Return to search

Decoding images of women's health in cervical screening advertisements

Health communication has become a popular way for health promotion. Public service advertisements of disease prevention construct the understanding of disease and actions toward caution and healing. However, the health messages provided by mass media are not neutral and value-free information; instead, they imply with domestic cultural values, moral regulation, and social order by framing people who affect a disease as lack of self-control, self-surveillance, and negligent behavior. A series of cervical cancer preventing advertisements long-term sponsored by P&G is selected for studying samples. The aims of this research are to discover the power, ideology and dominant discourse about women's health in advertisements. Semiotic theory is adopt as analyzing methodology in exploring mainstream discourse about women's health and body regulation in Taiwan, through voice-over, story, and images in advertising.
This research finds that information for preventing cervical cancer appeared through media is full of patriarchy ideology. The perception of "healthy" women body is shaped to fit social expectations in female characters, as well-controlled, fragile and protection needed, as well as capability for giving birth of a child. The advertising represents social construction of illness, and defines women's health problems as individual and private responsibility. The importance of national health policy and the force of social control are absent and ignore. Thus, to disclose how patriarchy, dominant ideologies which undermines women's health are implemented in health communication is the main purpose of this paper.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0415108-214034
Date15 April 2008
CreatorsKang, Hui-hsien
ContributorsLi-Ling, Tsai, Ping, Shaw, Chih-Hsiang, Chen
PublisherNSYSU
Source SetsNSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive
LanguageCholon
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0415108-214034
Rightsunrestricted, Copyright information available at source archive

Page generated in 0.0017 seconds