This book examines the relationship between media and medicine. Drawing on insights from anthropology, linguistics, and media studies, it considers the fundamental role of news coverage in constructing wider cultural understandings of health and disease.

Charles L. Briggs is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at UC Berkeley. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. His work combines linguistic and medical anthropology with socio-cultural anthropology and folkloristics.

Daniel C. Hallin is Distinguished Professor of Communication, Emeritus, at the University of California, San Diego, and is a Fellow of the International Communication Association. His work concerns journalism, political communication, and the comparative analysis of media systems.

Introduction

Part I - Toward a Framework for Studying Biomediatization

Chapter 1 - Biocommunicability: Cultural Models of Knowledge about Health

Chapter 2 - The Daily Work of Biomediatization

Chapter 3 - What Does this Mean "For the Rest of Us?": Frames, Voices, and the Journalistic Mediation of Health and Medicine

Part II - Biomediatization Up Close: Four Case Studies

Chapter 4 - Finding the "Buzz," Patrolling the Boundaries: Reporting Pharma and Biotech

Chapter 5 - "You Have to Hit It Hard, Hit It Early": Biomediatizing the 2009 H1N1 Epidemic

Chapter 6 - "We're All in this Together"?: Biomediatization of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Chapter 7 - "We Have to Put that Four-Letter Word, 'Race,' on the Table": Voicing and Silencing Race and Ethnicity in News Coverage of Health

Chapter 8 - Conclusion