Where does the news come from?

Usually when a story pops up on my newsfeed, I can kind of understand where it comes from. While journalism can rile up the public and create fear, it can also be used to reflect what we are afraid of.

But what bothers me the most is a story about studies that are periodically released from different organizations. These are often medical in nature, sometimes interesting and valuable, and in a few cases completely fabricated or blatantly untrue.

This week a study was released by the Journal of the America Medical Association claiming that the number of babies addicted to pain-killers from birth had gone through the roof in the past 10 years. To be specific, this study claims that about 3.4 of every 1,000 babies were born with an addiction in 2009, according to this guy.

Suddenly, the story explodes, with Anderson Cooper immediately getting a drug-addicted mom on the show faster than Usain Bolt runs a 50m dash. The different stories on the study discuss the impact this has had on hospitals and their neonatal units, on the nurses and doctors, and particularly on Florida since it’s known as the “pill-mill” capital of the country.

While this is obviously a serious issue, as a reporter I always have my eyebrows raised and my skepticism shield at the ready whenever stories like this come out. Fortunately this is a reputable source (though I can’t find the actual study anywhere…if someone can let me know) and in general I trust that kind of thing. What surprises me is how quickly the study has blown up and become news.

Sometimes in situations like this, journalists have no idea when a story is going to be big. The public will take a topic and run with it, and this seems like one of those times. I just hope there’s no corrections that run for the study later, or that it isn’t used too heavily as a fearmongering tool.