Mellom fiksjon og fakta. : En studie av medias omtale av legemiddelindustrien.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Find out which problems related to pharmaceutic industry the massmedia are debating, and see if there are differences between what is written in a public newspaper contra journals for health professionals. METHODS: Using the internet to search for articles from 2007-01-01 to 2008-06-30 in the newspaper Aftenposten and the two medical journals Dagens Medisin and Tidsskriftet. Classifying the subjects and problems debated and compare the three medias. RESULTS: A total of 155 articles, not all of them directly related to pharmaceutic industry. The pharmaceutical industry is mentioned in several different contexts. The most discussed themes are the connection between pharmaceutic industry and other health care professionals and the need for objectivity. Also debated is the need to find new ways to finance medications in the third world, and different societies total medical costs. CONCLUSION: There has been a change towards greater awareness about the connection between the pharmaceutical industry and other health care professionals in the last few years. There are more regulations that put a pressure on the industry. This is safer for the patients, more ethical and saves the society money, but this might lead to a stop in the development of new types of medications. The criticism against the pharmaceutical industry is harsher in Aftenposten than in Dagens Medisin and Tidsskriftet. These two journals debate on quite similar issues. It seems like the articles in Dagens Medisin are the most neutral ones, in Tidsskriftet the criticism is as often against doctors as against the pharmaceutical industry.