If you saw headlines earlier this month such as “’Vampire therapy’ could reverse ageing, scientists find” or “‘Vampire’ blood transfusions could cure Alzheimer’s and even be the secret to eternal youth“, you’d be forgiven for asking: “What are those scientists up to now?”. Researching the ageing process to ensure we are all able to experience healthier and happier lives in our later years is all well and good, but vampirism and eternal youth? That’s going too far. And you’d be right, it is too far, at least in terms of the headlines overstating the actual research. As we suggested in the first of our How to “Research the Headlines” guides, let’s go beneath the headlines to get the full story… Read more…
You must agree that ‘Recipe for a Serial Killer?‘ is an attention grabbing headline! In the first of our How to “Research the Headlines” posts, we spoke about the use of OTT headlines to ensure the reader chooses to read the story attached to the headline. So let’s see if current coverage in the media about the risk factors for becoming a serial killer has revealed the ‘recipe for a serial killer’. Read more…
At Research the Headlines, our aim is to examine “the way in which research is discussed and portrayed in the media”. If you follow our blog, you will see we regularly take recent media coverage of a piece of research, and look at how that coverage matches the research it purports to discuss. We often highlight very good examples of research reporting, as well as pointing out when it might not be quite right (or downright wrong!).
Of course, we can’t cover every research-related news story that appears. So, over the next few months we’re going to post 10 of our “top tips” to help you to “Research the Headlines”. These short tips should help you to get closer to the truth of any research reported in the media. Some of these will be pretty common sense (like today’s starting point), but whether you have some background in research or none at all, we hope these short “top tips” blogs are of interest.
It is abundantly clear that smoking tobacco cigarettes is bad for your health. Smoking has been demonstrated by decades of research to be dangerous to you, and those around you. Tobacco cigarettes contain nicotine, a very addictive substance, alongside a whole host of carcinogens in the tobacco and the cigarette’s filter and papers. The last decade has seen many governments enact smoking bans in public places, and there is growing evidence that banning smoking has a variety of positive health effects.
The recent wave of e-cigarettes (or electronic cigarettes/vapourisers) has shaken up this pattern of policy. These e-cigarettes contain an ampoule of liquid nicotine, which is heated to form a vapour, but does not combust like a normal cigarette. As a result, these e-cigarettes don’t emit toxic chemicals in the same way that tobacco cigarettes do. However, this breakthrough product is not without controversy. Battle lines are being drawn between those who are pro “vaping” and those against it. The USA and the UK are looking to prohibit the sale of e-cigarettes to minors, and some cities are considering banning vaping in public places.
So what are the facts? Let’s play a game of True or False.
Summer is on the way, and I’m sure we all want to look our trim best for those beach holidays, if we can drag ourselves away from our research, of course! Joking aside, obesity is a major public health burden, and so huge efforts are being made to promote healthier diets and exercise. Many people baulk at changing their habits, so the dieting industry – notorious for promotion of sham pseudoscience and downright fraud – is rapidly expanding. News of the next wonder diet pill is often rightly filed away under “nonsense”, but the latest collection of headlines does have some scientific backing behind it. So have scientists really discovered a chemical that switches off hunger?
You may have seen that we recently achieved, or possibly surpassed, ‘peak beard’. Quite a monumental achievement, for one half of the population at least. I add that caveat as the story refers to the growing trend for men to grow beards. A research study reported that when beards are more common in the population, they may, however, lose their novelty and are subsequently rated as less attractive. The study was particularly well-covered by the media, and was so important there were at least 3 reports or commentaries in the Guardian alone around the day of the research being released: here, here, and here (they even predicted the impending approach of peak beard back in 2013!). BBC News online devoted a lengthy article to the research too (also available as a video). So, is it time for gents to ditch the facial hair? And might the research tell us something more than male grooming trends come and go? Read more…
Guest Post by Neil McLennan.
This week the Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy published its 2013 research findings relating to numeracy development in learners. This provoked the print media to produce anticipated and predicable headlines such as “Numeracy Skills Falling in Scottish Schools” and “Dramatic Decline in Numeracy”. Do the headlines tell the story well enough, and does the research help us?
A study that reported that young dads are at high risk of depression has received considerable media attention. The authors reported that depression can hit young fathers hard with symptoms increasing dramatically during some of the most important years of their children’s lives. So what did the study do and how did the media handle reporting the findings? Read more…
A recent study conducted by researchers at my own institution, the University of Strathclyde, has found that spending long periods of time looking at photos of friends on social media sites could lead to women becoming insecure about their body image. In general the reporting of this study was accurate but there were some misunderstandings about causality in the coverage, particularly within headlines. The media consistently reported the study findings within the context of ‘selfies’ even though the study was not focused on selfies at all. Read more…
Over the weekend, both the Daily Mail and Independent published the somewhat alarming claim from an “alcohol expert” that drinking a bottle of wine per day is not only not detrimental to one’s health, but is actually better for you than drinking no alcohol at all. Writing in the Express, Leo McKinstry subsequently suggests “the zealots of the public health lobby” should “put a cork in it“, citing Winston Churchill‘s anecdotal ability to drink every day and still be Prime Minister at 80 as evidence that alcohol intake should not be regulated. Given that modern NHS guidelines recommend that consumption should not regularly excess 3-4 units per day for men and 2-3 units per day for women, and an average bottle of wine contains around 10 units, just who is correct, and is there any evidence behind these alcoholic claims?
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