Setting the agenda: does the medical literature set the agenda for articles about medicines in the newspapers?

The source of ideas and information on medicines most important to journalists in the Netherlands, and most commonly consulted by them, is known to be the scientific medical literature. In this study we therefore, explored the relation between the kind of medicines discussed in the scientific medical literature and those discussed in newspapers. A content analysis of scientific medical journals was combined with a content analysis of Dutch daily newspapers. The results show an agreement in the main groups of medicines discussed in the scientific medical literature and newspapers. In both the newspapers and the professional journals anti-infective medication and drugs for the central nervous system are the groups of medicines most frequently discussed. Although it has been suggested that 'bad news' is more newsworthy then 'good news', the negative consequences of the use of medicines received proportionally more attention in the professional literature than in the newspapers.