A Beautiful Disaster

   I began this blog with the intention of  "exploring the dichotomy between unconsciousness towards media messages and consciousness of my body's messages shows the dulling effect the media can have towards awareness." In essence, I wanted to study mass media's ability to dull my awareness of my health. But, as I've explored this topic through a variety of genres, I noticed that mass media has just as much of a positive effect as negative. While media certainly does often show me a one-sided view of health that I take for fact which may or may not be good for me, social media has the ability to spread information to the masses that can be both beneficial and eye-opening.
    Yes, mass media does have a "dulling effect," as I have said. On social media, I've noticed this in particular with regard to political agendas pertaining to health. During the shutdown squabble over the Affordable Care Act, many of my "friends" on Facebook posted infographics, news stories, and memes about the act. They often had a very transparent political agendas that discussed the act from that party's perspective. So, while it was helpful to see quite a bit of information about the act, I also couldn't tell which information was true, particularly when my "friends" got into heated political on message threads that used misinterpreted data. Many poorly-educated people then take this information for fact and act accordingly, so they may be voting against an act that would help then or vice versa.
    On the other hand, social media possesses the great power of spreading a message to the masses with the click of a button. On two un-health-related notes, when my friend lost my cat while cat-sitting him, I went straight to Facebook and Twitter. I tweeted local pet and news networks in both sites and immediately got an incredible response of people looking for him. Also, when I started my photography business, I opened a Facebook page to promote my work. Through it, I have received many job opportunities that I wouldn't otherwise have gotten had people had less viewing access to my photos.
    Health news works the same way. The ability to spread important research to anyone on social media means that health professionals can quickly reach millions of people almost instantly. For example, this week I followed New York Times Health and HealthCare.gov on Twitter to see what the organizations thought was important. From articles discussing the advantages of quitting smoking to PSAs showing the numerical benefits of eating healthy, to reviews of other health publications, both organizations tweeted quite a bit of interesting information. And, while most people know it's important to eat healthy or not smoke, seeing this information show up on social media when they're taking a few moments just to relax, puts the message into their minds when they're most vulnerable to browsable information. Thus, they might be more likely to read a health article on Facebook or Twitter than in a newspaper or some other less "in" form of publication.
    Social media also brings together the "flatter" mode of communication, as the Health Affairs article says, in that the masses get the voices of many (anyone else on social media) rather than the voices of few (those in the information business.) In that way, information often seems less biased because a reader can take the average of all she reads and find somewhere within all of it what they believe to be true. For this reason, I think the age of social media may actually be a beneficial thing for the nation's health.

A PSA that I found particularly interesting:
http://www.upworthy.com/an-apple-a-day-does-a-hell-of-a-lot-more-than-keep-the-doctor-away

Seeing is Believing, Unless its on Television

  "News," a messenger bringing an important message to the masses, has played a large part in the political and social structure of communities since even biblical times (think Gabriel, the messenger angel.) In medieval times, a town crier shouted messages from the king to all who where in the streets. More recently, the printing press allowed for government propaganda. Now, the rise of televised news proves to be one of the most wide-spread manners to spread ideas and agendas, particularly those of government parties.

   There are many different types of news stations and publications - from national news stations, to local stations, to national and local print publications - that range in political dominance along both sides and the middle of the spectrum. That being said, as these media are run by humans, who cannot be completely objective, simply because of differences in perspective, each and every type of media is biased towards the particular affiliate's political agenda. While local news is often influenced by the opinions of locals throughout the community (not making it less biased, just spreading the majority of the community), national news corporations are typically financed through companies with particular political affiliations making it seem more biased.
    While health news is only ranked eighth among issues covered on national television, it has lately been a hot topic among politicians. Two different areas - political health reform and self-improvement- are the main topics debated among politicians, and stations such as Fox News (typically very conservative) and NBC (typically fairly liberal) tend to cover the sides of the issue that play to their parties' agendas. For instance, in the news coverage of the Affordable Care Act, one of Fox's programs featured Senator Mitchell McConnell discussing all of the problems of the new health care reform. On the other hand, NBC's coverage of ACA included a nice piece on President Obama helping women about to faint during his speech on the act.
    Yet self-reform topics are often not affiliated with a particular party, rather are more equally promoted. For example, in any story on obesity or diabetes, news stations across the board tend to show the increase in both diseases within the US, say the problem needs to change, and promotes exercise and healthy habits, as I saw when watching both Fox and NBC's afternoon broadcasts.

