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The media needs to take more responsibility following MMR scare doctor hearings, says PR expert

• 01-29-2010 12:41 PM

  PR Week Joined on 04-30-2009 Posts 444	The media needs to take more responsibility following MMR scare doctor hearings, says PR expert Reply Contact The media needs to act more responsibly when reporting health risk stories in the wake of MMR scare doctor Andrew Wakefield, says a PR expert. Read: The media needs to take more responsibility following MMR scare doctor hearings, says PR expert.

• 01-29-2010 12:41 PM

  In reply to

  Claire Murphy Joined on 05-15-2009 Posts 14

  RE: The media needs to take more responsibility following MMR scare doctor hearings, says PR expert Reply Contact The issue of irresponsible reporting of health stories is only going to get more pressing as newsdesks lose resources and health correspondents have less time for that all-important stage of research. I've lost count of the amount of times I've seen health stories ramped up for easy headlines without a thought for how they will be perceived by the people already suffering from the condition under discussion. But perhaps this is a great opportunity for PRs to more actively offer reporters background briefings?

• 01-31-2010 8:17 PM

  In reply to

  Kathy Lewton Joined on 01-31-2010 Posts 2

  RE: The media needs to take more responsibility following MMR scare doctor hearings, says PR expert Reply Contact Claire's suggestion of more briefings and backgrounding is spot on. The more complex the medical or health story, the more reporters need as much context as possible, and the time to do that is, ideally, not when a story is breaking and reporters are scrambling to cover it that instant. That said, getting reporters already stretched thin to take an hour or more for a briefing may be tricky. Would love to see groups such as PRSA's Health Academy, AAMC and others take the lead on this concept -- highly focused webinars that reporters could participate in at their desk, offered by "non-partisan" sources who are not selling products or treatments might be a solution.