News releases can play a significant role in shaping how news stories cover research findings: if a news release exaggerates aspects of the work, stories are more likely to do the same. By the same token, if releases incorporate important caveats, news stories are more likely to follow suit.
Those are some of the interesting findings in a new paper from the journal PLOS ONE, which I wrote about for HealthNewsReview.org. The paper is worth a read. Hopefully, my piece is too. Check them out.