When comparing the coverage of the top two items, heart disease and cancer, on the CDC's list of leading causes of death for American males with the next two, unintentional injuries and lower respiratory diseases, there is large gap. I've found that, while the media coverage could be better concerning the top two items, media does do a fairly good job of reporting on what the average man can do to lessen his chances of dying from either of these causes. Albeit sometimes that information might require a little digging. However, the next two killers on the list are promoted in several ways.
With unintentional injuries, the third item on the CDC's list, it was the promotion of risky behavior such as rock climbing and the article about the man who crossed the Arctic Ocean in a row boat. These dangerous sports were celebrated in Men's Journal and in an advertisement in Men's Health magazine. There also were not any stories focusing on safety in sports such as these.
The same situation persisted as I investigated respiratory diseases, which was the fourth item on the CDC's list. Smoking, which is a contributor to lower respiratory diseases, was portrayed with an air of respect and fun When the media had a face to put with the problem, George W.H. Bush, they did not address causes, symptoms, or actually anything to do with lower respiratory diseases themselves and instead only covered the story from an angle of wishing well an ailing president.
This gap in coverage, and probably in awareness of coverage by the media, reflects the gap in percentages in which each item on the list is a threat to the lives of men. However, men's health, in regards to the biggest killer of men, is generally underrepresented in media. It is much more common to see sexual advice, mental health advice, or muscle building advice than it is to see an article addressing heart disease, cancer, unintentional injuries, or lower respiratory diseases. Many of the articles that deal with these topics are buried under the aforementioned types of articles, and have to be searched for. It shouldn't be harder to find the important information that has a direct correlation with the leading causes of American male deaths. Further research should be put into this problem such as seeing how affective the articles are in making connections with the men reading them or researching how harmful promoting smoking or risky behavior is to men's self perception and therefore our health.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Lower Respiratory Diseases
Fourth on the CDC's list of biggest killers of American males lies lower respiratory diseases. This includes emphysema, asthma, and bronchitis. For today's blog I'll be focusing on how media representation of health concerns applies to these three lower respiratory diseases. Today, however I'm going to try something different. Instead of focusing on two particular sources of information I'm going to take a wider look at media that one might randomly happen across including the internet, commercials, music, and television. These forms of media have a large impact on how we view the world around us. This is probably even more true than that of information we seek out.
All three of these diseases are effected by smoking. While smoking advertising is severely limited it still permeates television and music. Tony Saprano is famous for having a cigar at the ready. It often aids him in creating a silent end to a conversation or add drama to a scene. It is depicted as a tough-guy action to smoke a cigar. A symbol of power and confidence as depicted by Soprano. Portrayals such as this condone smoking as a way to achieve a certain level of respect, and suggest to viewers that they too can gain power by smoking a cigar.
It so happens that this week George W.H. Bush was hospitalized for bronchitis. The articles dealing with his illness are slim in information at best. An article in the Huffington titled "George Bush Sr. Hospitalization: Former President in Stable Condition" consists of only 125 words, which is less than a third of the length of this blog post. The article gives Bush's age, which presidential term he served, the city where he rests in a hospital, his ailment, and whom is visiting him. Another story on ABC news lasts only twenty-two seconds before moving onto a slightly longer story about the most popular baby names. The ABC story contained much of the same information and a well wishing, but no real information about bronchitis. As news sources these information outlets have an opportunity to inform the public about why Bush Sr. has bronchitis, what the effects might be, and his danger level. Neither news source delves down these avenues.
The lack of information with the two news stories coupled with an attitude that yes, smoking does give you an air of respect shows a dangerous trend in media concerning lower respiratory illnesses. The most frightening thing is that given the opportunity to use a famous example as a cause for health awareness the media still did nothing. To the media's credit however, after moving past the first two items on the CDC'S list of leading causes in male deaths there is a drastic drop off of percentage of deaths that are accounted for by each item. Lower respiratory diseases account for only 5.5%, while each of the top two, heart disease and cancer, account for a combined 49.5%.
It so happens that this week George W.H. Bush was hospitalized for bronchitis. The articles dealing with his illness are slim in information at best. An article in the Huffington titled "George Bush Sr. Hospitalization: Former President in Stable Condition" consists of only 125 words, which is less than a third of the length of this blog post. The article gives Bush's age, which presidential term he served, the city where he rests in a hospital, his ailment, and whom is visiting him. Another story on ABC news lasts only twenty-two seconds before moving onto a slightly longer story about the most popular baby names. The ABC story contained much of the same information and a well wishing, but no real information about bronchitis. As news sources these information outlets have an opportunity to inform the public about why Bush Sr. has bronchitis, what the effects might be, and his danger level. Neither news source delves down these avenues.
The lack of information with the two news stories coupled with an attitude that yes, smoking does give you an air of respect shows a dangerous trend in media concerning lower respiratory illnesses. The most frightening thing is that given the opportunity to use a famous example as a cause for health awareness the media still did nothing. To the media's credit however, after moving past the first two items on the CDC'S list of leading causes in male deaths there is a drastic drop off of percentage of deaths that are accounted for by each item. Lower respiratory diseases account for only 5.5%, while each of the top two, heart disease and cancer, account for a combined 49.5%.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Unintentional Injuries: Media for Men
As I move down the list of the biggest killers of American men according to the CDC (http://www.cdc.gov/men/lcod/2008/index.htm) the next item will be a little trickier than the first two (Heart Disease and Cancer). The third leading cause of deaths in American males is the unintentional injury. I bought two magazines to review: the November issue of Men's Journal and the December issue of Men's Health.
