Marvellous medicines and dangerous drugs : discourse analysis of the representation of medicine in the UK newsprint media

Prosser, H 2010, 'Marvellous medicines and dangerous drugs : discourse analysis of the representation of medicine in the UK newsprint media' , Public Understanding of Science, 19 (1) , pp. 52-69.

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Abstract

Using discourse analysis, this study examines the representation of prescription medicines in the UK newsprint media and, specifically, how the meaning and function of medicines are constructed. At the same time, it examines the extent to which the newsprint media represents a resource for health information, and considers how it may encourage or challenge faith in modern medicine and medical authority. As such, it extends analysis around concepts such as the informed patient and examines the representation of patients and doctors and the extent to which patient-doctor identities promoted in the newsprint media reflect a shift away from paternalism to negotiated encounters. Findings show the media constructs a discrete, contradictory, and frequently oversimplified set of characterizations about medicine. Moreover, it discursively constructs realities that justify and sustain medial dominance. Ideological paradigms in discourse assign patients as passive and disempowered while simultaneously privileging "expert" knowledge. This constructs a reality that marginalizes patients' participation in decision-making

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Discourse analysis, informed patient, newsprint media, prescription medicines, UK
Themes:	Health and Wellbeing Media, Digital Technology and the Creative Economy
Schools:	Schools > School of Health and Society > Centre for Applied Research in Health, Welfare and Policy
Journal or Publication Title:	Public Understanding of Science
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Refereed:	Yes
ISSN:	0963-6625
Depositing User:	H Prosser
Date Deposited:	05 Sep 2011 11:23
Last Modified:	06 Feb 2018 23:07
URI:	http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/17479

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