Course
Course 15 credits • MKVN09
What can we learn from watching Dr House? Why are there so many headlines on dieting in the tabloids? This course investigates how media represents health risks and medical conditions, and the consequences thereof.
Obesity, mental disorders, malaria, flu, diets, STDs, traffic accidents, and death; this is but a short list of different health related issues presented in the media. Our responses to illness, health care and health related behavior are by and large deeply influenced by the media and its representations. The media provides strategic tools for health politicians, health professionals, and other opinion makers, including health consumers and various patient groups. The media is often the only source through which the public gains information about scientific discoveries and it is consistently ranked by the public as the number one source of nutrition and food information.
This course brings together Media and Communication Studies with Sociology of Health and Illness. The purpose of the course is to critically explore the mediation and the mediatization of health in order to better understand the role media plays in people’s comprehension of health, their own health development, and in social change processes.
The course offer students great opportunity for individual specialization theoretically, methodologically, as well as in relation to different health topics.
Study period:
autumn semester 2024
Type of studies:
full time,
day
Study period:
2024-09-02 – 2024-10-31
Language of instruction:
English
Introductory meeting: Monday, 2 September at 13.15 – 15.00 in SOL:A129b
Teachers:
Cheryl Fung,
Ulrika Holgersson,
Helena Sandberg,
Fredrika Thelandersson