Health Information Week - Media Literacy

Health Information Week is a national, multi-sector campaign promoting high-quality information for
patients and the public.

The theme for today's Health Information Week post is all about media literacy. 

How do we know what health news we can trust and do we know if it is accurate? This is a key health issue with the rise of social media and these media literacy resources aim to give patients the skills to make these judgements.

Checking the news yourself

• FactCheck: How to spot fake news (video) www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkwWcHekMdo
• Full Fact: Fact checking toolkit https://fullfact.org/toolkit/

Health news already checked

• Full Fact: Health https://fullfact.org/health/all/
• Health Feedback: https://healthfeedback.org/
• BBC Reality Check (not just health news): www.bbc.co.uk/news/reality_check

Sharing news and social media

• UK Government: Share Checklist https://sharechecklist.gov.uk/
• Poynter Institute: 10 tips for verifying viral social media videos www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2018/10-tips-for-verifying-viral-social-media-videos/ 

We have also updated our guide to good quality sources of information for patients which you can find on our web site here.

You can find a complete list of resources around media literacy with more links and including games and activities for children on the Health Information Week web site here.

Health Information Week day 3: Behind the headlines #HIW2019

Health Information Week is a national, multi-sector campaign to promote high quality information for patients and the public. High quality health information can have a huge impact on people’s ability to stay healthy and manage illnesses effectively, giving them a better quality of life.

Our campaign this year is focused on enabling clinicians to access good quality information aimed at the public which they can recommend to patients.

We have also produced Helping you to help your patients, which is a brief guide to evaluating information as well as recommendations for sites where you can find trusted information aimed at patients.

For day 3 of Health Information Week we are looking at the Behind the Headlines service.

Behind the Headlines is part of the main NHS UK site and is a really useful resource that provides an unbiased, evidence based view of health stories featuring in the news headlines.

For each item featured there is an overview of the story as well as a look at the accuracy of the reporting in the media. This is followed by an appraisal of the actual research the story is based on and some commentary about what the results mean and what we can draw from that.

Behind the Headlines is a particularly useful resource for clinicians who may be faced with patients who have seen an article in a daily newspaper and want to know what it means for them.

Tomorrow for Health Information Week we'll be looking at a web site that gives you access to a huge amount of information...

Inside Health on BBC Radio 4

Inside Health starts on Radio 4 on Tuesday the 10th of January at 9:00 pm. Dr Mark Porter looks at conflicting health advice, explores new medical research and tackles the big health issue of the moment revealing the inner workings of the medical profession and the daily dilemmas doctors face. The series will also be available on the BBC iPlayer.

Strangest health news stories of 2011

www.nhs.uk

Media coverage of health care related stories has often been variable in it's quality and 2011 proved to be no exception. 

NHS Choices have been through their Behind the Headlines service (Behind the Headlines provides an unbiased and evidence-based analysis of health stories that make the news) for 2011 and produced a list of the oddest and most innaccurately reported stories for the year

You can find the list on the NHS Choices site here. It makes for interesting reading...

What's your poison? A sober analysis on alcohol and health in the media

Alcohol is everywhere  in the media at the moment. It's often hard to open a newspaper or watch the news without being bombarded with different, and often contradictory messages about alcohol. Some stories focus on the dangers of binge drinking whilst others tell us a glass of wine can help us to lose weight or even reduce the risk of a heart attack.

Photo by Danicuki

Behind the Headlines from NHS Choices have produced Whats your Poison? a report which analyses the media's relationship with alcohol research, and the science behind it. More importantly, it also tells us what this means for anyone who drinks alcohol. You can find What's Your Poison on the NHS Choices web site.