What's up, doc? An examination of entertainment television’s portrayal of medical professionals, patients, and their interactions

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate entertainment television ‘s portrayal of the medical world. More specifically, this study examined the characterization of medical professionals and patients on television as well as their communicative behaviors. According to cultivation and social cognitive theory, television acts as a socializing agent and can impact viewers ‘ perceptions of the world and their subsequent behaviors. Previous research has focused on examining how medical professionals, mainly doctors, are portrayed. This study examined medical professionals but also expanded the scope of the examination to include patients and health care interactions. As most viewers will assume the role of patient in real medical situations and research has demonstrated that communication plays a strong role in the success of health care, this expansion is important. A total of two hundred and thirty eight characters from both broadcast network and cable programming were analyzed. Results indicated that doctors and nurses are shown as more important and more positive than other health care workers and patients on television. Results also indicated that most patients are “bad” people suffering from traumatic injuries or rare illnesses, but they normally survive these ailments. Analyses regarding communication found that doctors typically dominate health care interactions and patients are uninvolved in health care decisions. In terms of cultivation and social cognitive theory, viewers might develop some detrimental conceptions about the medical world and their role in health care from television.