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Media blunders and Medical journalism- A human-frog?

  • April 3, 2014
  • 3 min read
  • 499 Views

The face of the journalism has been repeatedly spitted upon by some of the weightless, baseless and evidence-less news that seemed to be one of those chitchat cheap news , merely meant for publicity. We have seen lot of such news in News channels but the papers themselves have been an issue of shame and embarrassment to the entire society. Here are few news that ruined the concept of people, spread superstition and even caused damage to some careers.

1.The Human-frog child or an Anencephaly-
It was published in online newspaper called kantipuronline. The journalist has portrayed a child with congenital malformation of Central Nervous System development, a condition called Anencephaly , as a product of cross between human and frog. The paper has elaborately and absurdly written the story on how a women goes to bath in a river and how accidentally copulation occurred between frog and the women , giving birth to a Human-Frog child. This was most shared and liked story in the paper.
Anencephaly is a condition where during the development of Notochord , there is failure of fusion of Rostral neuropore. This.This lead to abscence of skull bone anteriorly with ill-developed cerebrum. The eyes are propped out and small head and long limbs gives appearance like that of a frog.
However, the misconception among the general people that the writer and newspaper created questions the credibility of the Newspaper and the journalist.

It was a historical comedy that was shared and propagated throughout the online communities, forums by readers.

Anen

 

2. Baby’s Abdomen cut during Cesarean section or Gastroschisis
It is out of absurdity or poor qualification of the journalist that a Doctors career was ruined by a news that was broadcasted without proper research. It also highlights on the need of Medical journalist in our country rather than those who write on hearsay.
A baby was born with Gastroschisis, a condition where the anterior abdomen wall of baby is not developed during intrauterine life and content of abdomen can be protruded out. This disorder could not be diagnosed antenatally in this scenario. The paper potrayed it as a medical negligence where Obs surgeon cut the abdomen during opening of uterus which is virtually impossible as baby remains in flexed posture in utero.
The public sentiment was harsh on Medical profession and the paper called Kantipur which is a national daily enjoyed its Pseudo-heroism for several days, and never realized how absurd the news was among the people who knew the condition. If a Doctor tries to repair an Aeroplane, it’d be same as a journalist with no idea of medicine writing on a Medical condition, that too without a research.

Many other news are often in Media about the medical negligence, few are true but most are mere news, baseless and meaningless ones but which when read by general people becomes an issue of public sentiment and has fired hard on Medical profession.
The only way out is , we need educated Medical journalist for health section and journalist must be very sensitive while raising issue in the health sector without enough research because once the gun is fired, the damage cannot be repaired with a “sorry.”

And the Irony is each time such news have been published in The National daily Kantipur.

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2 Comments

  • Anencephaly was published on many more Nepalese news sites like realkhabar and onlinekhabar.

    • Right Vinay, the newspaper are suppose to enlighten people but here they spread hoax and superstition.

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