Metaphors for illness in contemporary media
Essayist Susan Sontag alerted us more than 20 years ago to the way in which clusters of metaphors attach themselves to our discussion of certain diseases, and the influence these metaphors exert on public attitudes to the diseases themselves and to those who experience them. This study of feature ar...
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2007
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/2292/18246 https://doi.org/10.1136/jmh.2006.000253 |
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ftunivauckland:oai:researchspace.auckland.ac.nz:2292/18246 2023-05-15T15:34:18+02:00 Metaphors for illness in contemporary media Hanne, MD Hawken, SJ 2007 http://hdl.handle.net/2292/18246 https://doi.org/10.1136/jmh.2006.000253 unknown BMJ Publishing Group Journal of Medical Ethics Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. Previously published items are made available in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Details obtained from http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/issn/1468-215X/ https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm Copyright: BMJ Publishing Group http://purl.org/eprint/accessRights/RestrictedAccess http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jmh.2006.000253 Journal Article 2007 ftunivauckland https://doi.org/10.1136/jmh.2006.000253 2013-12-07T10:03:25Z Essayist Susan Sontag alerted us more than 20 years ago to the way in which clusters of metaphors attach themselves to our discussion of certain diseases, and the influence these metaphors exert on public attitudes to the diseases themselves and to those who experience them. This study of feature articles on five diseases-avian flu, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and HIV/AIDS-published recently in the New York Times reveals distinct patterns of metaphor usage around each. While the metaphors used in relation to the diseases Sontag studied-cancer and HIV/AIDS-have become less emotive and more positively informative, the sensationalist connotations of the metaphor clusters that have formed around two diseases that were not on the agenda for wide public debate in her time-avian flu and diabetes-are hardly congruent with the serious intent of the articles in which they appeared. By contrast, discussion of heart disease involved very limited use of metaphor. The article ends with a call for journalists and medical professionals to become more aware of the impact of the metaphors they use and to collaborate in developing sets of metaphors that are factually informative and enhance communication between doctors and their patients. Article in Journal/Newspaper Avian flu University of Auckland Research Repository - ResearchSpace Medical Humanities 33 2 93 99 |
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University of Auckland Research Repository - ResearchSpace |
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ftunivauckland |
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Essayist Susan Sontag alerted us more than 20 years ago to the way in which clusters of metaphors attach themselves to our discussion of certain diseases, and the influence these metaphors exert on public attitudes to the diseases themselves and to those who experience them. This study of feature articles on five diseases-avian flu, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and HIV/AIDS-published recently in the New York Times reveals distinct patterns of metaphor usage around each. While the metaphors used in relation to the diseases Sontag studied-cancer and HIV/AIDS-have become less emotive and more positively informative, the sensationalist connotations of the metaphor clusters that have formed around two diseases that were not on the agenda for wide public debate in her time-avian flu and diabetes-are hardly congruent with the serious intent of the articles in which they appeared. By contrast, discussion of heart disease involved very limited use of metaphor. The article ends with a call for journalists and medical professionals to become more aware of the impact of the metaphors they use and to collaborate in developing sets of metaphors that are factually informative and enhance communication between doctors and their patients. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hanne, MD Hawken, SJ |
spellingShingle |
Hanne, MD Hawken, SJ Metaphors for illness in contemporary media |
author_facet |
Hanne, MD Hawken, SJ |
author_sort |
Hanne, MD |
title |
Metaphors for illness in contemporary media |
title_short |
Metaphors for illness in contemporary media |
title_full |
Metaphors for illness in contemporary media |
title_fullStr |
Metaphors for illness in contemporary media |
title_full_unstemmed |
Metaphors for illness in contemporary media |
title_sort |
metaphors for illness in contemporary media |
publisher |
BMJ Publishing Group |
publishDate |
2007 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2292/18246 https://doi.org/10.1136/jmh.2006.000253 |
genre |
Avian flu |
genre_facet |
Avian flu |
op_source |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jmh.2006.000253 |
op_relation |
Journal of Medical Ethics |
op_rights |
Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. Previously published items are made available in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Details obtained from http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/issn/1468-215X/ https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm Copyright: BMJ Publishing Group http://purl.org/eprint/accessRights/RestrictedAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1136/jmh.2006.000253 |
container_title |
Medical Humanities |
container_volume |
33 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
93 |
op_container_end_page |
99 |
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1766364744819671040 |