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Nursing is one of the oldest and most noble professions and has evolved over time to fit
the needs of the world, likewise media has evolved just as much and even more so in the last 50
years. Media has taken on man significant roles in society from the only source of information to
the newest dance trend. Media was how the world announced the end of wars and the beginning
of a pandemic, media has a far reach over the world and can control the narrative where it is
shown or shared. Anthropologists have studied media and its affect on people and more
specifically the effect that no media has on a group of people. Media has changed forms over
time and has played a vital role in the way we interact with our environment, as soon to be nurses
it is important to understand how media will affect us and we must adapt to meet the changes
that media takes or risk falling behind in either crucial information or will we be able to use
media as a tool for a better health care system.
When Katie Nelson wrote her chapter in the book, “Perspectives: An Open Introduction
To Cultural Anthropology” she writes that when interviewing a tribe in Brazil about their title as
Indians there was one person who stated, “…hey were Indians because the community was on an
Indian reservation and the Brazilian government had recognized them as an indigenous tribe” (p.
46). Katie goes on to call their cultural identity confusion a “contested identity” and I believe
that this is in part due to the fact that the media, in this case the government, integrated their
message and placed it into the minds of this tribe who would normally abstain from any
involvement in media and yet was still affected by the only form left. This introduction of
confusion is a very powerful example of just how influential media can be.
