Burns R B, Moskowitz M A, Osband M A, Kazis L E
Evans Department of Medicine, Boston City Hospital, Massachusetts, USA.
J Gen Intern Med. 1995 Jan;10(1):19-24. doi: 10.1007/BF02599571.
To examine whether the media are providing information to the public about important medical advances in a timely manner and whether the degree of importance is associated with other aspects of newspaper reporting (presence, extent, and prominence).
The authors explored the amount, extent, prominence, and timeliness of newspaper coverage received by New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA articles published in 1988, by searching ten leading U.S. newspapers. The journal articles were independently rated based on the public's need to know the medical information contained in the article. The intraclass reliability coefficient for this need-to-know importance score was 0.77.
Overall, 35% of the journal articles received newspaper coverage (276/786). The articles were frequently covered by more than one newspaper [extensive coverage (161/276, 58%)] and often appeared on the front page [prominent coverage (42/276, 15%)]. Articles considered most important to the public (92/786, 12%) received more extensive and prominent coverage than did less important articles (p < 0.01). More than three fourths of the newspaper stories appeared within two days of the journal article's issue date. Stories about the most important articles appeared sooner than did those about the less important articles (p < 0.0001).
Articles reported in two prominent medical journals are often viewed as being important to the public, and these articles are receiving newspaper coverage that is extensive, prominent, and timely. This is particularly true for those articles considered most important to the public.
探讨媒体是否及时向公众提供有关重要医学进展的信息，以及重要程度是否与报纸报道的其他方面（报道与否、报道范围和显著程度）相关。
作者通过检索美国十家主要报纸，探究了1988年发表在《新英格兰医学杂志》和《美国医学会杂志》上的文章所获得的报纸报道的数量、范围、显著程度和及时性。根据公众对文章中所含医学信息的了解需求，对期刊文章进行独立评分。这种了解需求重要性评分的组内相关系数为0.77。
总体而言，35%的期刊文章获得了报纸报道（276/786）。这些文章经常被多家报纸报道[广泛报道（161/276，58%）]，且经常出现在头版[显著报道（42/276，15%）]。被认为对公众最重要的文章（92/786，12%）比不太重要的文章获得了更广泛和显著的报道（p<0.01）。超过四分之三的报纸报道在期刊文章发行日期后的两天内出现。关于最重要文章的报道比关于不太重要文章的报道出现得更早（p<0.0001）。
两份著名医学期刊报道的文章通常被认为对公众很重要，并且这些文章获得了广泛、显著且及时的报纸报道。对于那些被认为对公众最重要的文章尤其如此。
