PHMD 5435 — Medicine Across Media: Healthcare Representations and Reality
4 semester hoursGraduateLecture
Examines how medical professions, patients, illnesses, and the healthcare system are portrayed across diverse media including printed materials, film, television, and social media. Analyzes representations of different health professions and clinical scenarios in popular culture to interrogate social and personal attitudes toward health, disease, and patient care. Explores how media shapes public understanding of healthcare, what stereotypes persist about medical professions, how patients are depicted, and whose stories get told. Designed to develop critical medical literacy skills while examining real-world implications of these portrayals on the healthcare environment including patient expectations, professional identities, and health policy.