With the ever-impending threat of an Avian Influenza epidemic, the continual spread of AIDS in Africa, cancer and cures in constant abundance, and ongoing ethical dilemmas in medical research, few topics receive more media attention today than health.
The study of the Australian health and hospital systems has revealed interesting topics within the health beat – the primary issue that interests me being the representation and treatment of doctors in the media.
That being so, I will attempt to answer the following question for my final essay in News and Current Affairs:
How have doctors been framed in the Australian media to form particular mythological narratives?
Observing the health beat in recent weeks has left me with some interesting examples from the Australian media and health system. The focus of this essay however, will lie in the theoretical ideas of Narrative and Framing.
Bird and Dardenne explore the idea of news narratives in ‘Myth, Chronicle and Story: Exploring the Narrative Qualities of News’ (1997), citing Barkin and his Hero/Villain notion:
There must be villains and heroes in every paper, and the storylines must conform to the usage of suspense, conflict, the defeat of evil, and the triumph of good that have guided the good sense and artistry of past storytellers and controlled their audience’s ability to respond. (Barkin; 1984: 30; cited in Bird & Dardenne; 1997: 344)
Bird and Dardenne support this notion, stating that journalists consistently fit NEW situations and stories into these original “culturally determined” definitions:
It is in their power to place people and events into the existing categories of hero, villain, good and bad, and thus to invest their stories with the authority of mythological truth. (Bird & Dardenne; 1997: 345)
I will look at how doctors have been featured within the Hero/Villain discourse of the Australian media.
Furthermore, I will look at HOW doctors have been framed within these stories, to depict the Hero/Villain persona. Entman describes news framing as: “selecting and highlighting some facets of events or issues and making connections among them so as to promote a particular interpretation, evaluation or solution.” (2004: 5) While Bird and Dardenne write:
Who is hero and who is villain is not a question of random selection to fit existing formulas. As Schudson (1982) argues, “The power of the media lies not only (and not even primarily) in its power to declare things to be true, but in its power to provide the forms in which the declarations will appear.” (1997: 345)
Through my studies of the health in the news, I have chosen four situations through which to explore the theoretical notions of Narrative and Framing:
1. Doctor as HERO
The most recent example of a doctor being portrayed as a Hero in the media is Dr Ian Frazer’s naming of Australian of the Year for his work in Papilloma virus research. Celebrity doctors and reality television shows like ‘RPA’ will also be looked at.
2. Doctors v ADMINISTRATION
This idea stems from the Doctor as Hero situation, and will look at the POSITIONING of doctors against the health system and political regulations. The most recent example of this situation is the Hospital Reform Group.
3. Doctor as VILLAIN
Doctors often become the scapegoats for criticism when something goes wrong, but the most famous examples would be when a number doctors have become known as ‘Dr Death’ the media, the most recent being Dr Jayant Patel of Bundaberg Hospital.
4. DEBATE: Doctor as hero OR villain
This area will give me the opportunity to explore the role the media plays in developing controversial medical issues. Primary research has led me to believe that the media will often promote itself as the ADVOCATE for TRUTH. A key example here is A Current Affair’s reporting on Dr John Holt, and his alleged radiotherapy cancer cure.
Preliminary annotated bibliography:
Friedman, Lester D. (Ed); Cultural Sutures: Medicine and Media; Duke University Press, Durham & London; 2004
A study of the public’s fixation on medical culture, its increasing representation in the media, and the growing trend for hospitals to employ media relations departments to maximise positive publicity. As well as exploring the ethical issues of striking a balance between disseminating information and an agenda through the media, this book looks at the impact fictional depictions of doctors and medical procedures can have on patient expectations.
Seale, Clive (Ed); Health and the Media; Blackwell Publishing, UK; 2004
A collection of medical studies from specialists in media studies and the sociology of health and illness. The book looks at how the mass media influences beliefs, behaviour, practice and policy-making within health, and stresses the analysis of health representation.
Graham Scambler; Habermas, Critical Theory and Health; Routledge, London and New York; 2001
A critical text applying the social theories of Jürgen Habermas to the sociology of health and illness. As Habermas’ theories provide attempts to understand social change in the context of global capitalism, I will use this book as a theoretical starting point to study the changing representations of and within health.
Gwyn, Richard; Communicating Health and Illness; SAGE Publications, London; 2002
A study of the discourse of communicating health and illness, and representations of reality in pursuit of particular ideological ends. The book focuses on discourse, and narrative analysis, and tends to be a “sociolinguistic” study of health representations and communications.
Nelkin, Dorothy; Selling Science: How the press covers science and technology; W.H. Freeman and Company, New York; 1987
A focus on science and technology, rather than medicine. The premise of this book is based on the understanding that most people gain their knowledge and understanding of science through the media – an issue that applies to health reporting also. It studies the characteristics of journalism and science that contribute to shaping particular images and attitudes. I will use this book for its writings on the constraints of the journalist when reporting science.
‘Health Reporting’; Nieman Reports; The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Hnarvard University; Vol. 57 No. 1 Spring 2003.
URL: http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/03-1NRspring/V57N1.pdf
A journal that examines issues in reporting health, through specific case studies. Topics covered include why health reporting is important, problems encountered, and why health coverage can be inaccurate. The second number of this volume of the Nieman Reports, which is title Medical Reporting, will also be used.
