Groundbreaking. Game-changing. Promising. These are just some of the words often seen in media coverage of new cancer treatments. But how does a reader or viewer know what’s really groundbreaking and what’s just hype?

Below you will find three articles that explore challenges health care reporters face and biases that can affect what is covered and how.

We’ve also provided five articles that provide tips on how to read health news and how to spot misleading news coverage.

And don’t miss the link to FORCE’s XRAY–Behind the Metastatic Breast Cancer Headlines. XRAY: MBC reviews and rates articles about metastatic breast cancer.

Challenges health care reporters face:

• • • ASCO Educational Book: Can Cancer Truths Be Told? Challenges for Medical Journalism
    • BioRxiv: Bias And Quality In Media Reporting Of Cancer Research
    • CURE: False Hope And Cancer Cures
    • Plos One: Media Coverage of Medical Journals: Do the Best Articles Make the News?

Tips on how to read health news:

• • • HealthNewsReview.org: Tips for Analyzing Studies, Medical Evidence and Health Care Claims
    • Ideas.TED.com: How to Read the News Like a Scientist
    • BBC Future: How to Spot Misleading News

Last Modified on February 8, 2021

Tags:Clinical Trial TermsResearch News