Essay on Health Risks in the Media

Mental health has been a topic of discussion and has held a stigma around it for numerous years. Society at times has viewed it in a closed minded view due to generational aspects and lack of understanding. With the lack of education on mental health, the society, cultures, and communities often times more than not stereotype and discriminate against those with mental health disabilities. The population, of which I have discussed previously, is a population with one of the most negative attitudes against them. Media and society views these individuals as psychopaths, sociopaths, and being insane with some people even go as far as indicating these individuals should not be living. With Antisocial Personality Disorder, media has portrayed these

There has been an acute worry roaming about the United States concerning the Ebola Outbreak. Originally, Ebola had never touched the United States until September of 2014. (4) The disease was originated from and named after a river in the Democratic of Congo. Since discovered, there have been known cases in Africa. There have been many very deadly cases of Ebola - the fatality rate is estimated to from about fifty to ninety percent. (2) To the United States, there had never been any worry about the disease until September twentieth of 2014. A man by the name of Thomas Eric Duncan boarded flight 822 from Liberia to Dallas, Texas. Flight 822 was where it all began. Nobody had any

In 2014 the United States was hit with a force far more deadly and dangerous than many threats received. The ebola virus took the world by storm after it was carried to the United States and spread by people who had visited West Africa. This virus was all the more deadly as it often took hours for any symptoms to occur. In this time the Center for Disease Control spent much time and many resources looking for answers to the many questions they had. Under the time constraint and scrutinizing public, they had to determine what ebola was, what it did and its effects on the general public.

Although it was a nonfiction book, it was quite scary to think about how such a small thing like a virus can infiltrate a human being and cause such destruction and damage to possibly wipe out an entire community, city, country or even the world. Ebola could spread in multiple ways, through the air, blood or any openings on the body. It’s one of the deadliest known viruses in the world and it can mutate and change forms into many things and easily kill any organism on the planet. So much about the virus is unknown which makes it more horrifying. There are seven proteins in Ebola and only four of them are known. It is unknown what the others could do. If all of the seven proteins were known, there could be a cure. The way it moves through the body is alarming, it cripples the immune system then destroys the vascular system. There are many unknowns in nature, some dangerous and some not and there is no way to tell until they emerge just like Ebola. Nature is a wonderful thing full of different surprises that sometimes end up being

According to Kelley Beaucar Vlahos (2014), it was in 1995, with the release of Richard Preston’s novel The Hot Zone that Ebola’s infamy was came into the minds of the western public, the book is experiencing a resurgence. Preston chronicled how monkeys, which were shipping to the United States from Philippines, began to die in their cages. The book shaped a basic sense about Ebola and the concept of Ebola was present for the first time, additional, author’s opinion effects abounded in later report. In Adam Nossiter (2014) article, one woman lay curled in a fetal position, eyes shut, precariously balanced on cardboard sheets next to an open gutter in front of locked storefronts. From a wary distance, she had a high fever. Michael T. Osterholm (2014) also writes that the Ebola have been caused 4,300 cases and 2,300 deaths over past six months, and in 2012, a research team from Canada proved that the Ebola virus could be transmitted by the route from pigs to monkeys, whose lungs of both are very similar to those of humans. No doubt, this kind of scene did little to allay the fears of the public, even though the Ebola have not yet infected humans in American. Those three logical facts show the severe situation, Ebola has transformed into a completely killer virus, which influences and threatens people in the world. Media’s function in earliest representation is to let public know what the Ebola is, why should public focus on

In his article, Charles Blow writes about how since the Ebola outbreak, our country has not been battling a virus but a mania created through politicians and the media, who both profit from public anxiety. Instead of putting our focus on finding scientific advancements, we have been led astray by such silliness. In order to prevent Ebola, we need to stop it at its source. The virus is taking heavy toll on

The following media analysis will review a media article that has recently been published. The report will refer to both the media article and the social determinants of health to discuss how obesity can potentially be the cause of several health issues, with appropriate evidence to support this.

