Runs 1:29

(Anchor)

FEW THINGS GET AMERICANS

TALKING LIKE HEALTH CARE

REFORM. DAILY IOWAN TV’S NICK

LONG TELLS US WHY AMERICANS

MAY FEEL THE WAY THEY DO

ABOUT THEIR HEALTH CARE.

(Reporter)

Health care is a concern for most Americans, especially with the recent passing of President Obama’s health care reform bill. But where are Americans learning about health issues? UI professor Doctor Julie Andsager is currently writing a book on how the media frames health information.

“Most people get more information about health generally from the media than they do from doctors, and that’s particularly true with people with lower income status.”

Doctor Andsager says that medical entertainment media programs such as Grey’s Anatomy give Americans false information about how they should be treated when visiting a doctor. And this can lead to patients feeling like they are not getting proper treatment.

“If you think, for example, that when you go in presenting a fairly simple problem
that you should have an M.R.I. and a PET scan and a lumbar puncture, then you’re probably going to be dissatisfied when you don’t get all those.”

Now, according to Andsager, in the past, the media framed health care reform as something that was too complex for the American public to understand. But this past health care reform debate took a different angle.

“In this case, I think that there’s so much polarization attitudes towards Obama, people either love him or hate him, that the media’s coverage has been more about him and what this means for his presidency if he can get this passed.”

Andsager hasn’t seen any studies on how media framing affected the most recent health care reform. But she made it clear that the media will always impact how the American public learns its health information.

Nick Long, Daily Iowan TV.

(Anchor)

ANDSAGER’S BOOK IS DUE TO

BE PUBLISHED IN 2011.