Health and the Media

Catalog description

The main purpose of this course is to prepare students for critically interpreting representations of health in the media. The course integrates media, social and cultural studies perspectives with health communication approaches in health promotion. The course will educate students about population level determinants of health and health communication interventions for health promotion and disease prevention. At the same time, students will be introduced to socio-cultural critiques of the media and to elements of critical textual and discourse analysis, with an emphasis on visual analyses. Based on these two sets of disciplinary exposures, students will be equipped to contextualize health contents in the media and to critically analyze media representations of health. Examples of health communication campaigns and of commercial messages targeting health consumers will be amply discussed, and general media effects on health communication will be analyzed. The course is designed for undergraduate students interested in developing their health and media literacies. The course stresses both integrative and critical thinking dimensions, and encourages students to confront important conceptual and moral issues in today's society such as over-representing individual determinants of health and obscuring social determinants of health in health communication. Students with an interest in civic engagement and in issues of individual and collective freedom and agency will find the course particularly relevant. Students pursuing careers in bio-behavioral health, health promotion, health communication, public health, medicine, nursing, psychology or other human and social services will benefit from the integrative character of the course and will acquire an understanding of the mediated nature of health concerns in society. The course offers students the opportunity to develop research in health communication or to create health communication materials.