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Metaphors for illness in contemporary media
1Programme in Comparative Literature, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Medical Humanities
|May 16, 2013
Summary
Metaphors in health reporting significantly shape public perception of diseases like avian flu and diabetes. This study highlights the need for more informative, less sensationalist disease metaphors in media and medical communication.
Area of Science:
- Medical Communication
- Health Journalism
- Linguistics in Medicine
Background:
- Susan Sontag's work highlighted disease metaphors' impact on public attitudes.
- Metaphors can influence perceptions of diseases and affected individuals.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze metaphor usage in New York Times articles on avian flu, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and HIV/AIDS.
- To compare current metaphor patterns with Sontag's observations.
- To assess the congruence of metaphors with article intent.
Main Methods:
- Content analysis of feature articles from The New York Times.
- Focus on five specific diseases: avian flu, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and HIV/AIDS.
- Identification and categorization of disease-related metaphors.
Main Results:
- Metaphors for cancer and HIV/AIDS have become more informative and less emotive.
- Avian flu and diabetes exhibit sensationalist metaphors incongruent with article intent.
- Heart disease discussions showed minimal metaphor use.
Conclusions:
- Journalists and medical professionals should be more aware of metaphor impact.
- Collaboration is needed to develop factually informative metaphors.
- Improved metaphors can enhance doctor-patient communication.
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