A member of The Associated Press addressed the correlation between the worlds of medicine and journalism and how to use information from trustworthy sources to write an unbiased, informed medicinal article Thursday at the Red Gym.
Marilynn Marchione, an AP medical writer, spoke about Doctors, The Media and the Internet: Who do we believe and why?""
""People make life and death decisions based on things that they read or that they hear in the media or from their doctors, so it's very, very important who they trust and why,"" she said regarding medical writers' relationship with the public.
""Those of us who have some degree of public trust why it's so important that we not abuse that trust and we remember always to do the very best we can to provide unbiased information.""
Marchione focused on four topics: diet news, vaccines, hormones and cancer. She looked at the roles doctors, researchers, scientists and the media and the Internet play in these issues.
She also said she gets medical information ahead of time in order to get outside expert opinions and reads ""the footnotes of the study"" before publishing articles on health-related topics.
""It's an interesting perspective to hear how a medical journalist like Marilynn interprets the science and medical work that's being done by other organizations,"" said Corissa Runde creative and editorial manager for UW Health websites.
Marchione added the Internet is the first place women go for information on breast cancer, making it an important source for reliable news and medical information on issues that touch the lives of so many people.
UW-Madison sophomore Sarah Brunnquell said it is nice to know organizations, such as the Associated Press, are checking their sources.
""They know in the background they are making good judgments especially with medical-related issues,"" she said.
