ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the paradox of patient safety in the media: put simply, deficiencies in patient safety receive ample coverage, whereas the improvement and maintenance of patient safety receive far less. It presents and reflects on the findings of a media impact assessment undertaken as part of a review of the UK-based programme of patient safety research: the Patient Safety Research Portfolio (PSRP). The chapter focuses on the absence of patient safety success stories in the media, as illustrated by investigation of media coverage of the PSRP research corpus, and attempts to explain why so few positive or hopeful patient safety stories were found in the media coverage. It considers the tension that has traditionally characterized the relationship between research communities and the mass media. The chapter concludes with a strategy that patient safety researchers and research commissioners might use to address the imbalance in coverage of patient safety issues and research.
