1. Conflicts
of Interest and Hyperbole:
Nutrition in the Media
JEFFREY S. HAMPL
Eood and nutrition issues are popular news topics and have been occurring
in the media with increasing frequency, yet few journalists are trained
specifically in health reporting. Training in health science may be an
approach to pique students' interest and maintain enrollments. Currently,
health reporters say that lack of training is the biggest obstacle theyface
professionally; as a result, health news is often superficial, exaggerated,
and not balanced. Providing training in health sciences to undergraduate
Journalism and mass communication students will give future health
reporters the solid foundation they need to communicate health news
effectively to the public.
Introduction
Commercial mass media and food
industries exist for a common reason:
to make money,^ To do so, both
industries must attract consumers
using similar tools, including
information, public relations, and
entertainment. When these industries
overlap—when news stories focus on
food and nutrition—the messages are
particularly compelling because their
topics have such an innately personal
nature,^
In an era of fad diets and simplis-
tic solutions, the media have an
unprecedented ability to influence a
vast audience with food and nutrition
information,^ As evidence, 58% of
U,S, adults report that health news
stories have motivated them to
consider changing their hehavior or to
take a specific action (e,g,, changing
their eating habits),'' The media inform
the puhlic ahout nutrition and other
health issues much more ahly than
do registered dietitians, physicians,
or nurses,^ In fact, most health
professionals themselves first learn
about developments in food and
nutrition through the media rather
Jeffrey S. Hampl (JEFF.HAMPL@ASU.EDU) is an associate professor of nutrition at Arizona State
University.
JOURNALISM & MASS COMMUNICATION EDUCATOR 364

2. than through professional journals
or traditional continuing educa-
tion,^
Because food and nutrition topics
appeal to consumers, journalists have
responded with increased coverage in
print, hroadcasting, and the Internet,
Between 1999 and 2001, the number
of nutrition-related articles increased
by 20% at Reuters and hy 36% at the
Associated Press,'' According to the
American Dietetic Association (ADA),
72% of Americans report that they get
their food and nutrition information
from television (up from 48% in
ADA'S 2000 survey), while 58% of
consumers, particularly women, cite
magazines as a chief source of food
and nutrition information,^
The media particularly influence
adolescents' health hehaviors. Today,
the average adolescent spends more
time with media than he or she
devotes to any other type of activity
(including—for some—sleep),' In
addition, adolescents are particularly
receptive to the messages conveyed
through media as they wrestle with
their self-identity," Although the
relationships hetween media
impressions and behavior during
adolescence are not fully under-
stood," a growing body of evidence
indicates an association between
media and low-quality eating
patterns,'^ alcohol consumption,"
lack of physical activity,^'' and eating
disorders,'^
Despite their impact on con-
sumers' health knowledge and
behavior, health reporters traditionally
are not trained in the topics they cover,
Voss surveyed 165 health reporters at
122 newspapers in Minnesota, Iowa,
South Dakota, North Dakota, and
Wisconsin; she found that only one-
third felt confident in reporting health
news, and fewer than 10% could
confidently interpret health statistics,^^
About half of the survey participants
indicated that the media did not
provide context for health stories (e,g,,
how much to eat and how often) and
had a difficult time producing balanced
stories on deadlines," Survey
participants indicated they were
interested in covering health topics, hut
overall, they gave themselves—the
media—low scores for health news
coverage,
Crossdisciplinary approaches—
combining journalism education with
health education—can provide
students with the tools they need to
hecome effective health reporters, and
a comhined undergraduate major may
he especially appealing to students as
the rate of growth in undergraduate
journalism education continues to slow
down,^' According to an annual survey
of journalism and mass communication
enrollments, the number of college
freshmen enrolled in journalism and
mass communication programs
declined by 1,6% in academic year
2001-2002, as did the number of
students in master's programs (by
2,6%) and doctoral programs (by
16,2%),^'' Because the numher of high
school graduates is not expected to
increase in the next few years,^^
journalism and mass communication
educators need to engage students'
interest to maintain enrollments. For
example, undergraduates, who are
already familiar with basic food and
nutrition information, can readily
"connect" with faculty when these
topics are used as examples or case
studies, especially in large introductory
courses where future majors can be
recruited,^^
365 WINTER '04

