Media effects and health

In a New York Times op-ed, Angelina Jolie announces that she’s had her breasts removed to avoid cancer, resulting in a media frenzy. On television, commercials promote the use of prescription drugs to supposedly improve our mental and physical well-being. In the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, doctors are portrayed as sexy superheroes, making decisions based on gut-instinct and bravado before stealing away to the utility closet for some romance. Each of these examples represents areas in which mass media and health intersect and where media have the potential to inÀ uence our knowledge about health, attitudes toward diseases and preventive behaviors, and beliefs about what causes diseases and how to cure them. Media can even inÀ uence our beliefs about who is responsible for illness-the individual or society as a whole-and who can make changes that inÀ uence health outcomes.