Health News: Tips for Avoiding Sound-Bite Seduction

"Morning Glory" starring Rachel McAdams, Diane Keaton, and Harrison Ford is a wonderfully funny movie about the behind the scenes challenges in broadcast news. McAdams plays Becky Fuller, an executive producer charged with revitalizing a failing morning news program. The painfully accurate reality depicted in the movie is that news outlets live and die by their ratings so that we, the viewers, can get the news for free.

So who pays for it? Broadcast, print and web news media is supported by advertising revenue, and the basic business model is straightforward:

• News attracts viewers.
• Number of viewers is monetized.
• News outlet sells advertising space/time to marketers.
• The more viewers there are, the more a media outlet can charge for an ad.

The bottom line is that Viewers = Revenue.

Retaining viewers/readers ultimately requires that media outlets deliver information that is timely, accurate, well-balanced, and engaging. However, attracting them requires that outlets successfully break through the morass of news noise. How do they do that? By grabbing our attention with clever, dramatic headlines and teasing viewers/readers with lead-ins and headlines that are unexpected, outlandish, and extreme. It is a bait and hook strategy that works.

Here’s the problem: Too often, we don’t have the time to read or listen to an entire news clip or article. We merely rely on the headline and, subsequently, we become misinformed. And, when there is misinformation about health-related issues, this can lead to poor outcomes, higher cost, and, very commonly, patient confusion, frustration and disappointment.

Here a few examples:

Headline: "Study Pins Alcohol as More Dangerous Than Crack or Heroin" 

Facts: This Lancet-published study evaluated 20 different drugs including cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and marijuana. Each was ranked on three dimensions: physical harm to the individual user, addiction potential, and the societal effect of the substance. The study clearly showed that an individual level, cocaine and heroine are most harmful. But, since alcohol abuse is so prevalent in the population, its high societal impact score inflated the overall score above that of all the other substances. Hence, the headline.

By the way, the author of the article is Professor David Nutt, a former U.K. drug czar who is using the study to argue that the regulatory classification of substances should use an evidence-based rather than a historical approach rather. This was a political article in drag.

The vast majority of online outlets including ABC, CBS, and FOX, had a headline similar to the one in Time, but kudos to The Boston Herald for their responsible but still eye-catching headline: "Dangers of Abuse Sobering."

Headline: "Botox a Cure for Migraines?"

For the 3.2 million people who suffer with migraine headaches, this headline created a groundswell of hope.

Facts: In this study, Botox for migraines was only tested in patients with 15 or more days of headaches per month. There was no difference in the number of headaches, but treated patients had 1.4 fewer headache days per month. For effectiveness, each quarterly treatment session requires 31 injections of Botox, and the annual cost is about $4000 per year. Individuals with chronic migraines may get some relief with Botox but it is certainly not a silver bullet or a “cure for migraines.” While Botox can be used off-label for those with less frequent migraines, it has not been studied and it is unlikely to be covered by insurance.

Oh, by the way….the new migraine indication for Botox is estimated to add $1 billion to Allergan's top line within five years.

Headline: "New 'Vaccine' for Prostate Cancer"

When I mentioned this headline to David (my gastroenterologist husband) he said, "I want it," until he heard the facts.

Facts: The Provenge "vaccine" is not preventive at all. This medication is only for men with late stage, metastatic, hormone-refractory prostate cancer. Even for them, its not a cure. The drug extended survival an average of 4.5 months (from 22 to 26 months) and costs $93,000.

So, why is Provenge called a vaccine? It’s a technicality. Each "vaccine" is custom-manufactured using the patients own cells. The infusion does not directly attack the cancer; rather, it triggers an immune response against the tumor cells just like the flu "vaccine" triggers an immune response against the virus. Clever, huh?

And, finally, one of the biggest media/government headline blunders of the decade.

Headline: "Government No Longer Recommends Routine Breast Cancer Screening for Women Under Age 50"

Fact: The headline is only half right. The original recommendations issued by the US Preventive Services Task Force were published with the following language:

"Women 40-49: Do not screen routinely. Individualize decision to begin biennial screening according to the patient's context and values."

I have already pontificated about this public relations mess in a November 2009 blog that you can read here.

What You Can Do

The news media’s financial incentives make it unlikely that attention-grabbing headlines will go away. So, here are a few suggestions to avoid being seduced by the sound-bites:

1) If you only have time to read or listen to a headline, treat the information as if it’s gossip. Fun to read…but let it go in one ear and out the other.

2) Does it sound too good to be true? It probably is. Nevertheless, if you’re intrigued by the story, make the time to read/watch the entire piece.

3) Is the headline interesting enough that you’d mention it to a friend or your significant other? Maintain your credibility. Go to Google Health News, find the story and click on “All News Articles.” Then, select an article published by a national online newspaper such as the LA Times, NY Times, or USA Today. Business Week and Associated Press articles are also consistently reliable. Avoid reading the web articles published by broadcast media (ABC, CBS, Fox, etc), local newspapers, or blogs.

4) If you think the headline may be relevant to your health, do #1-3 above. Then go STRAIGHT to the source. Most of the web-based news media articles link to the published journal article or government site (FDA, NIH, CDC) from which all media articles are based. Read it. You are smart, and you are just as able to interpret it as the journalism or marketing/communications major who wrote the first piece you read. Even if you can only tolerate reading the abstract, you will get an objective angle on the study findings. Finally, if you feel you need help interpreting the scientific data, go to WebMD’s News Home page.  The articles in the center of the page are non-sponsored and subject to WebMD's editorial review process.

The Internet has democratized the availability of information. New medical research, technologies, and insights are no longer sequestered in the tombs of professional journals, and doctors are no longer the gateway or gatekeeper of emerging clinical knowledge.  But, remember, in every control room is an executive producer saying the same thing as Becky Fuller, "Every single story that we do is gonna have to be sensational!"

Create Health,
Archelle