Television and Health Responsibility in an Age of Individualism - Hardcover

Foss, Katherine A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 073918993X ISBN 13: 9780739189931

Publisher: Lexington Books, 2014

Synopsis

American society centers on individualism, celebrating personal choice even at the expense of collective progress. As part of this emphasis on agency, Americans value freedom for health decisions, and individual health professionals and consumers are held responsible for the nation’s health, often at the expense of improving the overall healthcare system. Such individualistic discourse, disseminated and reinforced through American media, has created resistance and hostility toward health policy initiatives such as the Affordable Care Act and other legislation aimed to improve American healthcare. Television and Health Responsibility in an Age of Individualism examines the relationship between entertainment and health responsibility in the United States. Through the analysis of contemporary television medical dramas, Foss explores how these media texts help shape and perpetuate ideologies that have and continue to encourage resistance to healthcare reform that shifts responsibility away from individuals to government and other institutions.

About this title

About the Author:

Katherine A. Foss is associate professor in the College of Mass Communication at Middle Tennessee State University.

Review:

Foss did a rigorous textual analysis of these medical dramas and captured the individualistic tones and messages concerning people’s health decisions. (Communication Booknotes Quarterly)

Scholarly yet accessible, Television and Health Responsibility in an Age of Individualism offers insight into how television medical dramas influence our views of and responsibility for health care. Using social reality theory and the dominant American ideology of individualism, Foss helps explain the difficulty in bettering health care on a systemic level in the United States, and suggests ways television drama can help or hurt in this endeavor. The book is an entertaining and thoughtful critical analysis of a television genre and a timely reflection of health care, as Americans struggle with obesity and rising health care costs. (Lynn Spangler, State University of New York at New Paltz)

About this edition

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 073918993X
• ISBN 13: 9780739189931
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 132