ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book develops the concept of biocommunicability, exploring the contrasting cultural models of health knowledge and its circulation that are projected in health news and other forms of health discourse. It focuses on interviews and ethnography to introduce the people who co-produce health news. The book offers an overview of the major genres and frames in health coverage. It provides case studies, bringing together ethnography and analysis of news texts. The book explores where biomedicine merges with the market as we examine news coverage of research by biotech and pharmaceutical corporations, the development of new drugs and devices, and scandals resulting in the withdrawal of treatments. It examines the complex ways that race and ethnicity are treated in health news. Health news is generally structured around a 'post-racial' vision that limits attention to race and ethnicity.
