The Role of the Media in Public Health Crises: Perspectives from the UK and Europe

Author(s):  
Hugh Pennington
Keyword(s):  
2010 ◽  
pp. 67-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Basten

Much research has been conducted in the field of utilising the media - television and radio in particular - to promote particular public health messages. However, a burgeoning canon has examined how mass media can play a role in affecting change in fertility preferences and outcomes. In this paper we review these researches which have primarily focussed upon higher fertility settings. The impact of mass media presentation of families and children in low fertility settings has not yet been subject to rigorous sociological investigation so its impact can not be accurately inferred. However, given the pervasive nature of mass media and celebrity culture, we suggest that this is an important avenue for future research. We conclude that television plays a multi-faceted role in shaping individuals decision-making procedures concerning both demographic events and public health interactions. To illustrate this, we present a model which demonstrates a sliding scale of intent - but not impact - of various genres in order to understand the actual role of the media in shaping attitudes towards family size - either explicitly in terms of edutainment or implicitly as a forms of normalization.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 60-63
Author(s):  
Jonas Harvard ◽  
Mats Hyvönen ◽  
Ingela Wadbring

In the last decade, the development of small, remotely operated multicopters with cameras, so-called drones, has made aerial photography easily available. Consumers and institutions now use drones in a variety of ways, both for personal entertainment and professionally. The application of drones in media production and journalism is of particular interest, as it provides insight into the complex interplay between technology, the economic and legal constraints of the media market, professional cultures and audience preferences. The thematic issue <em>Journalism from Above: Drones, the Media, and the Transformation of Journalistic Practice</em> presents new research concerning the role of drones in journalism and media production. The issue brings together scholars representing a variety of approaches and perspectives. A broad selection of empirical cases from Finland, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the US form the basis of an exploration of the changing relations between the media, technology and society. The articles address topics such as: Adaption of drone technology in the newsrooms; audience preferences and reactions in a changing media landscape; the relation between journalists and public authorities who use drones; and attitudes from journalistic practitioners as well as historical and future perspectives.


Author(s):  
Gabrielle Samuel ◽  
Rosie Sims

The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) COVID-19 contact tracing app was announced to the British public on 12th April 2020. The UK government endorsed the app as a public health intervention that would improve public health, protect the NHS and ‘save lives’. On 5th May 2020 the technology was released for trial on the Isle of Wight. However, the trial was halted in June 2020, reportedly due to technological issues. The app was later remodelled and launched to the public in September 2020. The rapid development, trial and discontinuation of the app over a short period of a few months meant that the mobilisation and effect of the discourses associated with the app could be traced relatively easily. In this paper we aimed to explore how these discourses were constructed in the media, and their effect on actors – in particular, those who developed and those who trialled the app. Promissory discourses were prevalent, the trajectory of which aligned with theories developed in the sociology of expectations. We describe this trajectory, and then interpret its implications in terms of infectious disease public health practices and responsibilities.


This chapter begins by covering the UK health profile, then defines the key concepts in primary care and public health, and outlines the generic long-term conditions model. It provides a brief overview of the National Health Service, including differences in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. It covers current NHS entitlements for people from overseas, commissioning of services, and public health in a broader context. It also describes health needs assessment, and provides an overview of the services in primary care, the role of general practice, and other primary healthcare services. Further services, including those to prevent unplanned hospital admission, aid hospital discharge, those that support children and families, housing, social support, and care homes are all covered.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martina Topić ◽  
Ralph Tench

This paper analyzed the coverage on the anti-sugar debate and the supermarket industry in the British press, in a period between 2014 and 2015. Using social responsibility of the press theory and a qualitative two-tier content analysis, we first conducted a documentary analysis of public relations materials (press releases and surveys published by Action on Sugar as a main anti-sugar advocate in the UK), and then we traced these public relations materials in the press coverage. We also analyzed whether some sources are preferred more than others by focusing on the nature of quoted sources and whether the media give a voice to everyone, both the anti-sugar activists and the relevant industry figures who claim that sugar is not the only reason for the current obesity problem in the UK. The results show that the media have not given a representative voice to the industry but only to the anti-sugar NGOs, thus opening a question of journalism standards and the extent the press could be considered as socially responsible in this particular case.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. e0254127
Author(s):  
Sara Kazemian ◽  
Sam Fuller ◽  
Carlos Algara

Pundits and academics across disciplines note that the human toll brought forth by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the United States (U.S.) is fundamentally unequal for communities of color. Standing literature on public health posits that one of the chief predictors of racial disparity in health outcomes is a lack of institutional trust among minority communities. Furthermore, in our own county-level analysis from the U.S., we find that counties with higher percentages of Black and Hispanic residents have had vastly higher cumulative deaths from COVID-19. In light of this standing literature and our own analysis, it is critical to better understand how to mitigate or prevent these unequal outcomes for any future pandemic or public health emergency. Therefore, we assess the claim that raising institutional trust, primarily scientific trust, is key to mitigating these racial inequities. Leveraging a new, pre-pandemic measure of scientific trust, we find that trust in science, unlike trust in politicians or the media, significantly raises support for COVID-19 social distancing policies across racial lines. Our findings suggest that increasing scientific trust is essential to garnering support for public health policies that lessen the severity of the current, and potentially a future, pandemic.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katie Wright-Bevans ◽  
Alison Stephanie Walker ◽  
Emma Vosper

In order to be age-friendly, communities need adequate public health support. Community consultation is increasingly favoured as a means of ensuring public health services adequately meet the needs of the populations they serve yet research has highlighted the frequency of inadequate and tokenistic consultation. Our aim was to address the gap in understanding of the subjective benefits of community consultation by being the first study to examine these events in a disadvantaged British city. A naturalistic world café study was co-designed with a community engagement service in the UK. Adults aged 68 to 91 years (n=103) participated in one of two world cafés which aimed to investigate the subjective benefits of consultation forums. Qualitative findings demonstrated how consultation through forums can support age-friendly communities in a variety of expected and unexpected ways. Understanding of the added value of consultation forums may incentivise service providers to facilitate more meaningful consultation.


Journalism ◽  
2022 ◽  
pp. 146488492110633
Author(s):  
Denetra Walker ◽  
Kelli Boling

Through semi-structured interviews with four women news journalists, this study explores how journalists who specialize in women’s issues and health cover Black maternal mortality. Discussions include the role of advocacy in journalism and the struggle of covering the complex, long-standing systemic issue of maternal mortality associated with race in American society. Six themes consider the inclusion of race in healthcare coverage, a need for in-depth, nuanced coverage, the role of advocacy in journalism, complications of reporting on race, the importance of citing sources of color, and celebrity influence. Findings show the need for media advocacy in public health crises, and how journalistic norms can pressure journalists into citing inappropriate sources or diluting the story.


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