ABSTRACT
Another significant feature of the relationship between media and medicine is the fluid boundary between genres of popular culture. Film makers eager for new material cannibalized medical novels and non-fiction books for screen material; images from these movies subsequently appeared on book jackets. The success of a film characterization of physicians in turn prompted ‘novelization’ of its screenplay. This blurring of genre contributed to greater integration of both
characters and images into popular culture. Both medical and media professionals (scriptwriters, producers, and reporters) participated in dissolving the boundaries between entertainment and education. Fictionalized depictions of medicine and medical encounters have been used to teach medical knowledge to lay audiences, to inculcate rules of healthy living, and to present a model of patient and prac titioner behavior. In turn, documentary programs on American cable networks in the 1990s televising actual operations — caesarean section, hip replacement, and other surgeries — are intended to entertain as well as instruct audiences.
