Filter by keyword: Health communication

Brain images entice particular ways of looking that frame how brain health, human behavior, personhood, and cognition are understood. This article examines the brain images used to convey neuroscientific knowledge through digital media by examining the website of one of the world's leading tests for screening cognitive impairments. Based on Visual Discourse Analysis, this research found that the studied website prioritizes brain images to depict cognition by displaying MRI scans, drawings, and diverse futuristic and colorful digital representations. These images reinforce the idea that this cognitive test is a predominant instrument for understanding the brain and the cognitive domains. However, they also portray the brain as a simple and transparent entity while obscuring its sociomaterial dimensions. Finally, the article reflects on the rhetorical, epistemological and ontological consequences of intersecting science, marketing, and web design.

Different commentators are often invited in the media in order to discuss medical and health-related advances, such as the deployment of new vaccines or prevention tests. How do the expertise and opinions of such intermediaries affect public trust towards them? Do these factors also influence the public beliefs and decisions regarding those medical advances? We presented to 1984 French participants new (fictitious) medical tools that have been recently made available and commented on by individuals of different degrees of expertise and having distinct opinions. The results indicate that both factors significantly influenced participants' trust in the commentator's message. The commentator's opinion also affected (although to a smaller extent) the public attitude towards the tool and their willingness to use it. Crucially, participants recognized that commentators' assertiveness in expressing their opinions might unduly bias their beliefs. The study highlights the importance of considering both para-verbal and contextual cues in health communication, advocating for strategies to mitigate (or better use) their influence on public trust, beliefs, and decision-making.

Theatre is a privileged medium for expressing and conveying emotions. Emotions play a significant role in audience engagement when communicating to create awareness and knowledge about a given subject. The Marionet Theatre Company has created a series of theatre performances related to health sciences over the past few years, to expand knowledge and reduce the stigma frequently associated with certain diseases. In this report on practice, we present the process of developing the theatre performance Oxymoron, between solstices and equinoxes, exploring bipolar disorder and its consequences. The artistic team devised the performance after a series of interviews with both patients and mental health professionals. In this article, we discuss the process of its creation, identify dramaturgical connections between the performance and the interviews, and examine the emotional engagement it provoked in the audience. We conclude by assessing the effectiveness of theatre in communicating health-related subjects, most particularly by involving the audience emotionally.

This response addresses George Claassen's review of The Palgrave Handbook of Science and Health Journalism. The review raises several salient points; however, the biggest criticism of this work arises from a misunderstanding of the purpose of the Palgrave Handbook series. We wholeheartedly agree that there are lessons for the field of science communication. Engaging with more diverse perspectives and adopting a global lens for exploration of science and health journalism are priorities for the field. These are common themes in the Handbook, which we believe is still a useful resource to help facilitate these much-needed explorations.

 

Publisher's note: this letter refers to Book Review: Palgrave Handbook of Science and Health Journalism

Stem cell research and therapies have been the topic of hype in the news media in Europe, America, Asia and the Pacific. Using a computational approach, we examine stem cell hype in the news media in the unique political, media and cultural context of Vietnam. The results indicate a pattern of the news media portraying this medical advancement as a source of national pride and achievement to tap into consumers' patriotism. The computational frame analysis method was shown to be efficient, helpful, and useful when researchers are confronted with urgent social, technological or public health matters. Findings from this study suggest that there is a need for national and international efforts to investigate news media content that misrepresents the current stage of stem cell treatment efficacy and risks.

In May 2021, the World Health Organization announced a new naming system for SARS-CoV-2 variants intended to replace potentially stigmatising names referencing geographic locations. A quantitative content analysis was conducted to identify the names and frames present in Australian news media coverage before and after the new names were announced. Results demonstrate uptake of the new names but also indicate the potential for intended outcomes of de-stigmatisation to be compromised, particularly by persistent negative framing. These findings indicate that future health communication efforts might be strengthened by integrating disease naming considerations into ongoing public health preparedness efforts and support ongoing scholarly inquiry into naming and framing in news media communication.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed media professionals to the complex challenge of communicating scientific uncertainty. Using an automated, dictionary-based approach, we examined how different types of publications addressed scientific uncertainty at both the onset and the declared end of the pandemic. In the early stages of this health crisis, both general interest and science-focused media showed increased scientific uncertainty scores, with specialised outlets using scientific uncertainty markers more frequently. When the pandemic was declared over, science-focused publications maintained high scientific uncertainty levels across all stories, while general interest media reverted to pre-COVID-19 levels. The findings provide insights for journalists and science communicators.

Realizing the ascribed potential of generative AI for health information seeking depends on recipients’ perceptions of quality. In an online survey (N = 294), we aimed to investigate how German individuals evaluate AI-generated information compared to expert-generated content on the influenza vaccination. A follow-up experiment (N = 1,029) examined the impact of authorship disclosure on perceived argument quality and underlying mechanisms. The findings indicated that expert arguments were rated higher than AI-generated arguments, particularly when authorship was revealed. Trust in science and the Standing Committee on Vaccination accentuated these differences, while trust in AI and innovativeness did not moderate this effect.