Telling the story of the opioid crisis: A narrative analysis of the TV series Dopesick

Dopesick (2021) is the first TV series whose plot deals exclusively with the opioid crisis in the United States. The current study uses narrative analysis and framing theory to explore this series, discussing its portrayal of the people and themes involved in the opioid crisis. Our analysis found th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2024-04, Vol.19 (4), p.e0301681-e0301681
Main Authors: Piqué-Buisan, Joel, Baños, Josep-E, Cambra-Badii, Irene
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analgesics, Opioid - adverse effects
Biology and Life Sciences
Humans
Medicine and Health Sciences
Methods
Narration
Opioid Epidemic
People and Places
Social Sciences
Television programs
United States
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Summary:Dopesick (2021) is the first TV series whose plot deals exclusively with the opioid crisis in the United States. The current study uses narrative analysis and framing theory to explore this series, discussing its portrayal of the people and themes involved in the opioid crisis. Our analysis found that although Dopesick attempts to portray multiple dimensions of the opioid crisis, its narrative oversimplifies the story in attributing the cause of the problem almost exclusively to Purdue Pharma and its director Richard Sackler, while downplaying other factors that contributed to the opioid crisis. Thus, the narrative in this TV series tends to offer simple explanations to a complex problem for which simple solutions are likely to be inadequate.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0301681