The web has made it possible to access vast amounts of health information. Some of it very good and presented responsibly. There is also a lot of questionable information about health. One area of concern is science reporting. Research is often difficult to understand and is not written with the public in mind. Research is written for other scientists. The media, always looking for a story, translates this information into forms that the public can understand. Some journalists do a better job than others.
It has been said that the world of scientific research is like an ongoing conference call between all the scientists of the world. The role of research projects is not necessarily to answer a question, but to provide a way of creating more questions to be researched. The media tends to pick up the phone and report one item of interest without fully understanding the ongoing conversation.
This is where the web site Health News Review comes in. For anyone who is interested in health, this is a website that should be on your computer as a bookmark. Health News Review looks at the reporting of health research in the media. They report on how well a particular report did on representing the information in the research.
Health News Review should be where you go anytime you are interested in the latest story on health research. The site can point you to the journalists that did the best job of reporting on that particular topic.
Unfortunately Health News review can not review everything on the web. However, if you read it on a regular basis, you will educate yourself on how to look at health reporting and separate the hype from the facts.
For a funny explanation of how the media reports on research, go to PhD. comics
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