Lost in Translation?: A Comparison of Cancer-Genetics Reporting in the Press Release and Its Subsequent Coverage in the Press
Open accessAbstract
Understanding how genetic science is communicated to the lay public is of great import. To address this issue, this study examines the presentation of genetic research relating to cancer outcomes and behaviors (i.e., prostate cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, smoking and obesity) in both the press release ( n = 23) and its subsequent news coverage ( n = 71). Data suggest that genetic discoveries are presented in a biologically deterministic and simplified manner 67.5% of the time. The introduction of deterministic language is attributed equally to both press releases and news coverage. Also, there are substantive differences between content introduced in the press release and content presented in subsequent press coverage; in fact, when two sources report on the same scientific discovery, the information is inconsistent more than 40% of the time. These findings suggest that the intermediary press release may serve as a source of distortion in the dissemination of science to the lay public.
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Many sources of converging evidence point to press releases as the main source of science news, including the quotes and study facts analysed from the study's data.
“However, many sources of converging evidence point to press releases as the main source of science news,17 18 21 26 27 including the quotes and study facts analysed from our data (see supplementary section SI11).”
From The association between exaggeration in health related science news and academic press releases: retrospective observational study (2014) · cites this paper as [21]
The Results (page unavailable) report that 54.7% of central claims appeared in both press releases and news articles, supporting a substantial connection between them. But the Methods say the study excluded news articles without a traceable press release, and the Discussion calls press releases a possible source of distortion. This does not establish that they are the main source of science news generally. The citing authors’ analysis of quotes and study facts is their own, not a finding attributed to this paper. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn a study of 23 press releases and 71 associated news stories about cancer genetics, two thirds of claims in the press release were at least as deterministic as the claims in the news.
“In a study of 23 press releases and 71 associated news stories about cancer genetics, two thirds of claims in the press release were at least as deterministic as the claims in the news.21”
From The association between exaggeration in health related science news and academic press releases: retrospective observational study (2014) · cites this paper as [21]
Journalists sometimes misrepresent the uncertainties of science, for example, by presenting complex or preliminary information as being more certain than it truly is.
“journalists sometimes do misrepresent the uncertainties of science, for example, by presenting complex or preliminary information as being more certain than it truly is (Brechman, Lee, and Cappella, 2009;Jensen, 2008;Lai, Lane, and Ruttenberg, 2009;Retzbach and Maier, 2015)”
From A review of the effects of uncertainty in public science communication (2020) · cites this paper as Brechman, Lee, and Cappella, 2009
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de Oliveira, M. B., Barata, G., Fleerackers, A., Alperín, J. P., Falade, B. A., & Bauer, M. W. (2024) · Frontiers in Communication · doi:10.3389/fcomm.2024.1473268 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Kongruenz der Anlassauswahl als Indikator für die Journalismusforschung: Eine Exploration
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Spotlight on the news: A critical review of cancer disclosure
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Komplexität der Wissenschaft als Herausforderung für den Wissenschaftsjournalismus
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A Follow-Up Community Survey of Knowledge and Beliefs About Cancer and Genetics
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Vértice do impensável: um estudo de narrativas em síndrome de Down
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Characterizing the spread of exaggerated news content over social mediaPreprint
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Content Analysis in the Research Field of Health Coverage
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- Authors
- Brechman, J., Lee, C.-J., & Cappella, J. N.
- Affiliations
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- Corresponding author
- Brechman, Jean
- Venue
- Science Communication
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2009-03-06
- Volume
- 30
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 453-474
- ISSN
- 0164-0259 (ISSN-L)
- 1075-5470
- 1552-8545
- PMC
- PMC4283841
- OpenAlex
- W2051794430
- Cited by
- 99
- References
- 60
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 11.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Science Communication (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
- National Institutes of Health (1p50ca095856-01a1)
- National Cancer Institute (P50-CA095856, P20CA095856)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Academic Publishing and Open Access
- Social Sciences › Communication › Media Studies and Communication
- Social Sciences › Communication › Journalism and Media Studies
- Keywords
- science journalism, press releases, media coverage, genetic determinism, oversimplification, public understanding of genetics
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
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