How Much Do You Love Grey’s Anatomy?

Does the prominence of medical Television Shows impact people’s decision to pursue a medical career? We are constantly told that the things we see in media and entertainment influences how we think about things, but not much research has been done regarding its ability to impact major life choices such as career choice. This paper investigates this by examining the causal relationship between television and interest in the pursuit of a medical career. An ordinary least squares model, created using time series data over the last 24 years, tested specifically the effect of the number and quality of medical television shows both on the rate of change in medical school applications for men and women and the proportion of female applicants. This study found that while medical tv shows don’t have a statistically significant impact on application rates for men or women, female-driven shows cause a larger proportion of the applicant pool to be female

The use of writing strategies to increase organ donation intentions

Organ shortage has been a big problem for a relatively long time. A variety of interventions from the policy level to the individual level have been used to expand the organ donation pool. The goal of this project is to examine the influence of the content and structure of narrative writing on attitudes and behavioral intentions towards organ donation. In Study 1, participants were randomly assigned into one of the three writing groups. Two of the groups were asked to create a character and then write a narrative either related (Narrative Group-NG) or unrelated (Control Group-CG) to organ donation. The other group was asked to answer some open-ended questions related to organ donation (Fragmented Group-FG). The results indicated that the intention change toward organ donation for NG was significantly different from the other two groups in two of the five items in the scale, which suggested that both topic and format can somewhat influence the organ donation intention. When comparing the writing content, the NG differed from the FG in both linguistic structure and psychological processes while the NG and CG differed mainly in their use of psychological processes and pronouns. In Study 2, a more vivid character creating procedure was developed to further shape the personality of the character. Participants were randomly assigned into one of the four writing groups. Two of the groups were asked to create a character either similar (Similar Vivid Narrative Group-SVN) or dissimilar (Dissimilar Vivid Narrative Group-DVN) to the writer and then write a short story to shape the personality of the character. They were then asked to write another short story where this character was in need of kidney transplant. The other two groups were asked to write about the room they were in first. And then, they were asked to write a short story of a character, either similar (Similar Narrative Control Group-SNC) to dissimilar (Dissimilar Narrative Control Group-DNC) to them, was in need of kidney transplant. Participant who were more transported into the narrative story they wrote and were more similar to the character they wrote tended to have more positive change of organ donation intention. Analysis of the narrative writing content revealed that the use of social process words and less gender reference words were associated with a greater increase in organ donation intention.Includes bibliographical references (pages 47-56)

do You Even Lift Bro? An Investigation Of The Male Viewer\u27s Response To Idealized Body Images In Competitive Reality Television.

This study investigates the influence of exposure to idealized body images on competitive reality television shows, specifically the effects on men and their body satisfaction, including a drive for masculinity and a drive for muscularity, as well as the perception of a potential partner. An overwhelming amount of research on the effects on women exposed to idealized images has been completed by previous researchers, but men have been disregarded in comparison regarding this topic. Furthermore, this study will rely on social comparison theory and cultivation theory as theoretical lenses to analyze how male viewers respond to idealized images of males in reality television

The Netflix Effect: Examining the Influence of Contemporary Entertainment Media Consumption Patterns on Political Attitudes and Social Perceptions

In the past two decades, media consumption has changed not only in terms of breadth and amount, but also in terms of availability and accessibility. Shows that once could only be viewed at their scheduled time on their scheduled network may now be streamed across several platforms at almost any time. Further, audiences have begun to connect with characters beyond the shows and films they inhabit, building websites, following related social media pages, recording podcasts and more to continue and expand these parasocial relationships. The social scientific community has only begun to scratch the surface of how these changes affect audience members and society at large—particularly regarding the political impact of entertainment media. Through focus groups, a survey experiment, media content analysis, and a laboratory experiment, I explore the impact of entertainment television media on political attitudes and social perceptions within the context of contemporary media consumption patterns. In particular, I examine the efficacy of narrative persuasion and mediated intergroup contact within the context of single exposure, accumulated exposure to outgroup members, and binge watching. I find that mediated intergroup contact appears to have a much stronger impact on audience members than narrative persuasion, regardless of exposure amount. I also find that binge watching episodic shows—watching multiple episodes back-to-back in one sitting—leads to different media effects on political attitudes and social perceptions in viewers than watching the same episodes in the traditional weekly format. Overall, my findings suggest that contemporary consumption patterns of entertainment media render it less influential in terms of narrative persuasion of political attitudes, but the regular consumption of entertainment media may still have lasting effects from mediated intergroup contact regardless of whether the contact is positive or negative

Ahead In Our Bulletin…examining Kenyans’ Perceptions Of Cancer Messages In Television News And Use Of These Messages

Using the data collected from 212 participants, this study examined the perceptions that Kenyans have toward television news with cancer messages and how the audiences use the messages. Using both close-ended and open-ended survey questions, this study investigated the motives that Kenyans have prior to watching news, how these motives affect their frequency of watching such news, how engaged they are with the news, their views of such news, how television news contribute to their knowledge about cancer, and their personal experiences with cancer. Some of the results suggest that the motives that Kenyans have are to gain knowledge on the disease and understand how people are managing the disease. Besides, motives account for a significant amount of television news that Kenyans watch. Additionally, Kenyans have had personal experiences with cancer touching on family members, friends, and patients in hospitals. Specific theoretical and practical implications, limitations, strengths, and proposals for future research are discussed in detail

How do people perceive organ donation?: using Q-methodology and post-Q survey to examine views on deceased organ donation in the UK

There is a significant and chronically unmet need for donated organs from deceased donors. Despite generally positive views in the UK, donation rate remains low. It is imperative to understand what the public think about this issue if organ donation campaigns are to be effective and successful in addressing a particular group. This research investigates the public’s views through a subjective perception of a network of barriers and motivators. This research investigates the views on organ donation in the UK. This research is a mixed method research which consists of two studies: study one and two. Study one’s objective is to identify distinctive views on organ donation in the UK using Q-methodology and interviews. Q-methodology uses qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the subjective perceptions of people in relation to a particular subject. Forty participants sorted 47 statements on organ donation on a Q grid. Factor analysis was then conducted using Centroid method and Varimax rotation. Six views were found but only four views were interpreted: The Realist, the Optimist Hesitant, the Convinced Pessimist and the Empathetic. Salient barriers to organ donation presented in each view suggest that perceived lack of knowledge, death anxiety, mistrust in the healthcare system and lack of cue to action are the main barriers to organ donation. Consensus statements suggest that religion and family agreement are inconsequential if attitude to organ donation is well formed. Study two used post-Q survey method to identify the prevalence of each view in the UK. Self-categorisation to abbreviated factor descriptions (vignettes) method was used to transform Q-methodology views to four vignettes with 100-140 words each. A total of 385 participants were asked to rate and then rank four vignettes based on how much they reflect their view on organ donation. Results showed that the Empathetic view is the most common view in the UK, followed by the Realist, the Optimist Hesitant, and the Convinced Pessimist successively. Results suggest no relationship between views and other demographic, social and organ donation attitude criteria. This research demonstrated the importance of subjective perception in forming an attitude to organ donation. It suggests that ‘one size does not fit all’ when it comes to designing behavioural interventions, and subjective perception is an important variable in addressing low organ donation rate in the UK