    As the article Medical News for the Public to Use says, television news has an incredibly influence on viewers' behaviors, and as Americans' primary source of health information is from television news, it is important that viewers take into account the source of media and what the agenda behind the dissemination of information may be.

Television is Finally Becoming Two-Dimensional

    In the past fifteen or so years, television has finally started becoming two-dimensional, figuratively, of course. By that, I mean that while programs often portrayed social groups, such as older people or gay people, stereotypically, they're beginning to forge a new path by giving these social groups more complexity. Modern Family and Brokeback Mountain both show the one- and two-dimensionality of characterizing the elderly and gays.
    In his study Aging with Television: Images on Television Drama and Conceptions of Social Reality, George Gerbner notes that the elderly are not often portrayed in a positive light. Because most shows, reality shows and soap operas especially, show almost exclusively young people, older characters are often seen as childlike, absentminded,  irrational and out of touch with reality. Jay Pritchett, the patriarch of Modern Family, is the classic "man's man" who loves sports and is uncomfortable with his son being gay (though he eventually accepts it.) He is often a little out of touch with other members of the family because he's not of the same generation, so he is a point of humor in the show when he doesn't understand pop culture references. On the other hand, he is also well-off, reasonably healthy, and married to a woman half his age who he truly loves. He tries to relate to younger generations particularly by spending time with his step-son Manny, and in this way his character shows more complexity than the stereotypical elderly generation. Jake Twist's father, from Brokeback Mountain, does not have much air time, but is the stereotypical closeminded and bitter elderly man who speaks viciously of Jake's desire to "run a ranch" with another man.

Gay characters are also receiving a lot of good attention lately. While many people still envision gay men as overly-flamboyant and feminine, this stereotype is quickly going out the window with more complex characterization. Brokeback Mountain, especially, does this by showing two cowboys - stereotypically very manly men -  in a long-lasting homosexual affair with each other. While the whole movie they hide their relationship, even though Jake doesn't want to, the fact that they continue to explore their sexuality together is an interesting development in modern television. Mitchell and Cameron from Modern Family are another ground-breaking gay couple slowly changing the opinions of the American audience because of their likeability. While they are more stereotypically portrayed, they are also adoptive parents, which is a fairly new phenomenon.
    By making marginalized social groups likeable and showing them in a positive light, television programmers are helping to open the minds of their audience.

A Foray into Mental Health Understanding

In all of my previous posts, I went into my research and media- immersion with some previous knowledge about the topic. This week, with the topic of mental illness, I realized that besides some family history of bi-polar disorder (which I was never told much about, I only heard that the relative in question had problems) I know very little on the subject. This made watching the media all the more interesting.
One of the most prevalent themes I took from the media's depiction of mental illness is that sufferers are incredibly violent. Silver Linings Playbook, while an award-winning movie showing two protagonists with bi-polar disorder - among others - in a more positive and enlightening manner, still showed "ex-mental health patient" Pal Solitano with crazy bouts of violence when things go poorly for him. In fact, he actually hits his own father when his parents are trying to calm him down. While these outbursts do occur in people with the disorder, they also occur in those without. In fact, Margarita Tartakovsky writes in Media's Damaging Depictions of Mental Illness that
“research suggests that mentally ill people are more likely to be victims than perpetrators of violence.” Yet, violence is very often immediately associated with bi-polar disorder.

The media also often pushes mental illness in teens and young adults under the rug saying that such patients are simply "going through a phase." In Swing, an episode of Law and Order: SVU, the daughter of one of the detectives suffers from bi-polar disorder, but she treats it and covers it up with drugs and pills. Before finding out about the mental illness, everyone involved in the girl's life - her detective father included - reprimand her for taking the partying path of other people her age.
On the other hand, these shows also try to shed some light on mental health disorders. In Swing, the aforementioned detective seeks his "crazy" mother's help in clearing his daughter's name in court by showing family history of mental disease. While the detective remembers his childhood filled with neglect from his mother and terrible parenting, she tries to explain herself that she is simply unique and a free spirit who was chasing snowflakes when she ran her car with her son into a poll. She says that rather than take the medicine prescribed her that made her feel like an empty shell, she decided to live her life to the fullest, whatever the outcome.
The episode ends with the daughter confessing to crimes she committed while under the influence of drugs and going willingly into a mental institute for help.  Her grandmother also told her that while she did not want to take drugs, this also left her in a poor state later in life. So it seems like the message is still that mental patients need help and mind-altering drugs may be the miraculous and oft-prescribed answer.