles and devices to gather speed data from mobile phones, delivery vans, other fleet vehicles equipped with GPS locator devices including smart phones and Ford SYNC and Toyota Entune and much of Europe, South America, Africa. Google Traffic works by crowdsourcing the GPS information from phone users. By calculating the speed of users along a stretch of road, Google is able to generate a live traffic map.
Its subsidiary, Waze allows users to report directly via a smartphone app. TomTom Traffic uses crowd-sourced data from mobile phone users, along with data from traditional sources such as induction loops and traffic cameras. Monitoring police radio frequencies; some radio stations have agreements with states' highway patrol that permit a direct connection with a law enforcement computer. This enables real-time information gathering of the latest accident reports to highway patrol divisions. Many areas have other areas of high traffic volume. For example, by the company Global Traffic Network. Traffic cameras Giditraffic is an online social service which employs crowd sourcing as its primary means of providing real-time traffic updates to subscribers; the service is delivered free of charge. RoadPal uses crowd-sourced data from mobile users as well as the social media to provide users with traffic information of places of interest to them. Roadside speed sensors, either infra-red sensors for spot measurements or automatic number plate recognition for measuring speed between two sites.
GPS units Smartphones Radio via voice RDS, TA Electronic road signs 5-1-1 traffic information phone line or similar. Television and web INRIX develops and distributes INRIX Traffic, a free mobile application, provides reporting services to a variety of local television stations. NAVTEQ provides data used in a wide range of applications, including automotive navigation systems for many car makers. Most clients use Navteq to provide traffic reports in major metropolitan areas throughout North America. NAVTEQ partners with third-party agencies and companies to provide its services for portable GPS devices made by Garmin, Lowrance, NDrive and web-based applications such as Yahoo! Maps, Bing Maps, Nokia Maps. XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio use NAVTEQ data to show traffic information on navigation systems. NAVTEQ's media services was spun out to form Radiate Media in 2011, which subsequently merged with Global Traffic Network in 2016, forming US Traffic Network. Tele Atlas, a subsidiary of TomTom.
Delivers digital maps and other dynamic content for navigation and location-based services, including personal and in-car navigation systems, provides data used in a wide range of mobile and Internet map applications. Google Maps uses a variety of governmental and private traffic reporting organizations to provide information, along with its Waze subsidiary, which uses crowdsourcing to provide observed traffic conditions
Science journalism
Science journalism conveys reporting about science to the public. The field involves interactions between scientists and the public. One of the first occasions an article was attributed to a "scientific correspondent" was "A Gale in the Bay of Biscay" by William Crookes which appeared in The Times on January 18, 1871, page 7. Thomas Henry Huxley and John Tyndall were scientists who were involved in journalism and Peter Chalmers Mitchell was Scientific Correspondent for The Times from 1918 to 1935; however it was with James Crowther's appointment as the ‘scientific correspondent’ of The Manchester Guardian by C. P. Scott in 1928 that science journalism took shape. Crowther related that Scott had declared that there was ‘no such thing’ as science journalism, at which point Crowther replied that he intended to invent it. Scott was convinced and employed him. Science values detail, the impersonal, the technical, the lasting, facts and being right. Journalism values brevity, the personal, the colloquial, the immediate, stories and being right now.
There are going to be tensions. The aim of a science journalist is to render detailed and jargon-laden information produced by scientists into a form that non-scientists can understand and appreciate while still communicating the information accurately. One way science journalism can achieve, to avoid an information deficit model of communication, which assumes a top-down, one-way direction of communicating information that limits an open dialogue between knowledge holders and the public. Science journalists have training in the scientific disciplines that they cover; some have earned a degree in a scientific field before becoming journalists or exhibited talent in writing about science subjects. However, good preparation for interviews and deceptively simple questions such as "What does this mean to the people on the street?" can help a science journalist develop material, useful for the intended audience. With budget cuts at major newspapers and other media, there are fewer working science journalists working for traditional print and broadcast media than before.
There are very few journalists in traditional media outlets that write multiple articles on emerging science, such as nanotechnology. In 2011, there were 459 journalists who had written a newspaper article covering nanotechnology, of whom 7 wrote about the topic more than 25 times. In January 2012, just a week after The Daily Climate reported that worldwide coverage of climate change continued a three-year slide in 2012 and that among the five largest US dailies, the New York Times published the most stories and had the biggest increase in coverage, that newspaper announced that it was dismantling its environmental desk and merging its journalists with other departments. News coverage on science by traditional media outlets, such as newspapers, magazines and news broadcasts is being replaced by online sources. In April 2012, the New York Times was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes for content published by Politico and The Huffington Post, both online sources, a sign of the platform shift by the media outlet.
