Transcending the medical/media opposition in research on news coverage of health and medicine. (January 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hallin, Daniel C; Briggs, Charles L
• Is Part Of: Media, culture, and society. Volume 37:Number 1(2015:Jan.)
• Page Start: 85
• Page End: 100
• Publication Date: 2015-01
• Subjects: health -- health communication -- health news -- journalism -- science and technology studies -- sociology of medicine; Mass media and culture -- Periodicals; Mass media -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Wireless communication systems -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 302.2305
• DOI: 10.1177/0163443714549090
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0163-4437

Abstract

Health and medicine are major topics of news coverage, but research on health and medical reporting has remained mainly confined to specialist subfields, with less impact on broader academic fields, including journalism studies, than would seem warranted by its importance. This article argues that assumptions implicit in much of this literature have limited the development of a wider tradition of research on health journalism. We point particularly to what we call the linear-reflectionist perspective, which sees health journalism as an often-flawed mechanism for transmitting pre-existing medical knowledge to the mass public. We propose an alternative framework that seeks to illuminate the complexity and importance of this field of study.