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$1.2 million grant
COM to establish Science and Medical Journalism Center

By Brian Fitzgerald

Fluoxetine hydrochloride is hailed as a certain cure for depression. Melatonin is called an antiaging remedy. The former is hardly an automatic happy pill, however, and the latter certainly isn't the fountain of youth.

Scientists and physicians often say that the public is poorly served by press coverage of medical science. By the same token, reporters point out that the efforts of scientists to attract media attention often result in flawed coverage.

	Journalism Associate Professors Ellen Ruppel Shell (left) and Douglas Starr (right), codirectors of COM's graduate science journalism program, will oversee the new Science and Medical Journalism Center. "Medical issues play an increasingly important role in the lives and lifestyles of Americans," says Journalism Department Chairman William Ketter (center). Photo by Kalman Zabarsky

The Knight Foundation had this problem in mind when it recently awarded the College of Communication $1.2 million to establish the Science and Medical Journalism Center. One of the foundation's aims is to "identify bold and innovative projects that could improve the overall quality of the practice of journalism."

The center will open next fall, and will be built on COM's existing graduate science journalism program, which provides master's degrees to students who pass a 48-credit course load.

"Medical issues play an increasingly important role in the lives and lifestyles of Americans," says William Ketter, COM's journalism department chairman. "The challenge of journalism is to keep up with these issues, and to make sense out of them in public. The center will strive to train editors and reporters to do that."

Ketter says that the idea of the center stemmed from growing public interest in medical developments, and the need for mainstream media to become more expert in reporting on them accurately and authoritatively.

"Boston is the perfect place for a center aimed at improving the scope and quality of science and medical reporting," says Ketter. "We have some of the world's best doctors, science and medical researchers, health-care experts, teaching hospitals, and schools of public health. The center intends to tap into this wealth of medical resource."

COM Associate Professors Doug Starr and Ellen Ruppel Shell, codirectors of the science journalism program, will oversee the center. Both are veteran science and medical journalists, frequently writing for newspapers, magazines, and specialty publications. Shell, who has a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Rochester, and was a 1984­85 Knight Fellow in Science Journalism at MIT, is writing a book about the science of obesity. Starr is the author of an acclaimed book on the history of blood in medicine and commerce. It won the top nonfiction science award in last year's Los Angeles Times national book competition.

"The population is aging, so people are really interested in medicine and public health," says Starr. "Also, the medical and drug industries have grown very rapidly. There are constant issues of drug development and affordability, medical care and affordability, medical devices and technologies, equity of medical care, and the emergence of certain chronic and infectious diseases. These are subtle and complicated issues that have to be covered in a sophisticated way."

Shell says that Americans "have an insatiable interest in health and medicine. Unfortunately, because of the lack of resources to educate and train journalists on these very complex subjects, a lot of the information the public gets is either incorrect or out of context. The purpose of the center is to try to help improve the track record."

Of particular interest to Shell were "sensationalistic" reports of Anamarie Martinez-Regino, a 120-pound three-year-old who was put in foster care in New Mexico despite no signs of parental neglect or abuse. Doctors have not yet found biological causes to her problem. Her parents have no medical insurance, and their requests to take her to out of state experts for testing have been turned down.

"I think that a lot of the stories about this child were written for entertainment value," says Shell. "It's clear many of the writers had no understanding at all of the science and the medical politics behind this issue. Getting the story behind the story, along with the proper perspective on what you're writing about, is important in every form of journalism, but especially in medical reporting. The center will be a great opportunity for BU and for the field."

The center, with an extra emphasis on medicine and public health, will also strengthen midcareer training for journalists, and build international ties. Added to the existing science and medical journalism curriculum will be a visiting scholar program, training for two international journalists a year, and conferences that will bring together editors and reporters with scientists, physicians, and policy makers.

"There is a need for a larger body of medical experts in journalism," says Ketter. "People in the field recognize this fact. Public opinion polls show that the demand for this kind of news is at an all-time high, but it remains difficult for news professionals to find, select, investigate, evaluate, and explain in an interesting manner the developments in science and medicine, and related public policy issues."

With proper training, he says, fewer journalists will overstate scientific findings ‹ or report preliminary data that scientists have pushed to increase the awareness of their research.

"There are ways of reporting issues with enough substance, depth, and intelligence that the readers get information with proper context," says Starr. "If we do our job properly, the public wins."

3 October 2000
Boston University
Office of University Relations