Tracking the remaining experienced science journalists is becoming difficult. For example, in Australia, the number of science journalists have decreased to abysmal numbers "you need less than one hand to count them." Due to the decreasing number of science journalists, experiments on ways to improve science journalism are rare. However, in one of the few experiments conducted with science journalists, when the remaining population of science journalists networked online the produced more accurate articles than when in isolation. New communication environments provide unlimited information on a large number of issues, which can be obtained anywhere and with limited effort; the web offers opportunities for citizens to connect with others through social media and other 2.0-type tools to make sense of this information. "After a lot of hand wringing about the newspaper industry about six years ago, I take a more optimistic view these days,” said Cristine Russell, president of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing.
“The world is online. Science writers today have the opportunity to communicate not just with their audience but globally.”Blog-based science reporting is filling in to some degree, but has problems of its own. In 2015, John Bohannon produced a deliberately bad study to see how a low-quality open access publisher and the media would pick up their findings, he worked with a film-maker Peter Onneken, making a film about junk science in the diet industry with fad diets becoming headline news despite terrible study design and no evidence. He invented a fake "diet institute" that lacks a website, used the pen name, "Johannes Bohannon," and fabricated a press release. Science journalists come under criticism for misleading reporting of scientific stories. All three groups of scientists and the public criticize science journalism for bias and inaccuracies. However, with the increasing collaborations online between science journalists there may be potential with removing inaccuracies; the 2010 book Merchants of Doubt by historians of science Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway argues that in topics like the global warming controversy, tobacco smoking, acid rain, DDT and ozone depletion, contrarian scientists have sought to "keep the controversy alive" in the public arena by demanding that reporters give false balance to the minority side.
Such as with climate change, this leaves the public with the impression that disagreement within the scientific community is much
Analytic journalism
Analytic journalism is a field of journalism that seeks to make sense of complex reality in order to create public understanding. It combines aspects of explanatory reporting. Analytic journalism can be seen as a response to professionalized communication from powerful agents, information overload, growing complexity in a globalised world, it aims to create evidence-based interpretations of reality confronting dominant ways of understanding a specific phenomenon. It is distinctive in terms of journalistic product. At times, it uses methods from social science research; the journalist gains expertise on a particular topic, to identify a phenomenon, not obvious. At its best, investigative journalism is analytic, but its intent is to expose. Analytic journalism's primary aim is to explain, it contextualizes its subject by describing historical details and statistical data. The goal is a comprehensive explanation. Analytic journalism aspires to collect disparate data and make connections that are not apparent.
Its effectiveness is in the analysis between the facts rather than the facts themselves and is critically engaged with other arguments and explanations. In this way, analytic journalists attempt to give a deeper understanding of an issue; as analytic journalism attempts to transcend regular news reporting—which relays facts—analytic journalists must use critical methods that help them present information in a way that distinguishes it from hard news. Analytic journalism applies the scientific method of testing and retesting of hypotheses against the evidence. Assumptions are systematically tested by verifying and altering hypotheses. Analytic journalists attempt to construct new angles that reconfigure understanding, they help bring the background into the foreground and "...making it thereby available for conversation and collective notion."The legitimacy of the author's voice is created by the coherent assembly of facts and evidence. According to Adam and Clark Analytic journalists should retrieve and adapt methodologies from other disciplines to enlarge journalism so that it incorporates knowledge and methods generated by historians, social scientist and critics.
The Institute of Analytic Journalism employs a rather general definition and positions it within a critical approach: "critical thinking and analysis using a variety of intellectual tools and methods to understand multiple phenomena and to communicate the results of those insights to multiple audiences in a variety of ways."A more pragmatic definition, suggested by Johnson, points out the necessary variables of analytic thinking: "Frame the appropriate question and retrieve appropriate data, use appropriate analytic tools, show what you know with story-appropriate media." De Burgh compares analytic journalism with news reporting: "News reporting is descriptive and news reporters are admired when they describe in a manner, accurate, vivid or moving, regardless of medium. Analytic journalism, on the other hand, seeks to take the data available and reconfigure it, helping us to ask questions about the situation or statement or see it in a different way." Therefore, de Burgh sees the role of analytic journalists as follows: "The duties if today’s journalist can be divided into three basic functions: Hunter-gatherer of information and Explainer.
