Toolkit launched to assess quality of health stories in media

New Delhi: A global health body has teamed up with an Australian University to launch a toolkit to evaluate quality of health stories published in the media to help journalists assess stories on new tests, treatments and health policies.

The toolkit known as 'Media Doctor' is modeled after a similar pioneering checklist developed in Australia that ran from 2003 to 2013.

However, the toolkit has been modified in the Indian context after several consultations with journalists and media academics and now comprises four checklists ? one each to look at stories on new tests and treatments, health advice, health policy and public health.

The George Institute for Global Health (GIGH) teamed up with the University of Newcastle, Australia to Indianise the media doctor tool kit.

"A toolkit to evaluate the quality of health stories published in the Indian newspapers and in the electronic media has been launched to help journalists and health correspondents evaluate media stories on new tests, treatments and procedures, on health advice, health policy and public health stories," a GIGH statement said.

Kannan Krishnaswamy, Communications Manager, GIGH said this is the first version of the toolkit that is being made available to journalists and media students. Based on feedback from stakeholders, the version will be fine-tuned and a second improved version will be launched later this year, he said.

The toolkit was launched at the Shantiniketan University recently. Biplab Loho Choudhury, who was part of the media doctor pilot in India said the plan is to run workshops for journalists, media students and faculty members of journalism institutions to familiarise them with these tools and to encourage them to use the same.

"Strictly speaking, we do not need structured tools to evaluate any media story about health. But they do prevent us from overlooking important aspects of a story.

"They also highlight opinions which can be constructively challenged and discussed and provide a method of comparing the quality of stories from various outlets, besides also providing a means of following trends over time," said Vivekanand Jha, Executive Director, GIGH.

Readers make significant health care decisions based on what they read in newspapers or see in electronic channels. Policy makers are influenced by public opinion, and public opinion is in great part determined by the media.

"And at a more philosophical level, if the public has a 'right to know', it has a right to good quality information," said David Smith of the University of Newcastle, Australia.