The media and public health: complexity, controversy and combat

The idea that public health officials and the media could have, or should have, defined roles in communicating with the public is appealing. However, making the assumption that there is some sort of static “role” fails to recognise the complex world we function in, and may actually create the apparent conflict described by Sweet and colleagues.¹ The overt role of journalists is to provide information demanded by an interested or concerned public. But journalists also have a shadow role — generating entertainment value to enhance advertising and shareholder revenue — and to ignore this is to ignore the commercial reality in which they are immersed. Contradiction, controversy, sensationalism and tragedies generate dollars