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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1974-12-01 edition. Excerpt: ...factors that influence them, and television is an important determinant of these patterns. Further, the explicit content of television, reflecting the interests of advertisers, producers, and audience, has a high percentage of health-related material. Over 7 percent of all television time--25 minutes of those six hours--is related to health. This includes material designed to influence behavior (advertising and public service programming), to inform (news), and to keep the set turned on (entertainment). The time devoted to health in this last category is astounding. Ben Casey and Dr. Kildare are more well known than Sir William Osier and, while many physicians over their lifetimes have practiced medicine in several of the United States, Marcus Welby, M.D., practices in 60 different countries each week. This emphasis on health in the media reflects the economic and psychologic importance of health-related activities in our society. In 1972 the nation's medical bill was $83.4 billion, 7.6 percent of the gross national product (almost exactly the same percentage as that of television time devoted to health subjects). The drug industry devotes 10 percent of its sales dollars to advertising. The emotional significance of health is even greater than the economic. Our awareness of our bodies and our own mortality is a central theme of our fantasy life, the mental background that filters and determines the impact of the various communications we receive from others and from the media. The popularity and success of mass advertising or entertainment is based on an understanding and exploitation of universal mental fantasies. Thus while the advertising of medical products is related to the economic interests of the drug industry, the ubiquity of...

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