What is newsworthy?

doi:10.1136/bmj.325.7367.774/a

BMJ 2002;325:774 ( 5 October )

Letters

What is newsworthy?

Bad news from research really is headline news

Frenzy to feed the media can be bad for patients

Bad news from research really is headline news

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ The article by Bartlett et al highlighting the apparent unwillingness of newspaper reporters or their editors to headlinegood news stories made unsurprising but disappointing reading.¹It mirrored my own impressions and experiences of television andradio reporting about doctors' communication skills. I have lostcount of the mumber of times my group is contacted by reporterswanting examples of poor rather than good doctor-patientcommunication.

The worst example of this was a press release in February this year about a randomised controlled trial we had published inthe Lancet.² The paper showed the efficacy of a communicationskills course for oncologists in 34 cancer centres throughoutthe United Kingdom involving over 2400 patients. I was invitedto appear on BBC breakfast television to discuss the excitingbeneficial findings and the intention of the Department of Healthto implement the findings as part of the NHS cancer plan $---$ or . . . [Full text of this article]

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