Knowledge Utilization Research Centre (KURC), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
BMC Public Health. 2012 Aug 9;12:627. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-12-627.
Mass media play an important role in keeping people up-to-date with the latest health news. This study aims at investigating the quality of health news disseminated in the print media, its course of production and factors affecting its quality.
In the quantitative section of the study, 410 health-related news items, published during a six-month span in the Iranian public press, underwent content analysis. In the qualitative section, focus group discussions were held with journalists, editors-in-chief and news gatekeepers.
The quantitative phase showed that 18% of the news articles were not fit for dissemination in public. The qualitative phase illustrated that multiple factors at various levels affect the quality of news, namely poor knowledge, inadequate motivations and context-related barriers.
The quality of health news reporting is not desirable. Educational interventions need to be carried out to raise awareness among researchers and journalists. Also, certain steps should be taken to increase motivations and strengthen infrastructures, including designing guidelines and monitoring news.
大众媒体在让人们了解最新健康新闻方面发挥着重要作用。本研究旨在调查印刷媒体传播的健康新闻的质量、制作过程以及影响其质量的因素。
在研究的定量部分，对伊朗公共媒体在六个月内发布的 410 条与健康相关的新闻进行了内容分析。在定性部分，与记者、主编和新闻把关人进行了焦点小组讨论。
定量阶段表明，18%的新闻文章不适合在公众中传播。定性阶段表明，多个层次的多种因素会影响新闻质量，即知识匮乏、动机不足和与背景相关的障碍。
健康新闻报道的质量不尽如人意。需要开展教育干预，提高研究人员和记者的意识。此外，还应采取一些措施来提高动机和加强基础设施，包括制定准则和监测新闻。
