title: Portrayal of complementary and alternative medicine for cancer by top online news sites.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Medical research news provided through the World Wide Web is easily accessible to the general public. Thus, it is necessary to understand how research findings released from online news sources are portrayed.
  
  
  METHODS
  The sample includes articles (n=205) published between January 1, 2010 and June 18, 2010 in top online news sites with competitive traffic rankings in the United States as determined by Alexa.com. Google Reader was used to find health-related news articles corresponding to the relevant news sources. Data analysis was performed using SPSS with two-tailed significance values of the χ(2) statistic.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A content analysis (n=205 stories) revealed that the majority of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) modalities for cancer discussed in top online news sources are classified as nutritional therapeutics, and the cancer topic that appeared most frequently was that of prevention. General oncology was the most frequently cited cancer type that was discussed with regard to CAM. Medical journals were the most frequently cited source in CAM/cancer news articles. The majority of news stories on CAM/cancer were neutral in tone, and the relationship between tone and evidence type reported was statistically significant. Observational studies rather than randomized controlled trials were the predominant form of evidence provided for research findings.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Overall, the quality of how online news sources report research findings on complementary and alternative medicine therapies for cancer is fairly high. However, certain top online media sources are more reliable and informative than others when it comes to reporting about CAM remedies for cancer.
authors.affiliation: New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA. alexapri@gmail.com
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Price
authors.forename: Victor R
authors.initials: VR
authors.lastname: Grann
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research; D000529:Complementary Therapies; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D020407:Internet; D008402:Mass Media; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control; D044623:Nutrition Therapy; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D011643:Publishing; D014481:United States