Epilepsy, the law and the media

It is generally accepted that the media exerts a powerful influence over what the general public feels and believes. This study examined references to epilepsy and the law found in general media communications from January 1993 to December 1994 in the UK. These articles were extracted from general audience material mainly newspapers and magazines. Any article which referred to the legal aspects of epilepsy were then selected. These included those relating to legislation e.g. driving, state benefits and those relating to criminal law e.g. convictions. The reports were analyzed in terms of type of communication, space allotted, circulation and terminology used both in the title and the general text. An attempt was also made to classify the general image which the article portrayed. It is accepted that content analysis itself provides no direct data about the nature of the communicator, the audience or its effects and this method has cautiously been used to classify and describe the manifest content of the method of communication. The study concludes that although it is encouraging that legal aspects of epilepsy are receiving media attention, this attention could be used in a more positive manner in promoting awareness, rather than many of the cases examined which appeared to use negative images in order to pander to popular audience appeal.