Health Bias in the News, Essay Example

My mother heard a report on television that stated that drinking water during exercise is unhealthy. As a consequence, she decided to stop drinking water while exercising, but felt extremely dehydrated as a result of this. When I researched this report, I found that the research actually advises that individuals should only consume water when people are thirsty. Because this news clip was done quickly, it appeared that my mother and other individuals of the public were unable to receive the true message that the report was trying to convey. In addition, it is well-known that people become dehydrated while exercising and need water to compensate for this water loss. I explained to my mother that it is important to think critically about information presented by the news and other resources because they are interpretations of information generated by scientists for the purposes of media reporting. As a consequence, these reports are often biased because they aim to create viewer interest instead of necessarily providing them with accurate information. I informed my mother that she should think about news reports in the context of her existing knowledge to determine whether or not they seem to be providing realistic health advice. Furthermore, I asked her to think about the pros and cons of following such information. Since drinking water is necessary for health and since people become thirsty during working out, it is reasonable to consume water. Furthermore, if people died from drinking water during their workout, the population would be well-aware of this statistic. This reasoning helped my mother determine that she should not believe everything she hears on the news and to think critically about the information before agreeing or disagreeing with it.