John Pickering • Jun 04, 2013 •
More annoying than those who boast of the number of unread emails in their inbox are the spammers who contribute to that number. I’m fortunate to have a university IT department that effectively filters mountains of spam. Nevertheless, some make it through to my inbox. In the forlorn hope that I will shame these spammers … Continue reading » … Read More
Jim McVeagh • Apr 06, 2010 •
Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article. After having been too tired to spot that yesterday’s “Black Easter” post was yet another example of spam journalism, I thought I had better redeem myself. There is nothing like a quick flick to the health articles to find sensationalist spam. Journalists [...] Related posts: … Read More
Jim McVeagh • Jan 31, 2010 •
Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article. Thanks to Crusader Rabbit for pointing me to this lovely bit of medical spam at News.com.au: Energy drinks’ ’serious’ heart risk JUST one energy drink can cause “serious heart conditions”, a world-first study has found. The report, according to Adelaide Now, has [...] Related … Read More
Jim McVeagh • Dec 11, 2009 •
Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article. There is always plenty of spam to go around in health reporting. Journalists just love to sensationalise anything to do with medicine, preferably putting it in the worst light possible: Seeing red over high health costs Cataract surgery for Christchurch woman Glennis [...] Related … Read More
Jim McVeagh • Dec 01, 2009 •
Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article. It was inevitable that the sentinel event report , designed to help hospitals improve systems, would be seized upon by journalists to score some easy sensational headlines. The Dom Post supplies us with this fine headline: Hospitals to blame in 92 deaths Hospital [...] Related … Read More
Jim McVeagh • Oct 31, 2009 •
Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article. Well, half the headline is ok… DHBs, union clash over plan to axe 20 doctors Plans to cut 20 resident doctor positions at Auckland hospitals will increase the pressure on remaining staff and threatens standards of patient care, a unionist says. But the [...] … Read More
Jim McVeagh • Oct 14, 2009 •
Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article. Don’t you just love it when headlines say the exact opposite of the main body of the article? Mobile phone cancer link charted Studies on whether mobile phones can cause cancer, especially brain tumors, vary widely in quality and there may be [...] … Read More
Jim McVeagh • Oct 02, 2009 •
Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article. Sometimes, I confess I wonder whether spam medical headlines just represent ignorance, rather than the deliberate sensationalisation of a medical article. But in this case, I think it is clear that the journalist understood the meaning but deliberately twisted it [...] … Read More
Jim McVeagh • Sep 24, 2009 •
Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article. This is what happens when legitimate studies are reported sensationally: Bad doctors most likely to be men, report shows Women make safer doctors than men, Britain’s largest study of medical performance has found. They are less likely to be investigated over concerns about [...] … Read More