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A year in the public life of superbugs: news media on antimicrobial resistance and implications for health communications
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-21, 10:39 authored by Davis, M, Lyall, B, Whittaker, A, Mia LindgrenMia Lindgren, Djerf-Pierre, MNews media can be an important source of information about emerging health threats. They are also significant sites for the production of narrative on threats to life that help to condition and reflect the responses of governments and publics. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one such health threat with particular significance because it represents the failure to manage the risks to antibiotics and other antimicrobials, health technologies that have provided the basis for modern medicine. Knowledge of how news media address this situation is an important element for an effective public health response to AMR and helps to extend the social analysis of health and media. Based on an analysis of television, printed and digital news for 2017 in Australia, this paper examines the patterns and meanings of AMR news. It shows that AMR is a fragmented story mainly framed by scientific discovery. These stories reassure audiences that science is seeking out the means of arresting AMR and, therefore, also constructs lay publics as passive witnesses to the AMR story. This pattern of AMR story-telling furthers the social standing of science and scientists, but it also neglects deliberation on collective action, important lacunae in the social response to AMR.
History
Publication title
Social Science and MedicineVolume
256Issue
2020Article number
113032Number
113032Pagination
1-9ISSN
0277-9536Department/School
College Office - College of Arts, Law and EducationPublisher
Pergamon-Elsevier Science LtdPlace of publication
The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford, England, Ox5 1GbRights statement
Crown Copyright 2020 Elsevier Ltd.Repository Status
- Restricted