Pros and cons of television as source of health information

Caroline Covell
covell_caroline@hotmail.com

Is television a good source of health information? How reliable is the health information

on the television? Mexican Americans are inclined to listen to the advice of their medical doctor

than that of the television.

Felicity Carter quoted the word of Steve Waterston, Time South Pacific editor, who said,

“People are becoming more aware of health issues… are taking more active interest in health and

researching for themselves. The days of omnipotent doctors are disappearing.”

Indeed, in Canada and Australia, people are becoming more conscious about their health.

They are researching for information about health issues from different media, such as

ewspapers, magazines, online, and paying attention to what the television says about health. The

US government 1993 statistics shows that approximately one-third of American adults reported

that they obtain health information from the television, another third obtain health information

from the newspapers, and one-sixth obtain health information from their doctor. By 2000, online

becomes the next media of information where people use to obtain health information.

George Gerbner says that television can create a myth by which we live. It perpetuates

the message it is socializing and reinforces the information it is disseminating.

As one of the common and important media of information, television also serves as a

media of entertainment. At the same time, it serves as commercial media whose purpose is to

advertising new products and services and encouraging the viewers to purchase them.

Indeed, television is the most interactive media that strengthens the bond between the

viewers with the content and the brand of products and services it is promoting. It acts as an

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important agent of socialization. It contributes to the shaping of the viewers’ minds, opinions,

and perception. However, television alone does not contribute to how people change their minds,

views, and perspectives about health issues but how the information is presented.

Television can relay information in a manner that is very effective in changing the

behavior of the audience because pictorial message that is dramatized penetrates deeper in

human’s mind. Its presentation may dramatize our life but argues Chandler; it may offer

“contradictory images which can be interpreted in many ways.” Some people are “far more

active interpreters” but others are “passive recipients” who tend to take the information or image

and act as is. Children at early school year are very vulnerable toward television and its

presentation.

Concerning knowledge, there is a huge gap in the role of television as a media of

knowledge dissemination even though it can serve as powerful role models, either negative or

positive. Chandler says that many people “find these models and use them.”

Teenagers are more prone to use television as their source of information, considering the

number of hour they spend every day in front of television, and more attractive to the negative

role models because they bring attraction. However, people that are more educated find that

printed material are more reliable than television does. Even among American adults who claim

they rely on television in obtaining information about health issue, majority believe if it is from

the news show, and only 15 percent feel confidence that the information is reliable if it is from

the talk show.

Today’s television is more commercialized than simply as a media of information. As a

commercialize media, its purpose is to advertise products and services and to encourage

purchase, so is in the promotion of health information. In fact, health information is being

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classified as a product whose promotion is tied to drugs and its benefits rather than promoting

health information.

Doctor Mendelsohn, a medical heretic, warns that drugs today is created not to cure

diseases but simply, as Kevin Trudeau puts it, to cause you to thrive on diseases.

Television can dramatize the information in such a way to persuade and cause the

viewers to change their behavior, entertaining, and informing but can also as a product pusher. A

special report on health media and marketing, published by B & T Weekly, edition July 2006,

says that television tries to disseminate information the way they advertise product, so is in the

case of disseminating health information.

For example, in the case of drug marketing strategy. In the early days, drug-marketing

strategy said, “Go and see your doctor.” The message is projecting an image of empathy. Today,

drug-marketing strategy is encouraging rescheduling by saying, “Go, see your healthcare

provider” and ask for the drug or more drug.

When former Merck & Co. executive Len Tacconi joined the Discovery Health Media,

the health care community becomes augmented between health information and drug promotion.

The Media concentrates on special issues such as diseases, nutrition, fitness, parenting, sex, and

several other topics.

Unfortunately, the commercialization of television as a media of information on health

issues has now become hybrid. Drugs and adults issues are being intermingled with children

program and children and drugs are being intermingled with adult programs.

Like Kevin Trudeau, Tate Metro Media indicates that television information on health

issue can be deceitful because television is being sponsored by corporations whose intention is to

sell their products and make profits. Television anchors are acting as the public relations “spin

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doctors” who act as behind the scenes as “independents” and often use the terms “according to

experts” who are actually individuals who are handsomely paid by the corporations to conduct

research on behalf of their products for commercial purposes.

Health information on the television may not be the right information you have. Even

some of the sexual information that is promoted on the television with the dramatization, for

example, though its purpose is to encourage more responsible sexual behavior, is often resulted

in negative sexual behavior. Take Vagina Monologue or Penis Dementia, for example, in which

the word of males and female genitals are becoming common expression in movies, dramas, or

in everyday social interaction.

Therefore, is television a good source of information on health issue? In today’s free

market, prove everything.

References

April 3, 2006. TV and Video-Game Violence Harms KidsHealthDay News. Retrieved

November 12, 2007 from http://www.fradical.com/Media_is_public_health_issue.htm

Beaudoin, Christopher E. & Thorson, Esther (2007, Jul/Aug). Evaluating the Effects

of a Youth Health Media Campaign. Journal of Health Communication Vol. 12 (5), 439-

454. Retrieved November 12, 2007 from EBSCO Business Source Premier

Carter, Felicity (2006, 7/7). Media gets a clean bill of health. B&T Weekly, Vol. 56

(2571), 20. Retrieved November 12, 2007 from EBSCO Business Source Premier

Chandler, Daniel. Television and Gender Roles. Retrieved November 12, 2007 from

http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Modules/TF33120/gendertv.html#U

Eriksson-Backa, Kristina. Media influencing health knowledge and behaviour. Retrieved

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November 12, 2007 from

http://www.uta.fi/laitokset/tsph/health/citizens/health_knowledge.html

Gerbner, George. Society's Storyteller: How TV Creates the Myths by which we Live.

Center for Media Literacy. Retrieved on November 12, 2007 from

http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article439.html

Mendelsohn, Robert S. M.D. (1979) Confession of a Medical Heretic. New York: Warner

Books

Olson, Catherine Applefeld (2006, 10/9). Discovery Health Media:The Doctor Is In.

CableFAX's CableWORLD, Vol. 18 (21), 14. Retrieved November 12, 2007 from EBSCO

Business Source Premier

Primary Information Sources for Health and Medical Topics. Retrieved November 12,

2007 from http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind93/chap7/doc/7c4b93.htm

Tate Metro Media (2001, February 17). How the Media Deceives You About Health.

Retrieved November 12, 2007 from www.mercola.com/2001/feb/17/media_deception.htm

University of Michigan Health System. What do I need to know about children and TV?

http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/yourchild/tv.htm

Trudeau, Kevin (2004). Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You to Know About. Eld

Grove Village, IL: Alliance Publishing Group