Investigating health issues

Media plays a vital role in disseminating health and medical information, news affecting the knowledge and health beliefs of the public . Medical and health issues are of interest to many people and are commonly reported as they have impact on their medical behaviour and awareness. Concepts of health depend on how well a medical condition is understood, a person's age, class and the expectations about a person's economic and social roles.

Many of the investigative stories about health rely on research (made accessible to audience and explaining the impacts). 

Therefore the journalist must have an idea on what he/she is reporting, have knowledge of how science, medicine and research work and be aware of the context within which they operate. An investigative journalist have to know basic biomedical concepts. 

Biomedicine has its own language. Sometimes words or terms used by doctors, nurses and researchers may be very difficult to understand or never heard to the journalist and the audience, so by doing research the journalist will gain knowledge and have an understanding on how medical research works. This will make his/her investigation easy. Using biomedical research will help the journalist to decide whether the information given is useful or even accurate and find a way how to communicate it to the audience. 

Journalists are the required to create awareness ( informing and educating the public on health related issue). 

Biggest health stories come from issues that are accepted as normal part of life, and it is not considered important enough to worry people with the power to make a difference. For example some of this are; the effects of chronic Malaria, health conditions resulting from poverty like diarrhoea and high incidence of cancer among people living near riverbeds. 

Start an investigation by asking the community members about health issues, talking to health practitioners and clinic staff. 

Journalist have to be aware of ; new medications /drugs, wellness ( including foods, alcohol, depression etc.) 

Issues like foods, travel costs to get to the clinics, or community support are not usually considered aspects of health in biomedical framework although they are biggest constraints to the society. 

Sources of health information 

• Local communities 

• Community health and education centres (like libraries, or clinics). 

• Government or organization 

• Health experts

• Medical journal

Different views on health and illness

Information collected on health issues is always influenced by the point of view of the person or organization providing that information. 

A journalist investigating on health condition must always know its basic issues. These are; how does a person develop this condition?, How do people believe it develops?, Is it transmitted from another person? How does it happen?, Is it environmental or work related? Why? 

To wrap it up, people have very different ideas on what health and illness mean. Most international bodies use Biomedicine to evaluate health issues. Published biomedical research is a good place to look for stories, but the journalist have to be clear on why she/he have chosen that topic for research. It is important for an investigative journalist to always know basic concepts of health related issues so that he/she give correct information to the public. Finally, it is important for an investigative journalist to research(find out) the basic information about health issues before starting with his/her investigation.