| While the role of media in facilitating behavioural change in health promotion campaigns has been studied, little is known about how health journalists perceive their role in knowledge translation (KT). Using a qualitative design and a grounded theory approach, this study adapted Kitson's KT framework to explore how health journalists perceive their role. Role theory and a constructed identity approach were also used. Data were manually coded and analysed for emerging themes. Preliminary findings suggest health journalists may participate in secondary roles/actions not commonly associated with health journalism. These secondary roles are: educator, advocate and health promoter in health policy and personal health care decisions. This study found that health journalists may need to reflect further on the implicit roles associated with their work. This is timely as health journalists continue to debate their evolving role within the changing landscape of journalism and health care. |
