[Physicians and the mass media. Opinion of physicians on the coverage of medicine, health policy and the medical profession by the mass media].

Every fourth physician disapproves of mass media coverage of health policy questions. Four out of ten physicians are dissatisfied with the way scientific medical issues are covered, and seven out of ten are dissatisfied with articles and programmes about the medical profession. The physicians' dissatisfaction was predicted by a low level of perceived job autonomy and a high level of perceived unrealistic expectations from patients, families, superiors and politicians. The doctors' disapproval of press coverage of the medical profession increased with perceived stress. The dissatisfaction was clearly greater among younger than among older physicians. Internists and surgeons tended to be more dissatisfied than physicians in other specialties. Dissatisfaction with mass media was not, however, a question of personal grudge: respondents who felt that they themselves had been unfairly spoken of by the media did not disapprove of the media coverage of health issue, or of the medical profession in general, to any greater degree than did doctors who had no such personal complaints.