The Media, Public Perceptions & Health, and Health Policy

The mass media are increasingly powerful in society, addressing the public with words and images at an extraordinary rate. Today, much of the media are controlled by special interests that seek to shape recipients’ frames of reference whether to promote political or ideological attitudes or to entertain, promote products, or inform.1 There is a great intermixture of purpose, often making it difficult to separate objective information from advertising and promotion. In this article, I illustrate this confusion by examining the managed care backlash and how selected images in news reporting and entertainment helped shape public conceptions that were highly discrepant with much of the evidence on performance of medical care models. I then examine the contentious issue of directto-consumer advertising and its influence. I consider some possible correctives that have been inadequately explored.