During your lifetime 250,000 people will die due to an eating disorder. Is this really the type of society we want to be a part of? One which causes people to die needlessly due to media influences which cause the augmentation of a detrimental body image? In the eyes of society emaciated celebrities are the embodiment of perfection. This media ideal of thinness presents society with an unrealistic body image and is projected through the means of television, commercials and magazines, causing women to replicate this ideal. False idealism is the jurisdiction of the 21st century with the number of teenage girls in Britain being admitted to hospital due to anorexia doubling in the last decade. The fundamental reason I chose this topic is

The media is depicting Ebola as an African disease or third world illness. The media also heavily uses the military metaphors that Susan Sontag discusses in her book “AIDS and Its Metaphors”. They show images of hazard suits and military men in Africa sent there to combat the Ebola virus. This is making the world believe that Ebola is not a world problem, but that it is only a problem for those in Africa and it is also making Ebola out to be a thing that needs to be fought by military means. The problems with the way Ebola is being represented in public discourse is caused by the way cultural imagery is depicting Ebola. Because of the constant images of workers in hazard suits, the military, and also of dead people killed by the Ebola virus, the media is just feeding the negative metaphors that have become associated with

Health and epidemics trigger the most basic human fear – of death – and frequently serve as a reason for moral panic. Ebola virus is one of such cases. Ebola epidemic coverage in media constructed the image of the West-African victims as deviant. Various articles emphasized the fact that the affected people are uneducated, poor

Many Americans today fear that “…contagion threatens to violate secure borders, invade our society, and proliferate out of control” (Dinello 53). For instance, Ebola remains a number one concern of the United States since Ebola is a virus that infiltrates through the immune system and overruns the physical body as a host, and causes the body to have massive internal bleeding, which leads to a miserable death. Scientists are attempting to formulate a cure or treatment for the virus, so they could stop the prevention and contamination; however, it’s easier said than done. This is why Americans should remain terrified of Ebola, considering that the pathogen has not finished mutating. There’s no telling how dangerous Ebola will become over the decades.

SECOND POINT: Although an outbreak in America is highly unlikely, the fact that Ebola has been diagnosed on American soil brings fear to all. Because of its infectiousness and long incubation period, and the banality of early symptoms, it can be difficult to track and contain. We also do not have a cure for this disease, sure we have experimental drugs, but nothing official. The spread has been much quicker in this outbreak than others, affecting both urban and rural areas. Usual protective measures to prevent the spread appear to be less effective in this epidemic. What ebola does to the human body defies reason and is something like out of a horror movie, not a text book. Americans feel hopeless and vulnerable because Ebola is here. The victim who flew from Liberia to Dallas, Texas on September 30th of this year did expose others and there is a risk of it spreading. The Ebola virus is the most terrifying and least-understood virus known to man. We are witnessing the onset of a deadly mutation anticipated and feared for almost four decades. Americans have watched fully informed and trained health care workers contract Ebola.

The media is a part of everyday life in American kids. Children are surrounded by technology, entertainment, and other media that is full of violence. Newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and the internet all contain violence. Today's media has a negative influence on children. The media does have an influence on them, but does it really influence them to act out even though they know it's wrong? Mass media, and its components, are very powerful and can influence one's mind, as well as their behavior. Children that imitate characters who use violence in the media and display aggressive behavior, tend to give them reason to believe that violence can happen without consequence. For children who grow up with poor adult examples or an

Over the years, the advances in science have increased the health and safety of the world’s population. Through the introduction of vaccines, medicines, and other medical equipment, the scientific world has prevented the spread of diseases, the possibility of an epidemic, and another devastating pandemic in history like the black plague. Although vaccines provide a resistance to diseases, many people question the safety of them. There is a famous theory that vaccines cause autism due to the chemicals within the vaccines, even though scientific evidence denies any connection. One of the reasons that this theory still exists is due to the portrayal of information from the media. Based on the opinion of the media outlet, the depiction of the vaccine-autism link changes throughout society. The media is typically the main source of information for citizens, whether they watch a news channel, read a newspaper, check online newspapers, or listen to the radio, these news outlet supply our population with the basis of knowledge on all topics. Not many people in this audience will conduct their own research, this means that the original data and information is usually summarized and changed to fit the opinion of the media outlet. Some celebrities, like Jenny McCarthy and Charlie Sheen, picked up on the issue and helped spread the theory; as the media followed their stories, the idea of the connection continued to spread. The debate about whether vaccines cause autism illustrates the

Like many people my age, media is a huge part of my daily life and is prevalent in all my memories. Media such as photography brings to life memories I otherwise would have forgotten, while the internet allows me to connect with others from across the world and gives me access to resources like Khan Academy to aid me in school. Media also has more negative impacts, such as interfering with family time. Whether its effect is positive or negative, media has influenced my life since the start and this reflection helped me realize that.