Do No Harm: Ethical Reporting of Health News

This thesis examines the ethics of reporting health news out of context and how this practice has primed our country for the "fake news" era as well as the implications of this priming as they relate to information literacy and trust in science and the media. In order to do this, the researcher reviews the basics of scientific and health news communication, information literacy, audience behavior, and implications for the future of information literacy and public trust in the media. In addition to this literature review, the researcher conducted a survey to determine how people react to conflicting health news and how much trust they place in the media. This is followed by a brief case study of reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. Finally, implications for current media behavior and the necessary information literacy and health news communication steps to combat priming people to fall victim to the fake news era are discussed.