Health Care Journalists Reveal Fewer Resources, and Time, in Survey

By: Joe Strupp A report on the state of health care journalism shows those reporting on such issues have fewer resources and less time to devote to the news, but contend that coverage on health care has either remained steady or even increased in some cases.

The report, presented by the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Kaiser Family Foundation, stated: "Health care journalists cited newsroom cutbacks, lack of time for research and travel and fewer opportunities for training at their news organization as factors making their jobs more challenging than ever."

But, it adds: "nearly three-quarters of health journalists surveyed said the amount of coverage given to health care topics has stayed the same or increased at their news organization and two-thirds said the quality of coverage has been stable or gotten better over the past few years."

The results come from nearly 260 members of the AHCJ who responded to an online survey, conducted in September and October.

Among the findings:

? Forty percent of respondents said the number of health reporters has gone down since they started at their news organization.

? More than 9 out of 10 said "bottom-line pressures in media organizations were hurting the quality of news coverage of health issues."

? Nearly 40% said it was either "very likely or somewhat likely that their position will be eliminated in the next three years."

? About 75% of respondents said that U.S. journalism was headed in the wrong direction, but just more than half felt that way about health journalism. And two-thirds of respondents said health care journalism was headed in the right direction at their media outlet.

"The survey showed a significant percentage of health journalists are adopting new story-telling platforms. About 1 in 4 has their own blog and more than a third have created video, slide shows or audio for the Web," the report added. "Some findings raise yellow flags about whether economic conditions were impacting the quality of health journalism: About 44 percent of respondents said their news organization frequently or sometimes reports stories on news releases without substantial additional reporting or contacting independent sources. And 11 percent of respondents said their news organization frequently or sometimes allows sponsors or advertising staff to influence story selection or content."

Gary Schwitzer, an AHCJ member and associate professor at the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication, interviewed more than 50 health journalists for a related report.

He said he found the AHCJ survey and his interviews showed health journalists "are a proud but battered bunch," adding in a statement, "there should be cause for great concern about what is in this report and the trend to lighter and softer and cuter news-you-can-use features that is taking away time and space for meatier investigations and health policy coverage especially at the local level."

The entire report can be found at:
http://www.kff.org/entmedia/7858.cfm