Title: Stories and Facts: How should the media present medical science?

Is the role of the media to present medical facts or medical stories? The neurosciences and genetics are of particular interest to the public as they may provide scientific answers to questions concerning health and illness, as well addressing concerns about addictions, particularly to drugs and alcohol, but also to certain types of behaviours. For example, USA Today recently reported in a headline that "Brain scans show how meditation calms pain" and The Vancouver Sun recently reported that "Gambling addiction runs in family" referring to how an Australian study has found that "genetic factors play major role in disorder." The Café seeks to explore whether members of the public, academics, and journalists themselves perceive the media presentation of neuroscience specifically, and health science generally, to be accurate, or whether such reports tell stories rather than report the facts. The Café will provide a forum to discuss whether such reporting provides a positive function in making science interesting to the public or is the product of potentially hidden issues, such as the lack of basic scientific training among journalists, the reduction in newspaper budgets for science reporting, or changes to how the public accesses the media through the internet. We also ask whether the media's reporting of medical issues might be the product of media and/or public fatigue whereby stories have a short shelf life which makes them unsuitable for presenting as newsworthy. Ultimately we ask whether media stories help or hinder attempts by medical scientists to explain their work to the public, and, in turn whether this impacts upon our everyday understanding of mental health and illness.