NEWS ITEMS ON H1N1 FLU "INCOMPLETE"

       News reports concerning H1N1 flu offered by most state TV channels lack clarity and tend to cause confusion, a study shows.
       Media Monitor, an independent agency sponsored by the Thai Health Promotion Foundation, revealed the study at a seminar on news reporting and the H1N1 flu pandemic at Suan Dusit Rajabhat University, organised by the Thai Journalists Association and the Thai Broadcasting Journalists Association.
       The study also looked at evening news programmes on the six free TV channels between July 28 and Aug 17.
       The study said news information presented was incomplete. The presentation of news issues involving the causes of deaths related to the virus was unclear and tended to cause confusion.
       The study found issues and news content presented by the six channels was similar with an emphasis on the pandemic situation, the preventive measures to control the spread of the virus, the dispensing of anti-viral medicines and the impact the flu pandemic had on the economy and tourism and the closure of tutorial and cram schools.
       The study said that overall, reports by the six channels focused on the number of deaths caused by the flu or those suspected of dying from the flu. If it was later proved that any deaths were not linked to the flu, those channels only came up with brief reports on the issue,the study said.
       The study also said the language used in news headlines of newspapers was strong and tended to provoke excitement and panic.
       The study looked at news content presented by eight newspapers during the first three weeks of the flu pandemic situation from April 28 to May 18.
       It also said many terms coined and used by newspapers to describe the virus could be misleading such as "swine flu"or "Mexican flu".