April 14, 2010

An appeal for TV health news to recognize the harm in incomplete coverage

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I was on a panel at the Radio Television Digital News Association convention in Las Vegas yesterday with a talk entitled “The Potential Harm of Health News.” It was a receptive audience – mostly young health journalists in electronic news (radio, TV, digital) settings. This video, captured after the panel, features an interview with WABC-TV New York medical news producer Graciela Rogerio and with me. (RTDNA did this video and is solely responsible for the cheesy music laid over our interviews. You know how TV news loves to put schlocky music in their stories to add drama.)

Also on the panel were Len Bruzzese, executive director of the Association of Health Care Journalists, and Dana Sparks of the Mayo Clinic public affairs department.

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