Order 1031714: The Medicalization of Society

The Medicalization of Society

The aim today is:

A) To examine how medical ideas and concepts are diffused through culture and society via media and marketing.

B) To examine how (bio)medical intervention is represented as a viable answer to our life problems.

C) To examine the multifarious effects of these collective discourses/meanings on society and culture, patients, and physicians.

Medicine and the Media

1. List as many TV shows, films, advertisements, news programs, documentaries, and more dedicated to medicine:

2. Consider House MD:

I. What is the premise of the show?

II. What biomedical assumptions are present in the show?

III. In what way is biomedicine promoted?

IV. How does this show contribute to the medicalization of society?

3. How are biomedical ideas more broadly promoted/not promoted through cultural/media representations? (Consider the examples listed under #1).

4. How does the advertising of drugs affect society and the individuals within that society?

Marketing and Physicians

5. Outline some of the marketing practices employed by drug companies to promote their product:

6. How does this marketing affect the physician?

7. How is the doctor/patient relationships affected by both DTC (direct to consumer) advertising and physician directed marketing?

8. What are the wider effects of marketing and media representation of medicine for society and culture?