ABSTRACT
Scholars who use a scientific perspective to conceptualize media effects on health emphasize mass media's role in transmitting health information and are often concerned with the accuracy of the information being presented. This chapter discusses some of the most common theoretical perspectives that consider the effects of media on individual and societal health. It examines three ways in which media influence health through news reporting, advertising, and entertainment. Communication theories guide much research about media and health. Scholars from the scientific paradigm investigate how media messages about health set the public agenda, frame information, prime attitudes, and cultivate perceptions of health. Scholars from the interpretive and critical traditions are more interested in how social determinants of health reinforce inequalities and support institutions that disproportionally affect access to accurate health information, which in turn maintains or increases health disparities. Journalists, medical professionals, and public health personnel have raised serious concerns regarding the effects of misinformation on public perceptions and health behaviors.
