Media Reports of Health Research: A Critical Review

Assignment
Media Reports of Health Research: A Critical Review
A central goal of this course is to learn about how the mass media portrays health information. In this assignment, you will conduct a comprehensive review of a peer-reviewed published study, identify a media mention of that specific study in popular media (e.g. television, news reports, newspapers, magazines, online news, blogs, social media posts, etc.) and then critically evaluate how the media reported on the research.
Start by identifying media coverage of a health-related topic. For example, a Today show segment that talks about “A recent study suggests…” or a newspaper article that describes “Researchers have found that…”. Then then locate the study they are talking about. The study should be a peer-reviewed journal article. The media mention and the peer-reviewed article can be on any health-related topic. The media mention does not need to go into detail about the study- but the media sources must be talking specifically about the article you have reviewed. It is not appropriate to just find media coverage on the same or similar topic.
SECTION 1: Comprehensive summary of the journal article
Read the peer-reviewed journal article once from the beginning to the end, then read each section separately. Pay particular attention to both the introduction and the discussion sections of the articles. These articles are often difficult to read – give yourself plenty of time!
This summary should be IN YOUR OWN WORDS. Do not use more than 2 quotations in this assignment. Please cite the article in the reference section using APA format. Cite the article in text after your initial description of the article using APA format. You only need to cite the article once.
Address each of the following:
Article Title
Background:
Briefly review main points the researchers made in their introduction.
What previous studies did the researchers describe in the introduction that led them to their study?
What was their hypothesis (what did they expect to find from their results)?
Method:
What did they do? What is the design of the study?
Provide a short description of the participants. Who were they? How many? How did they recruit their participants?
How were the variables defined? How did they measure what they were studying?
How did the researchers gather data?
What statistical analysis did they use?
Results:
Summarize the results. What did the researchers find?
What was the most important finding?
Discussion:
Did the results support their hypothesis?
What explanation did they give of their research?
What were some strengths of this research?
What were some limitations of this research?
What are the implications of these findings?
Your Impressions of this research:
Was this “good” research? How could it be improved?
Do you agree with the conclusions? Why or why not?
Do you think there are any limitations the authors did not acknowledge? How might these have impacted their results?
SECTION 2: Critical evaluation of media coverage
Describe the coverage of the peer-reviewed journal article in your media source.
Description of coverage:
Where and when was this aired, posted or printed? What is the target audience and viewership/readership of this particular popular media source? How might the audience have influenced how this article was covered in this media source?
What did this popular media source say in regards to the peer-reviewed journal article?
What was the context of the mention of the peer-reviewed journal article? What else was discussed in the popular media source?
Evaluation of popular media source coverage
In what ways did this popular media source get it right?
In what ways did the popular media source get it wrong?
Was the description of the study oversimplified or sensationalized and how?
What was the title of the popular media source? Was this title appropriate or misleading, and how? Why do you think this title was chosen?
What information was added to the popular media source?
What information was missing from the popular media source? Was this information important? How might it change how the peer-reviewed study is perceived?
Besides this study, what else was included in the media mention and how did that affect how the article was discussed?
How did the popular media source indicate how to access the original source material?