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  • Health & Medicine

Widespread coverage for our ‘lifestyle’ press release

by Henry Scowcroft | Analysis

13 August 2007

3 comments 3 comments

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NewspapersOne thing that’s almost guaranteed to get coverage in the media is a story about cancer rates – a theme we’ll doubtless return to again and again on this blog. So unsurprisingly, last Wednesday’s press release (“Sunburn, smoking, alcohol and obesity fuelling rising cancer rates“) got widely reported in the papers and also on radio and TV.

It’s always interesting to compare the way our stories are reported in different places, and the differing slants different papers put on the same press release.

So with the help of Emma in our Press Office, we’ve put together a selection of links to online versions of the stories. It’s worth having a look at the ensuing debate the ‘comment’ sections (on the sites that have them)…

The release also attracted comment pieces in The Sun and The Guardian, and the story even made it out into the ‘blogosphere’, attracting a interesting piece in The Huffington Post – again the comments section makes for illuminating reading.


    Comments

  • Henry
    15 August 2007

    Another interesting thing I noticed…

    This story, about cancer rates increasing, got widespread coverage, nationally and internationally.

    Yesterday, a Dutch paper in Gut, showing that stomach cancer rates will likely fall fairly sharply over the next ten years, got relatively little exposure.

    http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/news/newsarchive/2007/august/18246912

    There are many possible reasons for this – maybe the media like a negative story more than a positive one… or maybe stories about ‘things we can control’ (diet, sun exposure etc) are more newsworthy than stories about things we can’t (infection with H. Pylori) – although I’d suggest that the reverse is generally true on the latter.

    H

  • Michael
    14 August 2007

    Have to remember what type of person leaves comments on online newspaper articles (or on blogs). But even so, some people’s reactions are extraordinary….

  • Henry
    14 August 2007

    Amazing isn’t it. I particularly liked the random chain of comments on the Scotsman’s site…

    It also just goes to show quite how deeply ingrained some of the common ‘cancer myths’ are. “More work needs to be done to dispel these misconceptions” etc, etc…

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    Comments

  • Henry
    15 August 2007

    Another interesting thing I noticed…

    This story, about cancer rates increasing, got widespread coverage, nationally and internationally.

    Yesterday, a Dutch paper in Gut, showing that stomach cancer rates will likely fall fairly sharply over the next ten years, got relatively little exposure.

    http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/news/newsarchive/2007/august/18246912

    There are many possible reasons for this – maybe the media like a negative story more than a positive one… or maybe stories about ‘things we can control’ (diet, sun exposure etc) are more newsworthy than stories about things we can’t (infection with H. Pylori) – although I’d suggest that the reverse is generally true on the latter.

    H

  • Michael
    14 August 2007

    Have to remember what type of person leaves comments on online newspaper articles (or on blogs). But even so, some people’s reactions are extraordinary….

  • Henry
    14 August 2007

    Amazing isn’t it. I particularly liked the random chain of comments on the Scotsman’s site…

    It also just goes to show quite how deeply ingrained some of the common ‘cancer myths’ are. “More work needs to be done to dispel these misconceptions” etc, etc…