Mass media continues to distort health sciences with misleading headlines like 'happiness is controlled by your genes'

Saturday, July 10, 2004
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...)

Here's yet another case of sloppy, misleading journalism: reporting on a discovery that levels of serotonin in the brain may be influenced by a genetic pattern, the science correspondent for The Guardian (a UK paper) blares the headline, "Happiness may be all in the genes."

This is the sort of leap from science to sensationalism that leads many people to believe they are helpless to control their own state of mental or physical health. These headlines strip away power from people, making them believe that they have no control over their own state of happiness. In reality, people have near total control over their brain chemistry -- and even serotonin levels -- by making daily choices about foods, physical exercise, use of stimulants drugs like caffeine and so on. In fact, one of the most powerful ways to boost serotonin in the brain is to expose your skin to natural sunlight, and it works no matter what your genetic makeup.

Too often, lazy journalists write sensational headlines about research into the genetic influences on human healh without considering the fact that such headlines actually cause many readers to believe their own state of health is predetermined. If genes are responsible for a person's health outcome, then why should they even try to make any changes in their own health? These headlines cause many people to stop making healthy choices and return to abusing their bodies with junk food, lack of physical exercise, and processed foods loaded with hydrogenated oils or added sugars. But as is always the case when it comes to chronic disease and mental disorders, genes are merely small influencers on the actual outcome, and nearly any genetic predisposition can be overcome through changes in nutrition and physical exercise.

The only exception to all this is the all-powerful gene that turns newspaper journalists into babbling science idiots. I'm not sure that gene can be overcome at all.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/001300_mass_media_bad_journalism.html#ixzz1Q632VwvK




COMMENT:

From the moment we have attended school, aspiring journalists were taught of their responsibilities in serving their community and protecting their stories. Also, we are taught of list of things we should avoid when giving out information to the people. We must be credible of the news we get, we should be fair or balance, honest, and most of all, the stories we publish should give the people additional information so that they can use it if necessary.

But then mostly these students after graduation and they become journalists, they often forget what they have been taught in school. They can be wrote stories they want, according to their preferences and what they would like their stories to be published. This is the truth in the "real world".

It is so obvious that they use their power in making news which were credible but then, sensationalized. They are putting exaggerated words that they call it spices for their stories even if they knew firsthand that this weren't right. Because of these words, people sometimes believe but some knew they were just exaggerating their stories so people will read their stories.

The bad side of exaggerating stories or sensationalizing the choice of words will mislead the readers on what the story is all about. The readers can form different interpretation depending on what will pop out in their minds first. They can think of the other meaning instead of the meaning that the writer is trying to convey.

Not because we have the opportunity to give information to the people doesn't mean we can give whatever stories we want to be published. The choice of words are very important since even simple words we write can give several interpretation to our readers. We should consider that not every individual can interpret the words with what you are trying to imply. Wrong assumptions can lead to wrong conclusions.