Periodicals>Journal Article:  Freedman, David H. (January 2, 2013), ‘Survival of the wrongest’, Columbia Journalism Review, Retrieved on 2013-01-18
  • Source Material [www.cjr.org]
  • Folksonomies: accuracy journalism veracity health news

    Memes

    18 JAN 2013

     Why Do Journals Get It Wrong?

    Why do studies end up with wrong findings? In fact, there are so many distorting forces baked into the process of testing the accuracy of a medical theory, that it’s harder to explain how researchers manage to produce valid findings, aside from sheer luck. To cite just a few of these problems: Mismeasurement To test the safety and efficacy of a drug, for example, what researchers really want to know is how thousands of people will fare long-term when taking the drug. But it would be unet...
      1  notes

    Why do journals publish so many papers with wrong results (2/3rds wrong by some estimates)?

    18 JAN 2013

     The Journalist's Responsibility in Health Science Reporting

    Given that published medical findings are, by the field’s own reckoning, more often wrong than right, a serious problem with health journalism is immediately apparent: A reporter who accurately reports findings is probably transmitting wrong findings. And because the media tend to pick the most exciting findings from journals to pass on to the public, they are in essence picking the worst of the worst. Health journalism, then, is largely based on a principle of survival of the wrongest. (Of...
      1  notes

    If 2/3rds of research papers are wrong, then reporters are communicating bad and dangerous data to readers of their health news. Even worse, with conflicting research on different health issues, reporters are able to craft any thesis they like by cherry-picking for the journals.

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