Only in our role as ‘explainer’, as storyteller, do journalists appear to have a reasonable secure position. To ‘explain’, they have to more than ‘report’… what a Prime minister or a general has to say." While investigative journalism aims at exposing, analytic journalism aims at explaining. Following a trail of evidence, investigative journalism is more inclined to follow a particular guilty party, while analytic journalism is more inclined to follow that evidence to broaden understanding of the issue or phenomenon. Analytic journalism focuses on creating meaning out of information that may not be hidden but dispersed. Analytic journalism incorporates different journalistic approaches and genres; the graphic below illustrates the unique characteristics of analytic journalism. It illustrates how analytic journalism draws from multiple, but not journalistic disciplines. Institute for Analytic Journalism Institute for Analytic Journalism Proposal Paper NEA Arts Journalism Institute: Analytic Journalism Slideshare Presentation on Analytic Journalism
Muckraker
The term muckraker was used in the Progressive Era to characterize reform-minded American journalists who attacked established institutions and leaders as corrupt. They had large audiences in some popular magazines. In the US, the modern term is investigative journalism—it has different and more pejorative connotations in British English—and investigative journalists in the US today are informally called "muckrakers"; the muckrakers played a visible role during the Progressive Era period, 1890s–1920s. Muckraking magazines—notably McClure's of the publisher S. S. McClure—took on corporate monopolies and political machines while trying to raise public awareness and anger at urban poverty, unsafe working conditions and child labor. Most of the muckrakers wrote nonfiction, but fictional exposes had a major impact as well, such as those by Upton Sinclair. In contemporary American use, the term describes either a journalist who writes in the adversarial or alternative tradition, or a non-journalist whose purpose in publication is to advocate reform and change.
Investigative journalists view the muckrakers as early influences and a continuation of watchdog journalism. In British English the term muckraker is more to mean a journalist who specialises in scandal and malicious gossip about celebrities or well-known personalities and is used in a derogatory sense; the term is a reference to a character in John Bunyan's classic Pilgrim's Progress, "the Man with the Muck-rake", who rejected salvation to focus on filth. It became popular. While a literature of reform had appeared by the mid-19th century, the kind of reporting that would come to be called "muckraking" began to appear around 1900. By the 1900s, magazines such as Collier's Weekly, Munsey's Magazine and McClure's Magazine were in wide circulation and read avidly by the growing middle class; the January 1903 issue of McClure's is considered to be the official beginning of muckraking journalism, although the muckrakers would get their label later. Ida M. Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens and Ray Stannard Baker published famous works in that single issue.
Claude H. Wetmore and Lincoln Steffens' previous article "Tweed Days in St. Louis" in McClure's October 1902 issue was called the first muckraking article; the muckrakers would become known for their investigative journalism, evolving from the eras of "personal journalism"—a term historians Emery and Emery used in The Press and America to describe the 19th century newspapers that were steered by strong leaders with an editorial voice —and yellow journalism. One of the biggest urban scandals of the post-Civil War era was the corruption and bribery case of Tammany boss William M. Tweed in 1871, uncovered by newspapers. In his first muckraking article "Tweed Days in St. Louis", Lincoln Steffens exposed the graft, a system of political corruption, ingrained in St. Louis. While some muckrakers had worked for reform newspapers of the personal journalism variety, such as Steffens, a reporter for the New York Evening Post under Edwin Lawrence Godkin, other muckrakers had worked for yellow journals before moving on to magazines around 1900, such as Charles Edward Russell, a journalist and editor of Joseph Pulitzer's New York World.
Publishers of yellow journals, such as Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, were more intent on increasing circulation through scandal, crime and sensationalism. Just as the muckrakers became well known for their crusades, journalists from the eras of "personal journalism" and "yellow journalism" had gained fame through their investigative articles, including articles that exposed wrongdoing. Note that in yellow journalism, the idea was to stir up the public with sensationalism, thus sell more papers. If, in the process, a social wrong was exposed that the average man could get indignant about, fine, but it was not the intent as it was with true investigative journalists and muckrakers. Julius Chambers of the New York Tribune, could be considered to be the original muckraker. Chambers undertook a journalistic investigation of Bloomingdale Asylum in 1872, having himself committed with the help of some of his friends and his newspaper's city editor, his intent was to obtain information about alleged abuse of inmates.
