Kaiser Health News

Going into this assignment I thought it was going to be nearly impossible to discover an independent news source among so many different mainstream sources. Although there are only six major media conglomerates I felt as if they owned practically everything. Also, not having a full understanding of exactly what an “independent” news source was, I knew it was going to be a challenge. While searching for the news source I found myself becoming a little bit frustrated because I felt as if I could not find a source that would help to begin research for my topic. However, various websites provided information with links to many independently owned media sources. These links helped me to decipher between which news sources I could use and which I could not. After analyzing many different sources I was able to recognize which ones seemed most reliable. Having a topic that focuses on the link between the progressing media and childhood obesity rates, I felt that selecting a source that focused on health was most important. For this reason, I selected Kaiser Health News as my independent news source.

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is part of the Kaiser Family Foundation—“a non-profit, private operating foundation focusing on the major health care issues facing the U.S.”.  Kaiser Health News is considered an editorially independent news service that covers both health policy and politics. After reading through the “About” and “Faq” information provided on the website I realized that their number one goal was to keep individuals informed about the current health status of the United States. Specifically, Kaiser Health News states a mission that seeks to “provide high-quality coverage of health policy issues and developments at the federal and state levels” along with covering trends in the “delivery of health care and in the marketplace.” KHN makes known their willingness to provide their audience with as much information possible. It is their goal to make sure that citizens of the U.S. are being provided with the most, and best information concerning health status, insurance and policy. Not only do they include information upon health care in the U.S. but they also provide daily summaries that discuss health care news across the nation. KHN will publish anything from “in-depth” news stories to shorter articles focusing upon the current health care system, initiatives and issues.

What I found most interesting about KHN was that in their “About” section they included a statement that they do not accept any advertising. The fact that KHN does not accept advertising may make it a more reliable source. They clearly want to focus, and want their audience to focus, on what they are saying without having any advertising interruptions throughout the website. Searching through the KHN website I thought it was organized in a way that was easy to navigate through. They have archives of main topics such as “States,” “Health Reform,” “Medicare” etc. and within each one of these archives there are many different articles and sources of information.  Kaiser Health News also makes it an easy task to contact them about any questions or concerns and allows readers to submit stories to them. KHN seems to have much respect and care for their audience and comes off as a very reliable resource. This independent news source and links provided on their website prove to be advantageous for my topic after searching through all the different archives. Overall, I think this appears to be a helpful site for anyone looking for information concerning health policy not only in the U.S. but around the world.