Freaks, Moral Tales & Medical Marvels: Health & Medical Stories on Australian Television

Television is repeatedly nominated by people as a leading source of information on public health and medical matters. A week of Sydney prime-time news and current affairs programs was reviewed for the frequency of health and medical stories. These were found to rank third out of seventeen news categories. Each of the stories was subjected to a discourse analysis, analysed for the use of language, narrative themes and visual imagery. There were four major sub-texts: the bizarre, moral tales and falls from grace, medical miracles, and low-tech prevention stories.

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