1. What Makes Research News?
How to Get Journalists’ Attention
NACHRI
St. Louis - March 13, 2012
Ivan Oransky, MD
Executive Editor, Reuters Health
Treasurer, Association of Health Care Journalists
Adjunct Assoc. Prof. of Journalism, New York University

3. Why Is It So Bad?

4. Who Covers Health?
In a national survey of U.S. health and medical journalists:
• Nearly 70% had at least a bachelor’s degree
• 19% reported having a master’s degree;
• 4.5% had a doctorate; about 3% were M.D.s
• Almost half had a degree in journalism
• 13% had a degree in communications
• 8% were ‘‘life sciences’’ majors
Viswanath K et al: Occupational practices and the making of
health news: A national survey of U.S. health and medical
science journalists. Journal of Health Communication 2008;
13:759–777.

5. Who are Today’s Media, Really?

6. Who are Today’s Media, Really?

7. What is Reuters Health?
THREE WIRES COVERING 110 STUDIES EACH WEEK
Reuters Medical News
Keeps physicians, researchers and other medical
professionals informed of developments in their field
Reuters Health eLine
Wellness and health care for the general public
Reuters Health Industry Briefing
Business information for the healthcare community

8. How Reuters Health Chooses
Stories
• Impact factor
• Likelihood of changing behavior/clinical practice
• Strength of evidence
• Novelty

9. How Reuters Health Covers Stories

10. How Do Others Cover Stories?
Schwitzer G. How do U.S. journalists cover treatments, tests, products,
and procedures? An evaluation of 500 stories. PLoS Medicine 2008
doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050095

11. How to Get Reporters’ Attention
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12. Improving Press Releases
Academic medical centers issue a average of 49 press releases/year
Among 200 randomly selected releases
– 87 (44%) promoted animal or laboratory research, of which 64
(74%) explicitly claimed relevance to human health
– Among 95 releases about clinical research, 22 (23%) left off study
size and 32 (34%) failed to quantify results
– 113 releases promoted human research
• 17% promoted randomized trials or meta-analyses
• 40% reported on uncontrolled interventions, small samples
(<30 participants), surrogate primary outcomes, or
unpublished data—yet 58% lacked the relevant cautions
Woloshin S et al. Press releases by academic
medical centers: not so academic? Ann Intern
Med 2009;150:613-618

13. Pitch Less, Tip More

14. Show Context

15. Show Context

16. Show Context
It may take decades before ocean acidification’s effect on
marine life shows itself. Until then, the past is a good way to
foresee the future, says Richard Feely, an oceanographer at
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who
was not involved in the study. “These studies give you a sense
of the timing involved in past ocean acidification events—they
did not happen quickly,” he said. “The decisions we make over
the next few decades could have significant implications on a
geologic timescale.”

17. What Kinds of Releases Do Well?
10 Most-Visited Stories on EurekAlert! in 2011
1. Genetic research confirms that non-Africans are part Neanderthal
University of Montreal
2. New math theories reveal the nature of numbers
Emory University
3. Astronomers discover complex organic matter in the universe
The University of Hong Kong
4.
Mayo Clinic: How patients will respond to immunomodulator therapy for mult
Mayo Clinic
5. World's smallest frogs discovered in New Guinea
Pensoft Publishers

18. What Kinds of Releases Do Well?
10 Most-Visited Stories on EurekAlert! in 2011
6. Walking through doorways causes forgetting, new research shows
University of Notre Dame
7.
Taming the flame: Electrical wave 'blaster' could provide new way to extinguis
American Chemical Society
8. Effortless sailing with fluid flow cloak Duke University
9. Mindfulness meditation training changes brain structure in 8 weeks
Massachusetts General Hospital
10.
Woolly mammoth's secrets for shrugging off cold points toward new artificial
American Chemical Society

19. Help Reporters Move Upstream

20. Use Social Media to Develop Relationships
with Reporters

21. How Sources Develop Relationships with
Reporters – and Vice Versa

22. Use Twitter
• Follow reporters to see what they’re
interested in
• Don’t use it to send the same press release
to 30 reporters

23. Avoid Disease of the Month

24. Use Embargoes Wisely

25. Use Embargoes Wisely

26. Avoid Jargon
• Talk to me like I’m your smart 14-year-old
nephew

27. Use Anecdotes Carefully
• Is the story representative?
• Does the source of the story have any
conflicts?

28. Watch Your Language
• Lifestyle/diet – are they randomized
controlled trials, or just observational?
• If observational, make the language fit the
evidence:
– YES: “tied,” “linked”
– NO: “reduces,” “causes”

29. Get to Know AHCJ

30. Get to Know AHCJ
• >1,200 members in every U.S. state, >25 countries
• Strict membership guidelines: Journalists only
• Annual conference with workshops, newsmakers, more
• Conference partners: NACHRI, Children’s Hospital of
Philadelphia, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Seattle
Children’s Hospital
• Website http://www.healthjournalism.org has reporting
guides, blog, tipsheets, other resources

31. Let’s Work to Avoid This

32. Contact Info/Acknowledgements
ivan.oransky@thomsonreuters.com
@ivanoransky (better)
Thanks: Nancy Lapid, Reuters Health