How do you know if a newspaper article is giving a balanced view of an issue? Write down some of the things you should look for.

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1 Vaccines Q This unit is about the importance of the media (TV, newspapers, radio) in science. The media may be biased in how they report science. They also influence people s opinions on scientific issues. good example of this is the safety of vaccines. Before you start You are vaccinated to protect against diseases that used to harm or kill people. Imagine one of the vaccines carries a tiny risk that you may lose your hearing. What level of risk are you prepared to accept? 1 in in 10, in a million None at all questions Now do the activities fter you have finished Once you ve finished the activities, answer the questions below. newspaper article can change people s point of view about a scientific issue. a b How did article 2 try to persuade you that the MMR vaccine is risky? What effects can newspaper scare stories have on the public? How do you know if a newspaper article is giving a balanced view of an issue? Write down some of the things you should look for. The chances of a measles vaccine having a serious side effect are 1 in a million. How safe do you think the vaccine is? Explain your choice. Not safe? Quite safe? Very safe? The media creates news rather than reports it. Do you agree with this statement? Explain. There are many scare stories about food in the newspapers. Choose one, such as GM (genetically modified) foods. Write a headline to persuade people of the dangers. Draw a picture to add to the impact.

2 The MMR vaccine 1 Imagine you are a parent, and your baby is about to be vaccinated. You receive a leaflet from your doctor explaining what will happen. activities Why is it important to have a child vaccinated? List the benefits. What evidence is given that the vaccine works? List the side-effects or risks of the MMR vaccine? Describe how a parent could decide whether to vaccinate their baby.

3 The vaccination question 2 You are about decide whether to have your baby vaccinated. You read in the newspaper that there may be a risk from the MMR vaccine. What will you do? Read the newspaper article. Look at the information sheet on autism. Think about the risks and benefits to your child of being vaccinated. Decide whether you will have your baby vaccinated. What are your reasons? Parents meeting Discuss your opinions about MMR with parents who read the other article. Take it in turns to give your opinions on whether to have the vaccine or not. If they have a different point of view, try to persuade them to change their mind. activities Has the discussion changed anyone s decision on vaccination? Why? utism fact sheet What is autism? utism is a serious condition which affects the development of young children. bout 1 in 1000 children become autistic. Children with autism suffer from three main problems: 1 Interacting with others Children with autism often prefer to be alone. Or if they do want to have friends, they may not know how to behave with them. 2 Communicating bout half of all children with autism never learn how to talk properly. Though not deaf, they may not even turn around when someone calls their name. 3 Behaviour Children with autism get fixed on a few narrow interests e.g. electricity pylons. Some also make repetitive movements, like flapping their hands. utism is a disorder of the brain, whose symptoms do not go away. There are more research links on this story at: www. shu.ac.uk/pri

4 Facts and opinions 4 When you read about science, it is important to separate facts that are based on scientific evidence, from opinion. Fact is something which has been proved. Opinions are personal what people think. Copy and complete the table to show which arguments in the articles are fact or opinion (you need to work with someone who has read the other article). rguments made From which article? Fact or opinion? Evidence MMR caused lex Hall s autism It is dangerous if babies stop having the vaccine activities MMR causes health problems for many children There is a link between MMR and autism MMR is not the cause of autism Parents should trust vaccines a Does article 2 try to persuade using facts or opinion? Explain your choice. b Why do you think much of this evidence was missing from article 2? Were the two articles fair and balanced, or biased? Explain, giving examples. Will you vaccinate your baby now? Why?

5 Newspaper article 1 2 FERS OF NOTHER MESLES EPIDEMIC The number of parents vaccinating their babies against measles is falling to dangerous levels. In one part of Wales it is just 70%. Scientists predict that once the number of babies vaccinated dips below 90%, there could be a new measles epidemic. When this happened in merica in 1989, the measles outbreak killed 120 children. Is the MMR vaccine safe? Parents seem to be worried about the safety of MMR. They think it might lead to a serious condition called autism. utistic children are withdrawn from other people. In 1998 Dr Wakefield, at the Royal Free Hospital, suggested there was a link between MMR and autism. He studied 12 babies who suddenly developed autism. In eight cases it started soon after MMR vaccination. MMR link with autism is coincidence There is no clear evidence that MMR is the cause of autism. Scientists looked at 500 cases. In half of them, the autism appeared before the vaccination. So the vaccine could not have caused the autism. This finding has been confirmed by similar research in Sweden. The link between MMR vaccine and autism is likely to be coincidence. The symptoms of autism are often obvious by the time the child is two. This just happens to be soon after they have the vaccine. Scientists believe the cause of autism is partly genetic. More evidence that the vaccine is safe comes from the graph below. utism has been rising for 20 years. Since the vaccine was introduced 12 years ago, the pattern has not changed. Parents should continue to vaccinate babies The Department of Health said: Parents should trust the MMR jab. If they stop vaccinating babies, then all children will be at risk of catching measles. It would be a disaster if this disease killed children because of a mistaken fear of the vaccine. More research links on this story at: www. shu.ac.uk/pri article No. of cases of autism No change in pattern since MMR vaccine introduced Will you vaccinate your baby? Why?

