Health Care Journalists Reveal Fewer Resources, and Time, in Survey

The Association of Health Care Journalists and the Kaiser Family Foundation have released a report on the state of health care journalism that shows those reporting on such issues have fewer resources and less time to devote to the news. But the journalists contend that coverage on health care has either remained steady or even increased in some cases. Among the findings:

1) Forty percent of respondents said the number of health reporters has gone down since they started at their news organization.

2) More than 9 out of 10 said "bottom-line pressures in media organizations were hurting the quality of news coverage of health issues."

3) Nearly 40% said it was either "very likely or somewhat likely that their position will be eliminated in the next three years."

4) About 75% of respondents said that U.S. journalism was headed in the wrong direction, but just more than half felt that way about health journalism. And two-thirds of respondents said health care journalism was headed in the right direction at their media outlet.