scholarly journals ‘Healthcare Heroes’: problems with media focus on heroism from healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (8) ◽  
pp. 510-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitríona L Cox

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the media have repeatedly praised healthcare workers for their ‘heroic’ work. Although this gratitude is undoubtedly appreciated by many, we must be cautious about overuse of the term ‘hero’ in such discussions. The challenges currently faced by healthcare workers are substantially greater than those encountered in their normal work, and it is understandable that the language of heroism has been evoked to praise them for their actions. Yet such language can have potentially negative consequences. Here, I examine what heroism is and why it is being applied to the healthcare workers currently, before outlining some of the problems associated with the heroism narrative currently being employed by the media. Healthcare workers have a clear and limited duty to treat during the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be grounded in a broad social contract and is strongly associated with certain reciprocal duties that society has towards healthcare workers. I argue that the heroism narrative can be damaging, as it stifles meaningful discussion about what the limits of this duty to treat are. It fails to acknowledge the importance of reciprocity, and through its implication that all healthcare workers have to be heroic, it can have negative psychological effects on workers themselves. I conclude that rather than invoking the language of heroism to praise healthcare workers, we should examine, as a society, what duties healthcare workers have to work in this pandemic, and how we can support them in fulfilling these.

Author(s):  
Paul D. Kenny

This chapter discusses the concept of populism in greater detail and also describes how party systems are measured and classified. Rather than conceive of populism as a type of thin political ideology, this book understands populism as a distinctively personalistic type of political movement or organization in which charismatic leaders look to directly mobilize mass constituencies through the media and other means. The chapter next distinguishes between programmatic, patronage, and populist party systems, based on which type of party is most common. Finally, the chapter provides a quantitative analysis of the consequences of populist electoral success for democracy across a number of indicators. It shows that populist rule has generally negative consequences for the functioning of liberal democracy, which makes the effort to understand populist electoral success all the more pressing.


2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 224-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Fischer ◽  
Joachim I. Krueger ◽  
Tobias Greitemeyer ◽  
Kathrin Asal ◽  
Nilüfer Aydin ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (18) ◽  

The purpose of this review study is to examine the psychological effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on individuals in different groups. When the literature is examined, it can be stated that this epidemic causes negative emotional reactions such as anxiety, fear, and anger in adults, increases stress levels, increases their susceptibility to psychological disorders such as anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder, and causes suicidal thoughts and insomnia. It can be stated that fear and anxiety are experienced intensely in children and adolescents, anxiety disorders increase, and their parents need to make explanations appropriate to their children's cognitive levels to prevent these disorders. It is indicated that health workers struggling with the epidemic on the field have symptoms related to anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depressive disorders. They experience sleep disorders and their effective problem-solving skills decrease due to the stress and conflicts they experience. In the light of this information, it can be thought that it is important that health authorities and the media emphasize issues such as raising awareness about symptoms related to psychological disorders, activities that support psychological health, and the importance of receiving psychological support when necessary. In the last part of the study, it was aimed to make suggestions for future research about pandemic related psychological disorders in our country. In this context, it has been suggested that studies can be carried out related to exposure to traumatic contents in the media, curfew, how being in certain age groups affect individuals, the effectiveness of primary and secondary prevention interventions and various psychological interventions, and the effective use of social support mechanisms in the pandemic process. Keywords COVID-19, psychological effects, psychological disorders, clinical psychology, post traumatic stress disorder


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Janani Umamaheswar

The “Black Lives Matter” movement, centered on fighting racial injustice and inequality (particularly in the criminal justice system), has garnered a great deal of media attention in recent years. Given the relatively recent emergence of the movement, there exists very little scholarly research on media portrayals of the movement. In this article, I report findings from a qualitative examination of major newspaper portrayals of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement between April and August 2016, before the particularly divisive 2016 presidential election. Inductive textual analyses of 131 newspaper articles indicate that, although the movement’s goals were represented positively and from the perspective of members of the movement, the newspapers politicized and sensationalized the movement, and they focused far more on supposed negative consequences of the movement. I discuss these findings by drawing on the “protest paradigm” and the “public nuisance paradigm” in media coverage of social protest movements, arguing that the latter is particularly useful for interpreting portrayals of Black Lives Matter in the prevailing US political climate.


Author(s):  
Lala Jabbarova

The media is one of the main resources from which people derive information about events surrounding them. The media tries to mirror realities, transmit various events, including cases of aggression and violence; however, lack of control on quality and quantity of information may result in perilous outcomes. This chapter offers a psychological analysis of the influence of media on crime in society, as well as the relation of crime levels with information about aggression and violence. The results of the research suggest that frequent, overstated, and embellished media disseminations of information of an aggressive character, without considering its possible psychological outcomes, increases viewers' levels of aggression and violence. In order to prevent this increase, it is crucial not to eliminate aggressive information from media completely, but instead to present it while taking into account its psychological effects.