6 Newspaper article 2 2 MMR MIMED MY CHILD article No. of cases of autism MMR Vaccine introduced Will you vaccinate your baby? Why?

7 Examining the evidence E Dr Wakefield s suggested link between MMR and autism was initially based on 12 children. The link was based on the evidence in the table below. More recent research on 2 million children in Finland found no link. No. of cases where autism started after vaccination 8 No. of cases where autism started before vaccination 4 a b c d e What numbers would you expect if there was no link? Do you think the results in the table provide reliable evidence of a link between MMR and autism? Explain your answer. What results do you think the more recent research in Finland got? Draw a possible results table. Draw another table of results for the later research which would suggest: i ii a weak link between MMR and autism a strong link between MMR and autism. Why is it important that people don t accept findings based on one piece of research? extension In rticle 1 there is a graph showing the rise in cases of autism. a b c How is this graph evidence that MMR does not cause autism? rticle 2 uses the same graph to suggests that MMR does cause autism. How has it changed the graph to show this? Explain why this is misleading. Would it be correct to say this trend will continue in the future? Explain. a b This question looks at how article 2 uses language to persuade people. Pick out two or more examples of each of the following techniques: i ii Emotive words words used deliberately to arouse people s feelings. Personal pronouns to make it sound like the article is talking directly to you. iii Repetition to make sure people remember the message. How else has the article been written to try to persuade people? List some positive effects the media can have by the way they present science issues. You are being interviewed about the parents campaign against MMR in article 2. You are from the Department of Health. Plan out what you will say. Try to explain why the link between MMR and the vaccine is coincidence.

8 Vaccines T Media reports claim that a measles vaccine is not safe. Should parents have their babies vaccinated? In this unit, pupils learn about the influence of the media on science. teachers notes Learning objectives ctivities (these may be customised using Notes the CD) Ideas and evidence Members of the public depend on mass media for science and technology issues. These may be biased, but have a big influence on the issues discussed, and the points of view people take. See CD for references to GCSE syllabuses. Key skills/thinking skills Communication: presenting an argument, expressing ideas and opinions. Evaluation: evaluating what is written. The first page presents an opinion question to get pupils involved and review questions for looking at after the activities in class, for homework, or for discussion. MMR vaccine Introduction to the issue whether to have your baby vaccinated. It explains why the vaccine is important. The vaccination question Pupils look at one of the two newspaper articles about a possible link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Half the pupils get rticle 1 which presents all the evidence, concluding that the link is a coincidence. The other half read rticle 2 which is a scare story, using parent s opinions, focusing only on the evidence establishing the link. Pupils can also see extra information about autism. Ideally, to show the influence of the media, most pupils who read only article 1 will consent to have their babies vaccinated. nd pupils who read only article 2 will not. You could also introduce the risk of autism by, for example, showing a video clip from the film Rain Man, in which Dustin Hoffman plays a person with autism. Parents meeting It is important to get pupils decisions about vaccination at this stage, so that they can see how they have been influenced by the article they read. This activity could be done as a teacher-led discussion or a pupil discussion to compare what groups who have read each article think about vaccination. If the discussion is pupil led, it should be run in groups made of people who have read both articles. Each tries to persuade the other of their point of view. Facts and opinions This activity gets pupils to analyse newspaper articles, to separate fact from opinion, and decide whether the article is balanced or biased. Pupils can work in pairs one of each pair reads each article (they need to look at both articles). Where the unit fits in Health Routes through unit ll activities except for Examining the evidence are intended to be accessible for C/D ability pupils. Timing guidelines Total classroom time for the main activities is 60 minutes. Prior knowledge It helps if pupils are familiar with basic ideas of vaccines. Language balanced, biased, risk The CD contains a glossary of terms used in this unit. More about vaccines Visit the PRI website at Examining the evidence (extension activity) More challenging questions about the scientific evidence and the influence of the media. Suggestion for further activity Get pupils to play newspaper editor. Take a balanced story about a science issue from a newspaper or magazine. By removing sentences or words, can they make it biased? This unit is sponsored by the Medical Research Council. The Pupil Researcher Initiative (PRI) is sponsored by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and the Particle Physics and stronomy Research Council (PPRC). Pupil