Today we published reviews of two very weak news stories on menopause by two mainstream organizations – HealthDay
and WebMD. Women facing menopause deserve much more detail about the quality of the evidence behind small, short-term studies than these stories provided.
Meantime, this week, journalist Liz Scherer who has her own menopause blog called “Flashfree: Not your mama’s menopause” gave us another example of how bloggers often deliver the goods that mainstream news orgs don’t get to. (Screenshot from her blog at left.)
Her post: “Feeling like a ‘raging maniac?’ There’s a Facebook app for that!” It’s about some docs promoting their bioidentical hormone replacement therapy by posting a ‘Rate the Raging Maniac’ page on Facebook.
The marketing people behind this promotion call it a “playful quiz” that allows them to “poke fun at the otherwise serious symptoms of hormone conditions like perimenopause, menopause and thyroid imbalances.”
Scherer isn’t laughing. She says she’s appalled. Excerpt:
“I don’t know one woman who wants to be rated as a raging maniac, publicly or otherwise. I don’t know any friends, colleagues, or intimate partners who would be so insensitive to rate people in their lives as raging maniacs or those ridiculous quirky character pseudonyms that your marketing folks have come up with, characters like “Sexi Lexi,” “Forgetful Fran” or “Negative Nancy.” I don’t know who your social marketing person is but you may want to think about replacing them with someone who understands women.”
Opinions on other issues in news, journals, PR, advertising, marketing
Following a shift in journalism’s business model, a diverse ecosystem of publications, many covering science, has sprung up online. This has made it more difficult to sort out what qualifies as journalism, what doesn’t, and whether the public even cares.
https://t.co/qO2a27FiSe
Researchers and journalists do the public a grave disservice when they spin health study results to make them appear safer or more effective than warranted, says @HealthNewsRevu founder @garyschwitzer https://t.co/QIKsRbP6Ed
Comments (2)
Please note, comments are no longer published through this website. All previously made comments are still archived and available for viewing through select posts.
Jacqui Brown
April 17, 2011 at 1:15 pmI’m so there. Menopause is a pisser, literally, especially when you sneeze. Hay fever season, that’s when I walk around wearing rubber boots. They act like an aqua duct so I don’t have to go around screaming that ‘my water just broke’ all the time!
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