When articles and accounts of the experience were published in the Tribune, it led to the release of twelve patients who were not mentally ill, a reorganization of the staff and administration of the institution and to a change in the lunacy laws. This led to the publication of the book A Mad World and Its Inhabitants. From this time onward, Chambers was invited to speak on the rights of the mentally ill and the need for proper facilities for their accommodation and treatment. Nellie Bly, another yellow journalist, used the undercover technique of investigation in reporting Ten Days in a Mad-House, her 1887 exposé on patient abuse at Bellevue Mental Hospital, first published as a series of articles in The World newspaper and as a book. Nellie would go on to write more articles on corrupt politicians, sweat-shop working conditions and other societal injustices. Helen Hunt Jackson –A Century of Dishonor, U. S. policy regarding Native Americans. Henry Demarest Lloyd – Wealth Against Commonwealth, exposed the corruption within the Standard
Medical journalism
Medical journalism is news reporting of medical news and features. Medical journalism is diverse, reflects its audience; the main division is into medical journalism for the general public, which includes medical coverage in general news publications and in specialty medical publications, medical journalism for doctors and other professionals, which appears in peer-reviewed journals. The accuracy of medical journalism varies widely. Reviews of mass media publications have graded most stories unsatisfactory, although there were examples of excellence. Other reviews have found that most errors in mass media publications were the result of repeating errors in the original journal articles or their press releases; some web sites, such as Columbia Journalism Review and Hippocrates Med Review and review medical journalism. Medical journalism can come from a variety of sources including: Television news programs Newspapers Internet websites Scientific journals Most inaccuracies and speculations in news coverage can be attributed to several barriers between the scientific community and the general public that include lack of knowledge by reporters, lack of time to prepare a proper report, lack of space in the publication.
Most news articles fail to discuss important issues such as evidence quality and risks versus benefits. However, medical journalism is not only what is being commercialized and covered by news and mass media. There is another extensive, more academic branch of medical journalism, based on evidence. Evidence-based research is more accurate and thus it is a much more reliable source than medical news disseminated by tabloids. Medical journalism in this regard is a professional field and is disregarded. There are some medical journalism institutions that provide assistance to medical researchers to enable them to perform more reliable studies. A 2009 study found small improvements in some areas of medical reporting in Australia, but the overall quality remained poor in commercial human-interest television programs. More the use of medical writers has become more popular as a way to produce medical literature, clear and easier to read by the lay person; the ICMJE, International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, is a committee that deals with this kind of issue.
This organization is committed to keeping medical reporting as true as possible by setting a standard known as URM, or the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts. These requirements do not only specify technical points such as bibliographical references and copyrights but regarding ethical issues that may arise. For example, a submitter must disclose any personal or professional relationships that might slightly have a bearing on the submitted work. To this end, it is not uncommon for researchers to hold a press conference or interviews before publishing significant research to prevent any misconstruing of any data or methods. A large gap divides the scientific and journalist communities when it comes to deciding what is newsworthy; the ongoing nature of peer review in the scientific community makes it difficult to report interesting advances in scientific discovery. This can create a focus on the negative aspects of medicine and science. However, journalists are not the only ones to fault as scientists have broadcast their promising initial research to the media in attempts to secure future funding.
For example, research done by George Washington University in 1993 on in-vitro fertilization was warped by the media into a horrific foray into human cloning. Medical journalists face challenges due to potential conflicts of interest; the pharmaceutical industry has sponsored journalism contests that carry large prizes in cash or in overseas trips. The Association of Health Care Journalists urges journalists to consider these contests before entering, most journalists avoid them; the Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, the supporting 501 for AHCJ, does not accept industry funding. The National Association of Science Writers does not accept such funding; the changing nature of news media has caused more reporters to work freelance, outside of traditional news organizations such as major metropolitan newspapers, which may have created more ways to sidestep conflict-of-interest standards, the rise of blogs has allowed nontraditional providers of news that lack these standards entirely.
There is the effect of direct corporate investments in research funding. While appreciated by scientists, this may cause conflicts with journalists that see this as profiteering. Sources for evaluating health care media coverage include the review websites Behind the Headlines, Health News Review, Media Doctor, along with specialized academic journals such as the Journal of Health Communication. Reviews can appear in the American Journal of Public Health, the Columbia Journalism Review, Ben Goldacre's "Bad Science" column in The Guardian, others. Health News Review has published criteria for rating news stories. Although medical news articles deliver public health messages they convey wrong or misleading information about health care when reporters do not know or cannot convey the results of clinical studies, when they fail to supply reasonable context; this can result in unrealistic expectations due to coverage of radical medical procedures and experimental technology. Mass media news outlets can create a "communications storm" to shift attention to a single health issue.
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