Media and Health

Citation

(2002), "Media and Health", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 15 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2002.06215eae.003

Media and Health

Media and Health

Seale, C.2002Sage PublicationsISBN Cloth 0761947299 Paper 0761947302

How are health matters presented by the mass media? How accurate are the messages we are receiving? This book demonstrates how health messages in popular mass media are important influences in our lives, and that they are not neutral, being subject to many determining influences. It demonstrates the importance of mass media for understanding the experience of illness, health and health care, bringing together the latest thinking in the field of media studies and the sociology of health and illness.

Media producers are subject to a variety of influences, from medical lobbies, scientific organisations, and not least the commercial pressure to satisfy media-saturated audiences. These mean that aims of health promoters are not always easily achieved, leading to considerable tensions that require a deeper understanding of media health than has hitherto been applied to them. The book provides a thorough review of research literature on media representations of health, illness and health care, covering their production, characteristic forms and relationships with the everyday lives of media audiences. It brings together both well-known and lesser-known studies in the context of an integrated, sociological argument.