Power of Media in influencing Health Policy and Politics Assignment
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Added on 2021-06-16
Power of Media in influencing Health Policy and Politics Assignment
Added on 2021-06-16
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1THE POWER OF MEDIA IN INFLUENCING HEALTH POLICY AND POLITICSNameLecturerCourseDate
2The Power of Media in influencing Health Policy and PoliticsAustralia is a liberal nation in which the people exercise their right to information. That simply means that in Australia, there is a heavy media presence because everyone has a free access to print media (newspapers, magazines, and journals), broadcast media (radio, television, video, cinema, and film), and electronic media. Each of these media platforms has been instrumental in informing, educating, and entertaining the users. As a one of the most influential agents of social change, media has been used to make positive contributions in the healthcare sector. Here, it has been relied upon to educate people on various health-related matters such as the outbreak, prevalence, management, treatment, and control intervention for various illnesses.. That is what the “Flesh-Eating Ulcer Outbreak ‘Exploding Epidemic’ in Victoria” was written to do. ‘Flesh-Eating Ulcer Outbreak ‘Exploding Epidemic’ in Victoria” is an article that was written by Liam Mannix and published by the Sydney Morning Herald on April 15, 2018. The main aim of this article was to report on the progress that had been so far made on the fight against buruli ulcer. In the report, the author took time to do two things. One, the writer reports on the outbreak of the ulcer and gives a breakdown of the magnitude of its impacts on the Australian population in general and Victorian population in particular. Two, the writer critiques the efforts that the government has been making towards the management of the disease which islabeled “a flesh-eating ulcer.’ The article does not oppose the assertion that the fight against the buruli infection has not been effectively done. Although the author is not an expert in the buruli infection, she relies on expertise opinion from someone who understands it better than her. Liam relies on the research
3conducted by Daniel O’Brien to explain how worse the situation is. According to Dr. O’Brien, Buruli Ulcer has become a pandemic because its prevalence is on the rise. As a professional medic who has been dealing with the ailment, Dr. O’Brien says that the situation has become pathetic because of the laxities of the government which, according to him, has failed to avail adequate resources to effectively handle the infection (Munro 2015). However, these accusationsare refuted by the Department of Health and Human Services that faults the good doctor for peddling lies because the government has been actively involved in supporting the infection’s research (Bagdikian 2014). Nonetheless, given the magnitude of the threat posed by the ulcer, Dr. O’Brien is convinced that the government still has to provide enough funds to be used in conducting further research to help in getting enough information to be used in eradicating the infection from troubling the Australians. The media uses different strategies to appeal to the audience and convince them to believe in its contents. Apart from relying on the expertise opinion, the author uses advocacy as atool of reaching out to her audience. The author was not only interested in informing the readers on the prevalence of the infection, but also interested in illustrating how the governed has failed to deal with the infection (Lawson & Cowling 2015). According to what Dr. O’Brien said, the government has not been actively involved in the war against the ulcer because it has not been considered as a priority area. This paper interprets that the author was trying to fault the government because it is the supreme authority charged with the responsibility of providing quality and safe healthcare services to everyone (Denecke, Bamidis, Bond, Gabarron, Househ, Lau, Mayer, Merolli & Hansen 2015). However, since the ulcer has never been taken seriously, itis no doubt that the government is not very much concerned about it (Shaw, Russell, Greenhalgh & Korica 2014). Otherwise, it would have come up with policy measures to effectively deal with
4it. To someone like Dr. O’Brien, baruli ulcer should not be ignored any longer because it might end up becoming a challenging disaster that the government might not manage in the near future.The article is not biased because it was written by an impartial author. The writer was guided by the principle of objectivity because she appears to be focus on exactly what to do. In this article, the author was intending to give a comprehensive and informative report on the status of the buruli ulcer in the country. Although the main focus was on Victoria, the article can still be relied upon to depict a clear picture of the infection in the larger Australia. According to this paper, Liam was reporting on the research that she had conducted on the prevalence of the ulcer. In her opinion, the ulcer has become an epidemic because it has been posing a great threat to the Australians for many years (Meyer 2015). However, since she is not a medic practitioner, the writer chose to rely on a professional medic who has a sound knowledge on illnesses like buruli ulcer. That is why she relied on Dr. O’Brien to give a comprehensive analysis of the infection, trace its history, and provide all the necessary information on the mitigation strategies and research efforts that have been made to deal with it over the years.When writing this article, Liam knew so well that she was publishing a news item that would play a significant role in boosting the media campaign in the country. The article is political because it involves a heated discussion by two opposing sides. On his part, Dr. O’Brien argues that the infection has escalated into a pandemic because of the laxities of the government in dealing with it. As an experienced medic, Dr. O’Brien believes that the government has not been supporting the fight against the ulcer the way it ought to (Bard 2016). In his opinion, the government does not give the researchers enough resources to use in studying the infection. However, his statement is refuted by the Department of Health and Human Services whose official denies the Dr. O’Brien’s claim. According to this official, the government has been at the
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