Media Influences on Social Norms and Health

Medias Authority on Illness Messages the Public define In todays culture, the media influences galore(postnominal) aspects of daily life. For the purpose of this research the media will encompass television, countersignpaper, magazines, and internet and the messages intentional from these outlets relating to disarray. In addition, investigating how quite a little in power authoritative the messages portrayed on the media outlets and the agenda behind the messages. The community or organizations that influence the media stick a big impact on the way we look on or feel to the blueest degree unwellness.Human beings can come to accept most anything that is retell on the news, published in magazines, and said by people of influence. flock in power will include, for the purpose of this argument, those with credentials, self-help experts, and funding agencies for specific ailmentes. The media and people in power control what the mankind learns roughly illness. Moreover, human beingsizing illness when there is a finical gain or what socio-economic group suffers from the disorder or illness. According to Brumberg (2000), anorexia nervosa was a relatively unheard of disease until the 1980s.Today it is so commonplace that women will see a friend who has lost encumbrance or looks skinny and refer to her as looking anorexic. If this disease was besides labeled as anorexia around thirty years ago how did it bristle into mainstream culture so quickly? There ar a egress of different arguments to pose elite women from Ivy League universities took interest in the topic, the three most popular womens magazines published many a nonher(prenominal) stories about the disease, and people of social berth died from this disease (Brumberg 2000).Different diverse newspapers became intrigued and jumped on the anorexia bandwagon, correct including pictures of gauntly women on the covers claiming outrageously high numbers of women that at a time have this disea se (Brumberg, 2000). It is also important to none that nearly solely of the anorexia sufferers were pureness and came from naughty families (Brumberg 2000). These girls coming from wealthy families obviously had the money to pay for manipulation and doctors. It is workable that their families ran in circles with doctors, scientists, and people that have social post to make maturely decisions.These decisions generated media attention leading to the general public being flooded with movies, documentaries, and news broadcasts (Brumberg 2000). If these affected by this new disease of anorexia were poor and underprivileged arguably the public would not have learned about anorexia and it might mayhap not exist today. Like anorexia, the disease of fibromyalgia did not exist as a labeled disorder until the mid s howeverties (Barker 1999). Remarkably now six million the Statesns ar diagnosed a syndrome which did not exist thirty years ago.Self-help literature and the internet is on e of the biggest facilitators in generating information to the public as well as funded organizations (Barker 1999). According to Barker (1999) fibromyalgia is characterized by many different symptoms and it can present itself differently for every case. Interesting comely during interviews Barker performed with twenty-five women only one woman had not occupy self-help books, but she relied on information from her support group leader to learn about her syndrome (Barker 1999).Debatably, these women may have never learned they had a syndrome, lived their lives without media messages, and peradventure saving money, time, and heartache dealing with this new diagnosis. By looking at the new diseases of fibromyalgia and anorexia it is clear that the media and people of influence taught the general public about these illnesses and facilitated there widespread exposure, but how does the media take on what messages to deliver and what messages to keep apart from the general public.Clear ly, anorexia was a disease of wealthy, attractive girls which could make a good story, generating money for the news outlets, doctors, and pharmaceutical companies. In addition, fibromyalgia could generate the same guinea pig of financial gain for doctors and medical companies, but ar these the only motivators for the media and omnipotent people. According to Armstrong, carpenter, and Hojnacki (2004) who constructed a study about whose deaths matter in America with attention to the mass media and the same motivators were congruent with the results they found.Consistent with powerful people tyrannical messages in the media, Armstrong et. al (2004) discovered that celebrities and members of Congress become intricate with different diseases promoting attention and consequently leading to these promoted diseases appearing on national media outlets. For example, when Karen Carpenter died of anorexia it brought many celebrities together to publicize anorexia teaching the public the i mportance of treatment for anorexia (Brumberg 2000).The media claims that the diseases they cover are those that affect the general population but ironically the people that dictate what these general population diseases are, consist of the influential people and those with credentials (Armstrong et. al 2004). During Armstrong et. al (2004) study they also discovered that the media is to a greater extent likely to cover diseases that affect white people than black people, make up if a disease is killing many more blacks than whites. Mass media concentrate ones more on the color of someones skin and social term than the mortality rate of a certain disease or illness.This absurdity can also be seen not only with what the media covers, but with what they choose not to cover. From the 1960s to 1980s black men in Harlem had a lower rate of survival than men in Bangladesh (McCord and Freeman 1990) and this was not publicized or put on any major media outlet. If white men had a lower survival rate it would have been all over the major news headlines because of their socio-economic status and control towards the media. The unequal reportage of media attention because of issues of power, race, and money in turn condition the general publics perception about illness.Even people that are educated and expert many times cannot control being manipulated by the media to go on with messages they are delivering. Whats more is if the doctors, celebrities, and powerful funding companies are not endorsing an illness, therefore the media does not cover it, the general public will not ever hear about it. Surely, if anorexia suffers would have been black women with low socio-economic status the top womens magazines in the country would not have published stories, news broadcasts would have been non-existent, and quite possibly anorexia would only be know to few and not a mainstream disease.Diseases that affect minority groups draw cold less media attention and Armstrong et. al (2004) theorizes that it stems from predominantly white broadcasters and media executives. Furthermore, speculating that media workers would rather focus on illness that affects their particular social class and group (Armstrong et. al 2004). This theory continues to support the argument that the people in power are working through the media to control the messages the public learn about illness and disease.Organized advocates, research scientists, and politically active organizations also have a high investment in messages the media relays to the public. Advocates call great attention to their cause threw conscription on media attention and aligning themselves with politicians that support their cause in amity with the policy goals of the politician (Armstrong et. al 2004). It is a win for all involved the politicians get the media coverage they want for their agenda, again sending messages about illness in a political format.People in power and the media have an wondrous func tion in controlling what messages the public learns about illness. There are many different reasons they want to control the messages humans take in through various types of media outlets. Facilitating their own social group, money, and political gain are just a few addressed in this argument. The mass media, controlled by powerful people decide what illness they want the public to learn about and often times it has more to do with race and status than how many people are actually suffering or even dying from a disease. ReferencesMcCord, C. & Freeman, H. P. (1990). Excess Mortality in Harlem. New England journal of Medicine, 32225 p. 173-177. Brumberg, J. J. (2000). Anorexia Nervosa in Context. Fasting Girls pp. 10-21, 33-42 264-267. Armstrong, E. , Carpenter, D. & Hojnacki, M. E. (2006). Whose Deaths Matter? Mortality, Advocacy, and Attention to Disease in the Mass Media. Journal of Health Politics and Law 314, pp. 729-772. Barker, K. (2002). Self-Help writings and the Making o f an Illness Identity The Case of Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS). Social Problem 493, pp. 279-300.