IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v256y2020ics0277953620302513.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A year in the public life of superbugs: News media on antimicrobial resistance and implications for health communications

Author

Listed:
  • Davis, Mark
  • Lyall, Benjamin
  • Whittaker, Andrea
  • Lindgren, Mia
  • Djerf-Pierre, Monika
  • Flowers, Paul

Abstract

News 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.

Suggested Citation

  • Davis, Mark & Lyall, Benjamin & Whittaker, Andrea & Lindgren, Mia & Djerf-Pierre, Monika & Flowers, Paul, 2020. "A year in the public life of superbugs: News media on antimicrobial resistance and implications for health communications," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:256:y:2020:i:c:s0277953620302513
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113032
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953620302513
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113032?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kate Holland & R. Warwick Blood & Michelle Imison & Simon Chapman & Andrea Fogarty, 2012. "Risk, expert uncertainty, and Australian news media: public and private faces of expert opinion during the 2009 swine flu pandemic," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(6), pages 657-671, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xin Ming & Menno D. T. De Jong, 2021. "Mental Well-Being of Chinese Immigrants in the Netherlands during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Survey Investigating Personal and Societal Antecedents," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-20, April.
    2. Austin Y. Hubner & Shelly R. Hovick, 2020. "Understanding Risk Information Seeking and Processing during an Infectious Disease Outbreak: The Case of Zika Virus," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 40(6), pages 1212-1225, June.
    3. Degeling, Chris & Kerridge, Ian, 2013. "Hendra in the news: Public policy meets public morality in times of zoonotic uncertainty," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 156-163.
    4. Marco Benvenuto & Francesco Sambati & Carmine Viola, 2022. "Una survey nazionale per valutare l?efficacia della comunicazione istituzionale nella gestione del Covid-19," MECOSAN, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2022(121), pages 31-56.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:256:y:2020:i:c:s0277953620302513. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.