The 4th Annual National News Literacy week just took place January 23-27. Americans' trust in the media to report the news "fully, accurately and fairly" has been hovering at historic lows in recent years, according to several surveys. In 2022, almost a third of American adults said the news was untrustworthy or biased and just 26% said they trusted most news most of the time. It's been a precipitous fall from an all-time high of 72% in the aftermath of the Watergate reporting during Richard Nixon's presidency in the 1970s.
It’s important to recognize that we all have our biases and we look for news, particularly health news if we’re affected by a chronic or life threatening condition, that supports our beliefs and views. With so many sources of news and information, we can easily find a view to support what we already believe, therefore, it’s important to “fact check.”
Fact Check: Always check before posting, forwarding or passing on information. Below are a variety of sites to use.
• PolitiFact Health Check : A partnership with Kaiser Health News.Examine statements by elected officials and candidates and anyone else who speaks up on matter of public importance.
• FactCheck.org A nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center
• Washington Post Fact Checker
• Snopes
• Fact Check from Duke Reporters' Lab
• SciCheck focuses exclusively on false and misleading scientific claims that are made by partisans to influence public policy.
• FlackCheck Headquartered at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, FlackCheck.org is the political literacy companion site to the award-winning FactCheck.org.
• Media Bias/ Fact Check dedicated to educating the public on media bias and deceptive news practices.
When it comes to health news, the best fact check maybe a conversation with your medical provider.
Know How to Spot Misinformation: Keep in mind this is incredibly important for those affected by chronic and life threatening conditions as medical quackery is every where. Many of the sites listed above will include information on health news. Remember if they are trying to sell you something, and/or it sounds too good to be true, skip it. People make a lot of money selling false hope and miracle cures.
• Look to see if the research is published in a peer-reviewed journal, which indicates its undergone quality control by experts. In the event a retraction is required, due to mistakes found after publication, these journals all have retraction policies. Note that peer review takes a while, and so to get word out faster-we saw this a lot with Covid-post research papers are posted on pre servers such as RXiv MedRXiv. This does provide an opportunity for other scientists to weigh in and final peer reviewed research will reflect that. Be alert to non peer reviewed research.
• Correlation is not causation: Too many times research suggests that if you do a particular behavior you’ll live longer etc. However, many of these studies are surveys and the fact that someone who drinks red wine appears to live longer isn’t scientific proof. Face is, it’s a select population and other factors, such as being wealthier and have better health care can bias results.
• Note the subjects: If it’s a study done on animals it doesn’t mean it will translate to humans. If human subjects are used, gender, ethnicity and age make a difference as does the actual number of subjects.
• Look for double blind studies: The best trials are double blind, which means one group gets the drug/treatment while the other gets a placebo. Neither the researchers or the volunteers know who is getting what.
• Read the research: All too often there will be shouting headlines about an exciting new treatment or discovery. To get the audience attention, people like Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil are providing entertainment and should not be your go to source for information.
If it sounds to good to be true it probably is: Beware of medical products and procedures that sound too good to be true. Be skeptical of testimonials. Think about the key players’ motivations and who stands to make a buck. Always read past the headlines.
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