Health, Risk and News

Front Cover
Peter Lang, 2007 - Aliens - 228 pages
The controversy surrounding the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism has raised unprecedented questions about the communication of health and science. Health, Risk and News: The MMR Vaccine and the Media examines how this story came to be so influential and asks if the media are to blame for unduly panicking the public. Drawing on comprehensive research - on media coverage, interviews with a range of journalists and sources, and analysis of audience opinion - this book explores how medical controversies are covered, with attention to issues of balance and objectivity, expertise, news values, risk and media effects. It will be of interest to students and scholars of media studies, journalists and health professionals.
 

Contents

List of Abbreviations
1
Chapter Two Reporting Health Science and Risk
17
Chapter Three News Values and Health
44
Chapter Four Balance in Health and Science Stories
71
Chapter Five Sources in the MMRAutism Story
95
18
109
30
119
Chapter Seven Expertise
137
Chapter Eight Audiences and the MMRAutism Story
155
Chapter Nine Sowing the Seeds of Doubt?
189
Notes
201
Bibliography
209
46
214
Index
221
95
222
Copyright

35
140

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About the author (2007)

The Author: Tammy Boyce is a Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the Risk, Science, Health and the Media group at Cardiff University. She received her Ph.D. from Cardiff University and continues to research media coverage of risk, science and health issues and the production and reception of these stories.

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