Seasons, studies, and scientists. These are the driving forces behind the food and nutrition stories you read in the morning paper or hear on the evening news.

Food and health journalists and editors have shared with Food Insight the ways in which they formulate story ideas, along with some of the key components that go into a story’s development and eventual publication or broadcast.

“You pick up ideas from talking to various scientists, or you receive a press release from an industry source or a university, or you see an article,” said Eric Berger, a medical and health reporter for The Houston Chronicle.

Susan Houston, food editor for The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, explains that for food stories she depends on the seasons and the weather for inspiration; and for nutrition stories, she relies heavily on what is in the news. “If there’s a new report that’s come out on the relative safety of a food, I’ll probably want to report on that,” Houston added.

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Food journalists described their responsibility for expanding on breaking stories and broad movements in the food and health world.

“Say there’s an incidence of foodborne illness—then the breaking news stories would be covered by our daily news department, but we would supplement that with a bit more depth,” said Michael Dunne, a food editor at The Sacramento Bee.

“We would follow up the news stories with a little more information on how concerned people should be,” he offered, adding that they would provide additional explanatory material.

The Information Hunt

As they begin to gather facts, journalists first try to establish a knowledge base for themselves. Berger gets that base from the primary source, which might be the author of a scientific article or the leader of the research team. “Generally, there’s a primary source, and if it’s a topic I’m not familiar with, I’ll ask that person,” he said. After that, he added, “you might consult a service, look at clips, run through LexisNexis.” “There are also media guides put out by various sources that can be helpful.” (One example is the International Food Information Council Foundation’s Media Guide, which is provided to newspaper editors and other journalists.)

Next, journalists turn to outside sources and experts. Journalists said they seek to satisfy two goals when locating experts: finding unbiased sources and representing a range of opinions.

Source Credibility

Dunne said he looks for university faculty with specialty areas: “I know that there are a lot of sources . . . people with vested interests, industry sources,” he said. “But I think our first choice would be universities.”

Houston said she seeks an array of opinions so that her stories are not one-sided. “Especially for nutrition and food safety stories we try not to rely on one source of information, but look for a wide range,” she said.

A Balancing Act

To give readers a fair look, journalists say they attempt to put all relevant information out in plain view. “We try to put forward what everyone is saying, and let the consumer draw their own conclusions,” Houston said.

Berger said that the more people who are cited in a story, the more balanced the piece is. “Generally, you try to talk to as many people as possible, and then generally, you get more balance,” he said.

Sometimes it is difficult to make final deductions for the reader when the sources conflict with one another, Dunne confessed. “Striving for the balance, we try to round up deep representations of views—pros and cons—and then work out a consensus,” Dunne said. “If there’s no one way or the other, we provide everything and let the readers draw conclusions that are best for them.”

Pulling It Together

Journalists always have the readers in mind. In reporting on breaking health news, reporters know that it is important to explain the scientific basics. It can be easy to get mired in scientific jargon and explanations that take up all the space in the story. However, reporters want to give the public useful and applicable information on how to respond to news and whether to make changes in their daily habits.

Journalists want their stories to be accurate and informative, but they also want them to be interesting or even entertaining for the reader. They face quite a challenge to quickly produce a piece that’s precise, objective, interesting, thorough, and generally, brief. Journalists want to interview experts in the field; and they want to reach out to the reader with clear, comprehensible, and appealing stories, preferably with advice or “what now” suggestions for the reader. The goal is balance and fairness, although these are sometimes subjective qualities.