2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (7) ◽  
pp. 675-677 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip M. Polgreen ◽  
Edward J. Septimus ◽  
Michael F. Parry ◽  
Susan E. Beekmann ◽  
Joseph E. Cavanaugh ◽  
...  

The use of declination statements was associated with a mean increase of 11.6% in influenza vaccination rates among healthcare workers at 22 hospitals. In most hospitals, there were no negative consequences for healthcare workers who refused to sign the forms, and most policies were implemented along with other interventions designed to increase vaccination rates.


2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 452-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yatish Joshi ◽  
Zillur Rahman

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the factors that predict green purchase behaviour of young educated consumers in Delhi. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was carried out on a sample of 1,502 young educated consumers. Structural equation modelling was used to assess the predictive power of considered variables towards green purchasing. Findings – Results indicate that the variables under study predicted green purchase behaviour of young educated consumers of Delhi in the following descending order: social influence, attitude towards green purchase, perceived environmental knowledge, recycling participation, ecolabelling and exposure to environmental messages through the media. Research limitations/implications – The sample considered in the study was restricted to Delhi only. Further, the predictive power of only a few variables was examined. Practical implications – The paper identifies key predictors of consumers’ green purchase behaviour, enabling practitioners to understand which factors influence young educated consumers in their decision making regarding green purchases. This knowledge will help marketing managers design effective strategies to encourage green purchase behaviour among such consumers. Social implications – Policy makers and government organizations may use the findings of this study to run awareness campaigns for disseminating information and promoting green purchase behaviour among larger sections of society. Such initiatives may help in minimizing the negative consequences of irresponsible consumption practices on environment and society. Originality/value – The present study is the first which applies reciprocal deterministic theory to predict green purchase behaviour of educated young consumers in India. Moreover, this is the first study to investigate the influence of consumers’ exposure to environmental messages through the media on their green purchase behaviour.


2009 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. S366-S367 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Gascón ◽  
Y. Casalod ◽  
B. Martínez Jarreta ◽  
E. Abecia ◽  
A. Luna ◽  
...  

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 416-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salah Hassan ◽  
Melika Husić-Mehmedović ◽  
Philippe Duverger

Purpose – Despite the changing conditions worldwide, some global luxury brands have attained strong performance levels, and perhaps it is their globalness that keeps them resilient. Since the global luxury market is comprised of customer segments with relatively homogeneous needs, wants and motivations, achieving a global luxury brand positioning will help mitigate the negative consequences of economic crises, regardless of the market in which a luxury brand operates. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – A survey instrument was administered to a sample of 200 professionals located in a European country where none of the global brands cited in the paper are originating. The country was also selected on the basis of its propensity to have local luxury brands in competition with the global brands in each of the categories tested. The survey was conducted during the peak of economic crisis in Europe. Findings – This study provides evidence that brand globalness may be a major value creating factor, and thus a source of competitive advantage for luxury brands competing in the global marketplace. Another question addressed by this study is should the luxury brand modulate the message projected in the media away from luxury and closer to quality or other stimuli less associated with luxury in order to avoid luxury shame. All these are questions addressed by this imperial study to investigate how the brand globalness influences consumer perceptions in global recessionary times. Originality/value – The proposed research formulates an empirical study of the underlining effects of what is referred to as “glocalization” in the literature on the luxury positioning. This study provides evidence that brand globalness may be a major value creating factor, and thus a source of competitive advantage for a luxury company competing in the global marketplace.


Studia Humana ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sławomir Gawroński ◽  
Ilona Majkowska

Abstract The Catholic Church – though in popular opinion it is sometimes treated as a stronghold of conservatism, traditionalism, suspicion of progress and novelty, it changed significantly in the second half of the 20th century and continues to change its attitudes, especially in terms of the use of social communication and attitude to the media mass. The Church’s growing openness to media relations and the use of a rich instrumentation of social communication has become one of the reasons for the growing popularity of market orientation among the clergy and active believers, which opens opportunities for the development of the concept of a specific sectoral marketing formula of church marketing. In this article the authors search for the causes of the progressive phenomenon of the marketization of religion, present examples of the activities of the Polish Catholic church, inscribed in the church marketing trend, as well as define the negative consequences resulting from its dissemination. The applied research method is based on the literature analysis and case studies analysis.


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