Putting a Face on It

Stories focuses on how journalists and other media actors apply personalized frames and narratives, both visual and verbal, in representing and conveying health issues. As the media will accompany individuals throughout their lives (Levin-Zamir & Bertschi, 2018), attention should be paid to how stories and experiences are shared with the public, especially when related to health and well-being. In this volume, we take our point of departure from the World Health Organization (WHO), which defines health as "complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" (WHO Constitution 1946). We also take a holistic approach in our writing by reflecting on a broad range of issues pertinent to the field, and how these are presented in contemporary media spaces such as news journalism, government communication and social media. Two media trends have motivated us to write this book. Firstly, health issues are increasingly being covered by contemporary media (Briggs & Hallin, 2016; De Dobbelear, Van Leuven & Raeymaeckers, 2018). By critically reflecting on diverse health discourses articulated by different actors and sources, such as patient narratives, as well as discourses of identities and risk, we expand on the findings of earlier media health meta-narrative research (see Seale, 2003). Secondly, the media are increasingly raising issues traditionally connected to the private sphere in public spaces (see Fairclough, 1992, 1995; Bird, 2000; Coward, 2013). A study of the Danish media around the turn of the century states that there has been a blurring of the boundaries between lifestyle, cultural and consumer journalism in an increasingly competitive media landscape (Kristensen & From, 2012, pp. 38-39). They cite the influence from magazines and TV, which has certainly led to more focus on persons, the personal and the private sphere.

supporting

confidence: 72%

Media Health: An Introduction to the Collection

Fonn¹,

Hornmoen²,

Hyde‐Clarke³

et al. 2020

“…This is supported by Paulsen (2018), who found that the Norwegian coverage of depression has been increasingly oriented towards giving the individual reader simple advice such as exercising or eating more fish. In general, discourses of individualization are highly present in the Norwegian culture, not least in the media (Fonn, Hornmoen, Hyde-Clarke & Hågvar, 2017;Hornmoen, Roksvold & Alnaes, 2015). These factors make the Norwegian case a relevant supplement to existing research.…”

Section: Biomediatization and Discourses Of Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Help Yourself: The Individualization of Responsibility in Current Health Journalism

Hågvar¹,

Alnæs²

2020

Who is responsible when you get sick? Doctors, who can treat you with superior knowledge? Politicians, who have designed the welfare services? Yourself, who should take steps to live a healthy lifestyle? Or perhaps illness is largely a matter of genetics and coincidence and therefore not a question of responsibility at all? Health journalism plays an important role in constructing such ideas of responsibility. This chapter explores how the Norwegian tabloids VG and Dagbladet present health issues verbally and visually on their print front pages and in their Facebook feeds. Through quantitative and qualitative content analysis, we find that the print front pages address the readers as individuals who ought to take certain actions to stay healthy. The Facebook feeds, on the other hand, prioritize stories about health politics and other societal matters. One of the explanations for this difference may be that the news you pay for differs from the news you may share in social media. However, even the Facebook stories do not touch upon socioeconomic factors, genetic dispositions, or sheer coincidence as reasons for health problems. Instead, structural flaws are pinned to decisions made by particular politicians. As such, an overall discourse of individual responsibility is sustained on Facebook as well, while more overarching structural explanations do not find their way to our everyday news experiences.

“…According to Norwegian health journalists, patients constitute the source used most often (Aarebrot, 2015). According to the editors of the collection Putting a Face on It, subjectivity and the exposure of individuals are again on the rise in journalism (Fonn, Hornmoen, Hyde-Clarke & Hågvar, 2017). This tendency is found in opinion pieces, in articles based on real-life experiences of a first-person narrator, articles addressing readers in a direct way, and in confessional columns describing intimate life experiences.…”

Section: The Personal Source and The Journalistmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Baby-Dream Discourse: Individual Exposure Promoting Liberal Reproduction Laws

Dahlstrøm¹

2020

This chapter presents a discourse analysis of how the two largest newspapers in Norway, VG and Aftenposten, report on egg donation in their news reports with feature elements. The typical source is a hopeful mother or father. Typically the news reports depict the daily struggle of the prospective parents, with particular emphasis on their efforts to have a baby. The journalist primarily asks questions about their experiences and feelings. Consequently, attention is brought to the personal experience rather than to the principled aspect of egg donation. When critical questions are raised, the journalist tends to sympathize with the source and asks how they think, respond, and feel about 'the others', referring to people who are critical of egg donation. The stories analyzed serve to normalize alternative ways of having a baby. Instead of providing tools to discuss difficult ethical dilemmas, these personal media stories contribute towards converting principled issues to subjective feelings of right and wrong.