Both sides now

In the quest for balanced reporting on issues such as MMR, journalists may be misleading the public

There has long been a tendency to blame the mass media, particularly tabloid newspapers, for public attitudes to and understanding of matters of scientific controversy, such as the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine. But how far do newspapers, and television and radio news, affect what people believe and know?

Researchers at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies have been asking more than a thousand people what they think and know about MMR, human and animal …