Naming & Praising update
The SIRC Naming & Praising campaign highlights two examples of responsible reporting of health issues in the 10th January Express.
Maggie Morgan reports on a researcher's claim that most heart disease and cancer deaths are caused by x-rays, but avoids causing unnecessary alarm by stating in the first line of her piece that these claims have been widely denounced as misleading and unscientific. Such messages are all too often relegated to the very end of reports, with the more dramatic 'scare' elements dominating the lead paragraphs. Morgan's piece is a refreshing and welcome exception to this common practice. As well as generating false fears, news reports often raise false hopes.
Martin Stote is careful to avoid this in his report on research showing that curry spices might play a role in fighting colon cancer. He makes it clear that while initial findings seem promising, much more research and testing will be required to determine the effects of the curcumin spice, and that this work could take up to ten years to complete. (A report on the same story in the Mirror, by contrast, makes no mention of such caveats.)
