Medicine in the Popular Press: The Influence of the Media on Perceptions of Disease
In an age of increasing globalization and discussion of the possibility of global pandemics, increasing rates of reporting of these events may influence public perception of risk. The present studies investigate the impact of high levels of media reporting on the perceptions of disease. Undergraduat...
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ftciteseerx:oai:CiteSeerX.psu:10.1.1.277.9576 2023-05-15T15:34:24+02:00 Medicine in the Popular Press: The Influence of the Media on Perceptions of Disease Meredith E. Young Geoffrey R. Norman Karin R. Humphreys The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives 2008 application/zip http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.277.9576 en eng http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.277.9576 Metadata may be used without restrictions as long as the oai identifier remains attached to it. ftp://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/66/4a/PLoS_ONE_2008_Oct_29_3(10)_e3552.tar.gz text 2008 ftciteseerx 2016-01-07T20:54:51Z In an age of increasing globalization and discussion of the possibility of global pandemics, increasing rates of reporting of these events may influence public perception of risk. The present studies investigate the impact of high levels of media reporting on the perceptions of disease. Undergraduate psychology and medical students were asked to rate the severity, future prevalence and disease status of both frequently reported diseases (e.g. avian flu) and infrequently reported diseases (e.g. yellow fever). Participants considered diseases that occur frequently in the media to be more serious, and have higher disease status than those that infrequently occur in the media, even when the low media frequency conditions were considered objectively ‘worse ’ by a separate group of participants. Estimates of severity also positively correlated with popular print media frequency in both student populations. However, we also see that the concurrent presentation of objective information about the diseases can mitigate this effect. It is clear from these data that the media can bias our perceptions of disease. Text Avian flu Unknown |
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description |
In an age of increasing globalization and discussion of the possibility of global pandemics, increasing rates of reporting of these events may influence public perception of risk. The present studies investigate the impact of high levels of media reporting on the perceptions of disease. Undergraduate psychology and medical students were asked to rate the severity, future prevalence and disease status of both frequently reported diseases (e.g. avian flu) and infrequently reported diseases (e.g. yellow fever). Participants considered diseases that occur frequently in the media to be more serious, and have higher disease status than those that infrequently occur in the media, even when the low media frequency conditions were considered objectively ‘worse ’ by a separate group of participants. Estimates of severity also positively correlated with popular print media frequency in both student populations. However, we also see that the concurrent presentation of objective information about the diseases can mitigate this effect. It is clear from these data that the media can bias our perceptions of disease. |
author2 |
The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives |
format |
Text |
author |
Meredith E. Young Geoffrey R. Norman Karin R. Humphreys |
spellingShingle |
Meredith E. Young Geoffrey R. Norman Karin R. Humphreys Medicine in the Popular Press: The Influence of the Media on Perceptions of Disease |
author_facet |
Meredith E. Young Geoffrey R. Norman Karin R. Humphreys |
author_sort |
Meredith E. Young |
title |
Medicine in the Popular Press: The Influence of the Media on Perceptions of Disease |
title_short |
Medicine in the Popular Press: The Influence of the Media on Perceptions of Disease |
title_full |
Medicine in the Popular Press: The Influence of the Media on Perceptions of Disease |
title_fullStr |
Medicine in the Popular Press: The Influence of the Media on Perceptions of Disease |
title_full_unstemmed |
Medicine in the Popular Press: The Influence of the Media on Perceptions of Disease |
title_sort |
medicine in the popular press: the influence of the media on perceptions of disease |
publishDate |
2008 |
url |
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.277.9576 |
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Avian flu |
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Avian flu |
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ftp://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/66/4a/PLoS_ONE_2008_Oct_29_3(10)_e3552.tar.gz |
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http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.277.9576 |
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Metadata may be used without restrictions as long as the oai identifier remains attached to it. |
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