Why health care news readers need an “information diet”

Health News Review writes,

"

Do health care news readers need an “information diet”?

Health News Review 21/01/12 5:06 AM Gary Schwitzer General journalism issues Health care journalism

As we close out the week and prepare to head to a beach for a desperately-needed mid-winter break, here are some catch-up items we meant to write about earlier.

• NPR interview with author of The Information Diet making the case for “conscious consumption of news and information.”  We certainly make that case for health news and information – which often floods a thirsty public with a firehose of information when all they want and need is a sip of balanced, unbiased, complete information.  Excerpt:

“The question is, can we make enough people go: ‘Hey, you know what? I’m done. I’m done with the sensationalism of media. I’m done being taken advantage of by media companies so that I can have ads sold to me.’ … If we want to make media better, then we’ve got to start consuming better media.”

• ... and this,

• This is really getting old since we’re a month deep into 2012, but among the Nieman Journalism Lab’s predictions for journalism for 2012  was this one:
  • “News will increasingly be a conversation rather than a series of stories. In 2012, the divide will grow between journalists who are intently aware of and responsive to the needs of their communities and those who continue to make decisions based on long-ago-learned fortress mentalities. I wish I could say I were optimistic about crumbling fortresses. Instead, I’ll say that I’ll be on the lookout for examples of news presented as an ongoing, topical conversation rather than a series of journalist-driven stories. In an election year, being responsive to users’ actual information needs and being a part of a community’s conversation is more crucial than ever.”

  
  

I recently read "information diet". It's an excellent book on information management at an age when we are literally being "bamboozled" with more information than we can possibly do with, and presents a series of very sensible strategies to work with. One of the most important points that the book raises is to go through to the origin of the source for any news or analysis you get to see and objectively analyze the claims or the thesis of any work you come across, online or not. I think it's a great message for a book such as this, and pertinent when it comes to health news consumption. It's important to be skeptic and question the claims of any health related article and have an open mind.