Comparison on the Results of Health Related Researches Published on the Selected Newspapers in: 2005 and 2011
A. Chinekesh1, J. Rafienejad2, R. Noot3, M. B Eftekhari4 and M. Alavi5*1Research Expert, MS, Center for Development and Cooperation of Research and Technology, Undersecretary for Research and Technology, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Iran.
2Department of Medical Entomology and Vector Control, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, and Center for Development and Cooperation of Research and Technology, Undersecretary for Research and Technology, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Iran.
3Research Expert, R.N., BSN, Undersecretary for Research and Technology, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran. Iran.
4Researcher, Student of PhD by Research, Center for Development and Cooperation of Research and Technology, Undersecretary for Research and Technology, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, and Social Determinant of Health Research Center, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences Tehran, Iran.
5Research Expert, MS, Center for Development and Cooperation of Research and Technology,Undersecretary for Research and Technology, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract: Our imagination and understanding of national and universal events largely depends on the image that the media has conveyed to the people in general. The aim of this study is to assess the quality of health related articles of the country’s three large newspapers in comparison to the data obtained from similar studies conducted in 2005. This study is a combination of cross-sectional (descriptive – analytical) and as well as comparative and the subject of the study includes 3 newspapers namely, Hamshari, Keyhan and Iran, respectively of which in terms of distribution and in the number of readers are similar. In this study, 638 health related articles were evaluated of which 1/3 were research articles. In the majority of these articles, references were unclear and or sources were not mentioned (33.5%). Average number of health-related papers in every issue is 5.9% and these articles were mostly presented in the science and technology sector and more that 88% of these articles are news articles whereas regarding health related articles 51.1% of these articles were related to maintenance and enhancing public health through public health information and also 64% of these researches were conducted in developed countries while 12.5% were conducted locally and the general population were the majority target population of these researches. Considering the media’s effective role in the dissemination of health information, it seems that the attention of mass media especially newspapers having educational purposes is on the increase but still has not reached to an acceptable.
Keywords: Newspapers; Educational purposes; Health information Back to TOC