Abstract
Newspapers have been a stronghold news source for centuries covering a wide range of topics. Though reporting is meant to be unbiased and only fact, stories produced are inevitably entwined with the author’s cultural values—news content ranging from sports to healthcare, including articles, advertisements, and editorial cartoons provide valuable insight into the lives of society. Voices, or narratives, are a huge part of how culture is created and maintained. In healthcare, patients can feel like their voices are not heard. In an attempt to bridge the gap between medical and humanities research and to gain insight into doctor-patient interactions, this analysis asks what ideologies and beliefs are present in medical contexts and how are they represented within the editorial cartoon. Recent studies suggest that mass media as societal discourse may frame or position participants within a society. In this theory of framing, culture is formed from discourse through a reflexive process. Using Kress and Van Leeuwen’s research on meaning making, this study will perform a discursive analysis on medical-themed editorial cartoons from Carpe Diem, Rhymes with Orange, The Lockhorns, to Bizarro. Through this close reading, explicit and implicit cultural beliefs held about medicine, including practitioners and patients, have been revealed, including the portrayal of the doctor’s power over the patient and patient distrust in doctors. Taking into consideration media theory and the analysis of the comics, medical associations and practices may find valuable insight from the opinions and beliefs of not just the authors of these comics but society as a whole, which may prove important as debates over healthcare are ongoing.
Highlights
The print news has been a stronghold news source for centuries covering a wide range of topics
In many of the comics surveyed, the doctors were often portrayed in positions more salient than that of the patient
One of the tools used in comics to give meaning, or tell stories, is that of vectors
Summary
With medical and pharmaceutical costs rising and the politicization of healthcare, not a week goes by without mention of the industry in news reporting. Though journalism is meant to be impartial to cultural values, news-content, including the editorial cartoon, can be filled with the implicit opinions of the author no matter the topic of the story or the medium used. The author’s voices and opinions are at the forefront of mass media with potential to influence the masses. These voices are what define and maintain culture. On trend with current debates surrounding healthcare, the analysis presented in this work. Topics in Primary Care Medicine asks what beliefs are present in medical interactions, how they are represented in mass media such as through editorial cartoons, and the implications that these beliefs have on society. This work uses a methodology that attempts to further relations between medical and humanities scholarship [1, 2]
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