مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - HEALTH COMMUNICATION, MEDIA AND ETHICS: AN ANALYSIS OF A NEWS ON HEALTH

Abstract :

The purpose of this study is to identify the role of media in health communication and discuss the relevant ethical considerations. Transfer of information, one of the most important functions of media, is centrally important in health communication. Here, the goal should be the transfer of information to individuals “correctly”. The media not only contributes to the development of individual awareness in health issues, but it also has a negative influence through unethical discourses. It is possible to claim that the content related to health is more controlled in traditional media, whereas there is a free-reign information flow with less control in the new media. Unethical media portrayals of health information might have serious consequences. Considering the extensive reach and powerful influence of media, it is deemed worthy to analyze the content of information provided through it. To that end, this study analyses the content of the internet news on health titled “Paralysis Becomes a History: The Dead Cells Come to Life!” by way of van Dijk’s discourse analysis method. Given the ethical problems in the media portrayals of health issues and health communication, the elements of the above-stated news report are problematized, and ethically problematic constituents are identified. The findings of the study reveal that an unfinished study conducted on human beings is portrayed as a completed project, with an accompanying hyperbolic and even misleading language