3. Health Reporting
Despite the growing interest in
food and nutrition communication,
scientists and journalists frequently
differ on what is considered
newsworthy,^^ For most health
scientists, research first must hecome
newsworthy through repeated
experimentation and approval hy
professional colleagues. For journ-
alists and editors, however, this model
produces "old news," Although the
media can have a positive role
in informing the public about food
and nutrition, the competitive
journalism market often sensa-
tionalizes the news, especially
headlines, while thriving on conflict
and disputes,^^
Typically, the media report
findings of individual studies
presented at scientific conferences or
published in peer-reviewed journals
without providing a context ofhow the
research fits into the general scheme
of scientific understanding,^^ For
many journalists, this approach may
have been learned in journalism
school, in which they were taught
simply to explain research articles to
the public,^^ In addition, journalists
have earned a reputation for covering
questionahle nutrition practices,
which confuses consumers, who lack
skills to recognize erroneous
information or unqualified sources,^^
Journalists themselves may also add to
consumers' confusion regarding food
and nutrition issues hy posing as puh-
lic health experts,^^ Mistaken, super-
ficial, and sensationalized reporting
leads to false hopes, unnecessary fears,
and a misled public,^^
As an example, the New York
Times Magazine puhlished a highly
puhlicized cover story on dieting
during the summer of 2002,^' The
author alleged that the Food Guide
Pyramid was the cause of America's
obesity epidemic and that high-protein
diets were the hest solution for
promoting weight loss and reducing
any additional weight gain. The
author, however, provided little
context for his article. None of the
research studies mentioned in his
article had been published in peer-
reviewed journals, nor did he mention
specific details about any of the
research projects mentioned. As a
result, readers were not informed of
how large the sample sizes were or
whether they were appropriate,
whether subjects suffered from unique
health issues, or whether the results
could be generalized to the puhlic or
to individuals.
The main nutrition and health
topics covered in the media include
weight loss and body shape,
genetically modified foods, food-
borne illness, vitamin and mineral
intakes, allergic reactions, and diet
and disease relationships,^" Health
and medical journals that receive the
most media interest include the
Journal of the American Medical
Association, the NewEngland Journal
ofMedicine, the Journal ofthe National
Cancer Institute, Science, and the
American Journal of Cardiology.^''^
These journals are leading news
sources hecause of their scientific
credibility; at the same time, each
maintains an active public relations
program and distributes embargoed
copies of articles to attract media
attention. On the other hand, the
media typically ignore the dozens of
other health and medical journals that
puhlish high-quality research hut do
JOURNALISM & MASS COMMUNICATION EDUCATOR 366

