title: Views of health journalists, industry employees and news consumers about disclosure and regulation of industry-journalist relationships: an empirical ethical study.
abstract: Bioethicists and policymakers are increasingly concerned about the effects on health journalism of relationships between journalists and private corporations. The concern is that relationships between journalists and manufacturers of medicines, medical devices, complementary medicines and food can and do distort health reporting. This is a problem because health news is known to have a major impact on the public's health-related expectations and behaviour. Commentators have proposed two related approaches to protecting the public from potential harms arising from industry-journalist interactions: greater transparency and external regulation. To date, few empirical studies have examined stakeholders' views of industry-journalist relationships and how these should be managed. We conducted interviews with 13 journalists and 12 industry employees, and 2 focus groups with consumers. Our findings, which are synthesised here, provide empirical support for the need for greater transparency and regulation of industry-journalist relationships. Our findings also highlight several likely barriers to instituting such measures, which will need to be overcome if transparency and regulation are to be accepted by stakeholders and have their intended effect on the quality of journalism and the actions of news consumers.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Australian Institute of Health Innovation, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lipworth
authors.affiliation: Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kerridge
authors.affiliation: Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Bronwen
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Morrell
authors.affiliation: Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Rowena
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Forsyth
authors.affiliation: Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Christopher F C
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Jordens
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D030881:Disclosure / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D005260:Female; D019981:Health Care Sector; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations / Q000941:ethics*; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D018156:Journalism, Medical; D008297:Male; D008402:Mass Media; D008875:Middle Aged; D011639:Public Opinion; D012494:Sampling Studies; D035502:Trust
keywords: Applied and Professional Ethics; Journalism/Mass media