PR and media - L2

Question 1

Limitations?

Answer 1

• interpretations made
• ‘exaggeration’ could have been defined more precisely
• retrospective correlational data (can’t be certain about cause & effect)
• only used newspapers; no TV or social media

Question 2

(WHY?) Project Rationale?

Answer 2

• rather than just arguing, get some real evidence

Question 3

Take home message?

Answer 3

• rather than just arguing, get some concrete evidence as almost everything is amenable to scientific research

Question 4

(HOW?) Hypothesis 1?

Answer 4

• most exaggeration is introduced in news

Question 5

(HOW?) Hypothesis 2?

Answer 5

• most exaggeration is already present in press releases

Question 6

(HOW?) Design of study?

Answer 6

• correlational

Question 7

(HOW?) 3 types of exaggeration?

Answer 7

• advice to researchers to change behaviour
• causal statements drawn from correlational research
• human inferences drawn from animal research

Question 8

(HOW?) Which type of exaggeration was most difficult to study?

Answer 8

• human inferences drawn from animal research

Question 9

(WHY?) Why has this been studied?

Answer 9

• correlation is interpreted as cause and effect
• research from animals is generalised to humans
• media stories have large effect on public health

Question 10

(HOW?) Exaggeration defined as…?

Answer 10

• everything news says that isn’t in the original article

Question 11

(HOW?) What is CI?

Answer 11

• confidence intervals
• scientific measure of how confident we are where there mean is
• smaller = more confident

Question 12

(HOW?) What did they analyse?

Answer 12

• all PR’s by Russell Group Unis that were about/related to health/psychological behaviour

Question 13

(WHY?) Explain logic behind study?

Answer 13

• focused on PRs
• news stories come through PR
• unis and journals make journalists lives easier by writing a summarised story of study that was done (brief and easy to read
• most news stories rely on PR
• person who reads PR doesn’t write headline

Question 14

(RESULTS?) What was there no evidence for?

Answer 14

• exaggeration was associated with increased news uptake

Question 15

(RESULTS?) What happened/ future implications?

Answer 15

• PR exaggeration rates dropped after paper was released
• materials for A-Levels have developed
  Science Media Centre have new labelling system