S ALINAS DE AÑANA

with magic bullets

and quick fixes to

any problem you

might have. But

don’t be fooled,

these slick, high

budget, weapons

of mass influence

are targeted at

reaching their

desired goal,

regardless of your

best interests.

science, medicine & media 23 budgets are aimed at getting you to want a certain

food…and when they aren’t selling enough of that food, they aim to get you to want to eat more of that food. Remember the fat free craze of the 90’s, when it seemed okay to eat more of something because it was “fat free?” A great deal of research and psychology goes into adver- tisements and whether we want to admit it or not, they can influence us.

Advertisements today are riddled with magic bul- lets and quick fixes to any problem you might have. But don’t be fooled, these slick, high budget, weapons of mass influence are targeted at reaching their desired goal, regardless of your best interests.

According to a study in The Journal of Health Communication, from 1996 to 2000, drug ads aimed at consumers has more than tripled, with the highest per- centage spent on television ads.15 _{The study showed that}

an average TV watcher was exposed to more drug ads than any other form of health information.

What I find interesting is that you also see TV ads from Mothers Against Drunk Driving telling people how awful drunk driving is, but yet, there are even more ads on TV from pharmaceuticals, that kill far more people than drunk drivers. Drunk driving caused 13,407 fatal- ities in 2006.16 _{In Death by Medicine, Gary Null’s data}

from 1994 showed that 106,000 deaths occurred annu- ally from adverse drug reactions in hospitals and the numbers are growing.17

• Reason #2: PRess Releases — fancy ads designed To look like facTs

Press releases are written to provide compelling informa- tion and a call to action that looks and feels like a news- paper or magazine article. There are also video news

releases, which are produced with the same goal for TV news. With shrinking budgets and resources, too many reporters are cutting corners and engaging in the practice of using press releases verbatim or in essence, plagiariz- ing large pieces of a press release and making it look like real journalism. Science, health and medical journalism has been hard-hit by this practice and according to some experts, it’s getting worse with the proliferation of digital news on the Internet.18

Papers can be literally from 50–70 percent direct press releases from a specific company. Who’s writing the press releases? Companies and people who want to get their specific message out.

Last year, I was speaking to an audience of about 40 people at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY. I asked the audience, “Does anyone work for the school paper?” One girl raised her hand. I said, “Let me ask you a question. Do you get press releases?” She said, “Yes.” I said, “What do you do with them?” She replied, “Well, we decide which ones we want to print in the paper.” When I asked her if she rewrote the press releases, she said, “No. We just publish them.” Now that’s a college paper, but don’t think that that practice doesn’t move up the ladder. It’s a lazy way of journalism, but it’s also a way to fill paper. It’s a way to get information out there. The problem is that press releases are biased and they are often passed off as a good, objective journalistic article.

There was a study that came out in 2005 and the headline in Fox News was: “Study: Coffee Top Source of Antioxidants.”19 _{There were huge headlines, all over the}

place — this was big stuff. People were emailing me ask- ing, “Kevin did you see this? Coffee is a good source of antioxidants.” Well guess what happened? The journalist

science, medicine & media 25 made a mistake; they didn’t read the full study. Do you

know what the full study said? It said this: “Coffee is the highest source of America’s antioxidants.” It did not say coffee was a good source of antioxidants. It said that coffee is where Americans get most of their anti- oxidants. This is plain inaccurate. Coffee is by far NOT one of the best sources of antioxidants. For example, blueberries are giants in terms of antioxidant content when compared to coffee.

• Reason #3: endoRseMenTs — using celebRiTiesand

exPeRTsTo gain youR TRusT

In marketing, endorsements are another technique to sell products and services. The idea is to pay an expert, ath- lete or celebrity, someone you’d trust or admire, to recom- mend their product. Endorsements are being used more and more often in all kinds of marketing from advertise- ments to television and magazine articles. You’ll even see a growing number of endorsements on the Internet.

There are many people profiting from endorsements, so be aware of whom you decide to trust. The good news is, there are a growing number of people out there who have high integrity and would only recommend what has been successful in their own lives. You’ll know the dif- ference the more you stay alert for the messages you are watching, reading or hearing.