A multi-perspective approach towards the role of mass media within the medicalisation process

Mass media increasingly inform lay people about health and illness, and shape how people think about themselves and their health. As a consequence, different scholars have argued that people experience their lives as being mediated. Although medicalisation has been studied extensively, and recent studies have acknowledged a greater diversity within medicalisation, little attention has been paid to the role of the mass media within the medicalisation process. Furthermore, notwithstanding their insights into the construction of health news, most studies focus on the content of news messages. However, health news can be studied from different angles. This study wants to expand the analysis beyond the news content towards an analysis of not only what media do, but also how they do it, what stakeholders think media do, and how the lay public perceives this news content. Drawing on data from a large qualitative and quantitative research project, this study analyses the role of mass media within the medicalisation process. More specifically, by integrating different methodological approaches, we try to define medicalisation within the context of the production, distribution and reception of health news. Our results indicate that by only analysing the news content, the extent to which mass media medicalise is overestimated. Consequently, this multi-perspective approach offers a more nuanced approach towards media and medicalisation.