RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Images of health and medical science conveyed by television
JF The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
JO J R Coll Gen Pract
FD British Journal of General Practice
SP 316
OP 319
VO 34
IS 263
A1 Garland, Ruth
YR 1984
UL http://bjgp.org/content/34/263/316.abstract
AB Content analysis was carried out on medical programmes on BBC television over a three-month period. Television medical programmes were shown to concentrate on hospital-based, technological and expert-dependent issues at the expense of primary care and community health. Images of technology, the hospital and the hospital specialist were found to predominate. Issues such as the family, preventive care, housing and the environment were rarely raised. Doctors appeared and spoke in 94 per cent of programmes, whereas nurses were seen (although not necessarily heard) in 30 per cent. Of 70 doctors interviewed on television, nearly three quarters were hospital doctors or scientists. Only one doctor was explicitly referred to as a general practitioner.