Finnish Health Journalists’ Perceptions of Collaborating with Medical Professionals

Doctors are important collaborators with journalists specializing in health issues. A survey was conducted among Finnish health journalists about their views on doctor-journalist relationships, their opinions of source reliability and what sort of prejudices doctors and journalists might have of one another. In general the respondents had positive experiences of such collaboration. Most respondents identified more strongly with medical science than alternate therapies. Respondents considered scientific publications and research centers to be the most reliable information sources and considered online discussion forums and alternative therapy providers to be unreliable. Most common experiences of collaboration were positive or varying between individual doctors, although doctors’ busy schedules sometimes make collaboration challenging. According to the respondents, not all doctors recognize the need for clarification of difficult topics for laypeople instead of favoring accurate scientific language. Potential prejudices that respondents felt doctors might have towards their profession was a sensationalist approach and inaccurate reporting of facts. Our findings could benefit both doctors and journalists in terms of fruitful collaboration.