research on media bias

[Guest guest]

Hi All

Check this out - certainly supports the idea that the media is not

equal handed when reporting the results of pharmaceutical clinical

trials and herbal ones. The whole article is available through Biomed

Central (www.biomedcentral.com) , and is open access tho you have to register.

Bubela, T, Boon H, Caulfield T (2008) Herbal remedy clinical trials

in the media: a comparison with the coverage of conventional

pharmaceuticals BMC Medicine 6:35doi:10.1186/1741-7015-6-35

Published: 26 November 2008

In a nutshell - ,this research found that while clinical trials of

herbal remedies were of similar quality to clinical trials of

pharmaceuticals (tho they were generally smaller trials, involving

fewer participants), the herbal ones received less favorable press

than the pharmaceutical ones.

Other interesting points from the article

- the media overwhelmingly reports trials published in mainstream

medical journals rather than CAM ones (apologies for those of you who

hate that term but it is what is used in the article).

- the tone of the article is more likely to be negative when

reporting about herbs than pharmaceuticals. They found NO negative

tone in articles about pharmaceuticals (all positive or neutral) but

21% of articles about herbs had a negative tone.

- they found that most trials - 64% pharmaceutical and 53% herbal -

trials had private sector funding and this was not reported in the press.

Also

'The main individual interviewed or quoted in the articles for both

pharmaceutical clinical trials (63%) and herbal remedy clinical (73%)

trials was a university or hospital scientist or physician not

specializing in CAM. Indeed CAM researchers or practitioners were

cited in only 8% of articles on herbal remedy clinical trials.'

It's worth locating the article and having a read.

cheers

Sue