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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Melanie J Rock, MSW, PhD, Groupe de recherche interdisciplinaire en santé, Université de Montréal, CP Box 6128, succursale Centre-ville, Montreal, QC H3C 3J7, Canada, 514.343.6135, melanie.rock@umontreal.ca
How do North Americans value health? To respond to this question, I analyze media coverage of the type 2 diabetes epidemic among members of the Oji-Cree indigenous population. This population includes the third-highest diabetes prevalence ever recorded and the first cases of childhood type 2 diabetes ever detected. The presentation situates two front-page newspaper features and a 25-minute television documentary about this epidemic within a broader context. In this presentation, I compare the contents of these news stories, scrutinize how politicians responded to them, and outline general trends in media coverage of diabetes across North America. I do not aim to explicate how members of the Oji-Cree population think about diabetes and health more generally, research questions that have already been tackled.(1) Instead, I focus on how members of the larger North American public think about their own health and that of others. Significantly, journalists covering the type 2 diabetes epidemic in the Oji-Cree population explicitly aimed to articulate the significance of this epidemic for the non-Aboriginal public, providing a novel point of entry for grasping how members of this larger group tend to think about health. This presentation shows that, contrary to what has been suggested in the published literature,(2) the relationship between mortality rates and media coverage is hardly automatic. Drawing upon anthropological theory, I argue that the commodification of life is central to public perceptions of health in North America, as well as to public health research and practice. Departing from received wisdom, I contend that the commodification of health is crucial to recognizing and redressing social inequality in the modern-day era.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Diabetes, Native and Indigenous Populations
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio-Canada, Government of Canada
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: The Government of Canada funded my doctoral studies and is funding my postdoctoral studies through arms-length granting agencies.