It’s a TV sweeps ratings period, and it’s also breast cancer awareness month, so any boob could see this coming.
The Washington Post makes a big deal of the fact that DC station WJLA is making an even bigger deal about:
“…breaking TV’s unspoken taboo by showing two women fully exposed on its late-afternoon and evening newscasts.”
…
WJLA acknowledges, however, that the timing of its stories may raise some eyebrows: The reports will air on the first two days of TV’s traditional “sweeps” month, a period in which stations air their most eye-catching stories to boost ratings that are used to set advertising rates.
WJLA general manager Bill Lord said he had no qualms about the timing of the reports, or in promoting them beforehand. “People will say we’re doing it just for ratings,” he said. “But we’re a commercial television station — we’re trying to get people to watch us. Yes, this is an attention-getting story, but it’s also an important story.”
Tell me that even this dramatic viewer warning about their online video isn’t meant to titillate:
But the Post story buries the real story, only deep in the story getting to the question of how newsworthy this really is:
“The effectiveness of self-exams as an early cancer-detection method, however, has been questioned in recent years. The National Breast Cancer Coalition says medical studies suggest that the exams are not useful and can lead to “elevated anxiety, more frequent physician visits and unnecessary biopsies of benign lumps.”
The American Cancer Society says self-exams play only “a small role” in finding breast cancer. On its Web site, the society says “it’s okay not to do [a self examination] or not to do it on a fixed schedule.”
At least the Post touched on these issues. The WJLA report never did.
But good luck telling that to a TV news director in the middle of a ratings period.
And good luck trying to talk about evidence (or lack thereof) when a naked breast can give you the bump in the ratings you need so badly.
Now, will they do the same thing for testicular cancer?
Opinions on other issues in news, journals, PR, advertising, marketing
Monday at #ADA2021, an infectious disease epidemiologist, a journalist, and a researcher shared perspectives on communication of risk in the era of COVID-19: http://ow.ly/ROfR30rMeE7 @AstleyCM @garyschwitzer @berthahidalgo @ADA_DiabetesPro
Shoutouts to @susan_bewley @drkevinknopf @MichaelBaum11 in this call for more than fawning coverage from press releases for these kinds of stories.
Also, linked history inside goes back 5 years just on Grail apparently trying to become Holy Grail. https://twitter.com/garyschwitzer/status/1408849696416841731
Comments
Please note, comments are no longer published through this website. All previously made comments are still archived and available for viewing through select posts.
Comments are closed.
Our Comments Policy
But before leaving a comment, please review these notes about our policy.
You are responsible for any comments you leave on this site.
This site is primarily a forum for discussion about the quality (or lack thereof) in journalism or other media messages (advertising, marketing, public relations, medical journals, etc.) It is not intended to be a forum for definitive discussions about medicine or science.
We will delete comments that include personal attacks, unfounded allegations, unverified claims, product pitches, profanity or any from anyone who does not list a full name and a functioning email address. We will also end any thread of repetitive comments. We don”t give medical advice so we won”t respond to questions asking for it.
We don”t have sufficient staffing to contact each commenter who left such a message. If you have a question about why your comment was edited or removed, you can email us at feedback@healthnewsreview.org.
There has been a recent burst of attention to troubles with many comments left on science and science news/communication websites. Read “Online science comments: trolls, trash and treasure.”
The authors of the Retraction Watch comments policy urge commenters:
We”re also concerned about anonymous comments. We ask that all commenters leave their full name and provide an actual email address in case we feel we need to contact them. We may delete any comment left by someone who does not leave their name and a legitimate email address.
And, as noted, product pitches of any sort – pushing treatments, tests, products, procedures, physicians, medical centers, books, websites – are likely to be deleted. We don”t accept advertising on this site and are not going to give it away free.
The ability to leave comments expires after a certain period of time. So you may find that you’re unable to leave a comment on an article that is more than a few months old.
You might also like