Department of Journalism, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California, United States of America.
John D. Bower School of Population Health, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2021 Mar 10;16(3):e0247553. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247553. eCollection 2021.
Journalists' health and science reporting aid the public's direct access to research through the inclusion of hyperlinks leading to original studies in peer-reviewed journals. While this effort supports the US-government mandate that research be made widely available, little is known about what research journalists share with the public. This cross-sectional exploratory study characterises US-government-funded research on cancer that appeared most frequently in news coverage and how that coverage varied by cancer type, disease incidence and mortality rates. The subject of analysis was 11436 research articles (published in 2016) on cancer funded by the US government and 642 news stories mentioning at least one of these articles. Based on Altmetric data, researchers identified articles via PubMed and characterised each based on the news media attention received online. Only 1.88% (n = 213) of research articles mentioning US government-funded cancer research included at least one mention in an online news publication. This is in contrast to previous research that found 16.8% (n = 1925) of articles received mention by online mass media publications. Of the 13 most common cancers in the US, 12 were the subject of at least one news mention; only urinary and bladder cancer received no mention. Traditional news sources included significantly more mentions of research on common cancers than digital native news sources. However, a general discrepancy exists between cancers prominent in news sources and those with the highest mortality rate. For instance, lung cancer accounted for the most deaths annually, while melanoma led to 56% less annual deaths; however, journalists cited research regarding these cancers nearly equally. Additionally, breast cancer received the greatest coverage per estimated annual death, while pancreatic cancer received the least coverage per death. Findings demonstrated a continued misalignment between prevalent cancers and cancers mentioned in online news media. Additionally, cancer control and prevention received less coverage from journalists than other cancer continuum stages, highlighting a continued underrepresentation of prevention-focused research. Results revealed a need for further scholarship regarding the role of journalists in research dissemination.
新闻工作者的健康和科学报道通过包含指向同行评议期刊原始研究的超链接，帮助公众直接访问研究。虽然这一努力支持了美国政府的要求，即研究应广泛提供，但人们对新闻记者与公众分享的研究内容知之甚少。这项横断面探索性研究描述了在美国政府资助的癌症研究中，最常出现在新闻报道中的研究，以及这些报道如何因癌症类型、疾病发病率和死亡率的不同而有所不同。分析的主题是美国政府资助的癌症研究的 11436 篇研究文章（发表于 2016 年）和至少提到其中一篇文章的 642 篇新闻报道。根据 Altmetric 数据，研究人员通过 PubMed 确定了文章，并根据在线获得的媒体关注度对每篇文章进行了描述。只有 1.88%（n=213）的提到美国政府资助的癌症研究的研究文章至少在一篇在线新闻出版物中提到。这与之前的研究结果形成了对比，之前的研究发现 16.8%（n=1925）的文章被在线大众媒体出版物提及。在美国 13 种最常见的癌症中，有 12 种至少有一次被新闻报道提及；只有尿路和膀胱癌没有被提及。传统新闻来源对常见癌症的报道明显多于数字原生新闻来源。然而，在新闻来源中突出的癌症与死亡率最高的癌症之间存在一般差异。例如，肺癌每年导致的死亡人数最多，而黑色素瘤每年导致的死亡人数减少了 56%；然而，记者对这些癌症的研究引用几乎相同。此外，乳腺癌的报道量与每年估计的死亡人数成正比，而胰腺癌的报道量与死亡人数成反比。研究结果表明，流行癌症与在线新闻媒体中提到的癌症之间仍然存在错位。此外，癌症控制和预防在记者报道中所占比例低于癌症连续阶段的其他阶段，突出了预防为重点的研究仍然代表性不足。研究结果表明，需要进一步研究记者在研究传播中的作用。