4. not maintain aggressive public
relations departments,^^
Critically appraising food and
nutrition stories in the media is more
difficult than appraising research in
peer-reviewed journals because
journalists typically do not provide
sufficient background information or
context,^^ Hackman and Moe^^
reviewed 148 nutrition-related
research articles in the New York
Times, the Wall Street Journal, the
Seattle Times, USA Today, and the Los
Angeles Times during six months in
1995, After searching for key words
(study, diet, nutrition, caffeine,
cholesterol, fat, vitamins, minerals,
antioxidants, and exercise) in the
online service Data Times (Oklahoma
City, OK), they then sought the journal
article that was the newspaper article's
source and found that the quality of
reporting of nutrition research ranged
between the newspapers. All of the
newspapers, except for USA Today,
reported study results accurately at
least three-fourths of the time, {USA
Today's global score was significantly
lower [p < 0,05] than the New York
Times' high glohal score,) Overall, only
68% of newspaper articles included
the study's sample size, and only 23%
mentioned limitations of the
research,^^
Although journal articles are peer-
reviewed and scrutinized for their
methodology, news stories drawn from
these studies are judged hy their instant
appeal. Food industries (and the
researchers they support) have not
heen as forthright with notifying the
media with industry affiliations as they
ought, and when relationships that
may indicate a potential conflict of
interest are not fully disclosed,
information can he interpreted
incorrectly,^^ Writing a balanced
article should include reporting the
financial ties of all experts quoted in
stories,^^ Doing so, however, is not the
universal practice in health reporting.
As an example, the cover story of the
November 2002 Prevention magazine
touted research supporting the henefits
of the peanut butter diet (e,g,, feeling
full for a longer amount of time),
without a disclaimer that many ofthese
studies were funded by the Peanut
Institute,^'
Take Action
"Newsroom Training: Where's the
Investment?," a study funded hy the
Knight Foundation for the Council of
Presidents of National Journalism
Organizations, showed that the leading
complaint of journalists is lack of
training,'^ Like the puhlic at large,
few journalists are skilled in science,
and many struggle with just a
straightforward reduction of a
newsworthy journal article, A
common obstacle for health reporters
is that some words have different
connotations for consumers and
scientists,''" The word "epidemic"
technically means an incidence of
disease in a location that is greater than
one would expect; to the public,
though, "epidemic" means a fero-
ciously spreading disease.
Content-specific education at the
undergraduate level will provide
journalists with a hetter understanding
of the scientific method and statistics,
A well-trained health reporter should
he ahle to inform readers of the
differences between a cohort study and
a case-control study and the distinction
hetween correlation and causation.
Undergraduate education in science.
367 WINTER '04

5. including statistics and epidemiology,
is of utmost importance to health
reporters hecause after they enter the
work force, little on-the-job training is
available for the complex issues
encountered in health and medicine,*^
Once employed, journalists will have
few^ opportunities for continuing
education to hecome hetter health
writers hecause newspapers, on
average, spend just seven-tenths of one
percent of payroll on professional
development,''^
At the simplest level, under-
graduate journalism students can he
taught how to contact and interview
researchers and how to report health
topics that may he quite complicated.
Students need to learn how to ask
contextual questions when reporting
on health topics. How does this study
relate to others already conducted?
Was the sample size appropriate? Does
this study contradict current scientific
opinion? In addition, a more thorough
undergraduate preparation in science
will allow new health reporters to give
context to their articles so that news
stories related to food and nutrition are
not overly simplistic (e,g,, portraying
foods as "good" or "had" or as a remedy
for poor health, rather than focusing
on the merits of a halanced diet),^^
In the quest for a savvy story,
journalism students should he
reminded to avoid sensationalism and
not sacrifice science to get a better
news angle. The media too often
exploit preliminary research data and
hyped press releases to enhance
ratings,''^ Journalism students need
direction for proceeding with caution
when working with zealous scientists
who seek media coverage of "hot"
research hefore the lengthy process of
peer review. Many health issues have
more than two sides, and the challenge
often is not just to present opinions but
to weigh them. Journalism students
should be able to determine where the
consensus of scientific opinion lies and
he able to document the financial
hacking of the various experts
interviewed.
Skilled journalists work as
analysts, not translators,^^ Instead of
focusing on individual studies, health
reporters could he more effective hy
hridging to other interviews to reveal
a hroader sense of the topic. In
addition, hecause only a small number
of medical and health journals receive
the greatest media attention from
newspapers,''^ health reporters should
seek out additional news stories
instead of relying on a small sample of
research. The American Dietetic
Association, the American Academy of
Pediatrics, and the American Society
for Nutritional Sciences all have health
professionals who are willing to work
with reporters (student reporters as
well) so that sound scientific
information can he brought to the
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371 WINTER '04

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JOURNALISM 6- MASS COMMUNICATION EDUCATOR 3 72