How health journalists think about their roles amid current challenges

Our analyses identify role conceptions that are specific to the work of health journalists in the current political climate
About this Event

This study offers findings (N = 629) from a 2023 national U.S. survey to form health
journalist role conceptions and explore the relationships among these conceptions
and how journalists say they manage the challenge of misinformation. Building
from research on journalism role conceptions, including those specific to health
journalism, this research proposes four roles that the journalists in this studied
agreed were important: source skepticism, truth vigilance, proactive empowerment,
and traditional balance. Years working as a journalist was associated with perceptions of the significance of each role and with differences in how journalists said they would respond to misinformation if they encountered it online. In sum, our analyses
identify role conceptions that are specific to the work of health journalists in the
current political climate, where the validity of health information they rely on in
their reporting is vigorously debated.

BIO:

Dr. Amanda Hinnant is an associate professor at the University of Missouri, School of journalism, where she holds the Wallace Turner Memorial Faculty Fellowship. Her research focuses on health and science communication, journalism studies, and media sociology. In particular, her research has focused on the influence of narrative on how people process information. She serves as an associate editor for Science Communication. Her articles have appeared in PLOS One, Climatic Change, Health Communication, and Journalism Studies.
Dr. Rachel Young is an associate professor and director of undergraduate studies in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Iowa. She is also a faculty fellow in the University of Iowa Office Community Engagement. Her mixed-methods research focuses on digital media and media representations of health, in particular how media can challenge or reinforce stigma. Her work has been published in Mass Communication and Society, Health Communication, and Computers in Human Behavior.