Interaction between academic radiology and the news media: a potentially powerful and unpredictable process--five stories.

OBJECTIVE: Although articles have been published describing the relationship between news reports and the general medical literature, to our knowledge little has been published describing the relationship between radiology publications and news coverage. We present five instances of news stories centered on radiology publications or abstracts of presentations at national meetings and the effect of the media coverage within the medical community. CONCLUSION: The five examples show that news coverage can have a dramatic effect on advancing research findings and public health information published in radiology journals. Even when news coverage is inaccurate or sensationalized, the attention of the general public can drive change not only generally in medicine but also specifically in radiology.