Technology as the Representative Anecdote in Popular Discourses of Health and Medicine

Using a Burkean framework (1969), this article approaches medical dramas as cultural texts to be read for dominant meanings of health and health care. Burke's representative anecdote illuminates the melding of science, technology, and healing in popular discourses of health, establishing techno...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Health communication 2001-01, Vol.13 (4), p.409-425
Main Authors: Harter, Lynn M., Japp, Phyllis M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anecdotes
Anecdotes as Topic
Clinical Competence
Complementary Therapies
Discourses
Drama
Health
Humans
Mass Media
Medical Laboratory Science
Medical technology
Medicine
Nature
Philosophy, Medical
Television
Television programmes
United States
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Summary:Using a Burkean framework (1969), this article approaches medical dramas as cultural texts to be read for dominant meanings of health and health care. Burke's representative anecdote illuminates the melding of science, technology, and healing in popular discourses of health, establishing technological intervention as the norm and marginalizing nontechnological (i.e., alternative) forms of health care. Popular entertainment reinforces this anecdote in narratives of healing as technological competence triumphing over nature.
ISSN:1041-0236
1532-7027
DOI:10.1207/S15327027HC1304_04