Reporting Science and Conflicts of Interest in the Lay Press

Daniel M Cook, Elizabeth A Boyd, Claudia Grossmann and Lisa A Bero

PLOS ONE, 2007, vol. 2, issue 12, 1-5

Abstract: Background: Forthright reporting of financial ties and conflicts of interest of researchers is associated with public trust in and esteem for the scientific enterprise. Methods/Principal Findings: We searched Lexis/Nexis Academic News for the top news stories in science published in 2004 and 2005. We conducted a content analysis of 1152 newspaper stories. Funders of the research were identified in 38% of stories, financial ties of the researchers were reported in 11% of stories, and 5% reported financial ties of sources quoted. Of 73 stories not reporting on financial ties, 27% had financial ties publicly disclosed in scholarly journals. Conclusions/Significance: Because science journalists often did not report conflict of interest information, adherence to gold-standard recommendations for science journalism was low. Journalists work under many different constraints, but nonetheless news reports of scientific research were incomplete, potentially eroding public trust in science.

Date: 2007
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0001266

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0001266

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