Both magazines covered ways to avoid small injuries while exercising. However, neither magazine featured articles about how to avoid fatality through unintentional injuries. What both magazines did were to feature articles and advertisements that promoted risky behavior.
Most articles and advertisements in Men's Journal that are promoting physical activity revolve around sports such as mountain hiking, mountain climbing, skiing, surfing, and one article about a man who crossed the Arctic in a rowboat. All of these involve inherit dangers; particularly the last one. Men's Health similarly has an article about winter sports (skiing and snowboarding) to improve health and features a watch advertisement for Armitron depicting a man rock climbing while using lines such as, "Make Time for Adventure" and, "Defying Gravity 1:38" as a man hangs horizontal from the face of a cliff. The short article about skiing and snowboarding depicts ways to avoid minor injuries. Most of the articles and advertisements in Men's Health are focused on fashion, mental/emotional health, and exercising indoors.
These advertisements and articles show a trend in the media to portray males as risk takers, one might even say danger seekers. Television commercials come to mind as well. Commercials with men playing football, riding dolphins, jumping from planes, violent video games, climbing mountain sides for a cold Coors Light, and the list goes on and on all involve men doing dangerous stunts. I watch less than five hours of television a week and came up with that list, so obviously there are many more out there.
To explore the dangerous, the deadly, is a boost to the male ego. This no doubt reflects or is a reflection of unintentional injuries being the third largest killer of men in the United States. However, an important question arises here: are the magazine companies/television companies reflecting males' natural tendency to explore the dangerous, or are they creating a social stereotype for men to fit that is endangering the health of the male population by feeding on its testosterone?
These advertisements and articles show a trend in the media to portray males as risk takers, one might even say danger seekers. Television commercials come to mind as well. Commercials with men playing football, riding dolphins, jumping from planes, violent video games, climbing mountain sides for a cold Coors Light, and the list goes on and on all involve men doing dangerous stunts. I watch less than five hours of television a week and came up with that list, so obviously there are many more out there.
To explore the dangerous, the deadly, is a boost to the male ego. This no doubt reflects or is a reflection of unintentional injuries being the third largest killer of men in the United States. However, an important question arises here: are the magazine companies/television companies reflecting males' natural tendency to explore the dangerous, or are they creating a social stereotype for men to fit that is endangering the health of the male population by feeding on its testosterone?
Friday, November 9, 2012
Cancer and Media
This week I took a look at the coverage of cancer (second on the list of the CDC'S causes of American male deaths) on both Men's Health and MSN's websites. It is worth noting that on MSN's main health page men are fairly represented. Most articles (there were six lead stories), some were about children, were unisex. They concerned health topics such as diet cola and cancer in a way that included all people not just women or just men. Because this blog concerns men's health exclusively I dug a little deeper. It is a little harder to find MSN's men's health page than that of Men's Health obviously, but MSN is designed to appeal to a wider audience.
Of the articles on MSN's health page not one covered cancer. Now, this might not be entirely fair to MSN. They might rotate their articles on a very regular basis and have many less articles when compared to Men's Health, but the fact remains that as pertaining to strictly men their information flow of male cancer was nonexistent. Their featured articles were, "How to eat like a (cave)man" (this articles subheading was, "Did cavemen have abs"), "10 ways to find more energy", and "7 foods for better sex". The focus on MSN's page, like that of the majority of Men's Health, is to promote a sexy approach to being healthy, and not to address major health concerns. Apparently sex sells. Who knew?
In contrast to MSN, Men's Health health news section held 204 stories on hand. The first article for the second biggest killer of US men was sixty-three articles into the list. Sixty-Three. The title of the article was, "How Exercise can Help Cure Cancer". The article didn't make any claims that exercise could cure cancer alone or use extreme sources, but it was, and you'll have to excuse me, sixty-third on the list. It wasn't about how to prevent cancer, or about what might cause cancer that you could avoid, but that exercise might boost your system enough to help fight cancer. It was actually a good article, but I asked myself, "Self, how far down the list is an article that actually promotes not getting cancer through being informed?"
I delved on and got bored at story One hundred and twenty and searched their site. Seriously, who even goes that far on their site? The first story was titled "Cancer-Proof Your Body". The article was based on the research of Gary Stoner, Ph.D from THE Ohio State University medical center. The basis of the information was this, don't go to smoking establishments (second hand smoke is bad for you), and eat/drink a lot of fruit. This information was well informed and well represented. Steve Mazzucchi gave tips about how to apply the research to the common man's life as well. The fact hangs though, that Men's cancer is a very underrepresented subject in men's health news, as these two sources go at least.
Of the articles on MSN's health page not one covered cancer. Now, this might not be entirely fair to MSN. They might rotate their articles on a very regular basis and have many less articles when compared to Men's Health, but the fact remains that as pertaining to strictly men their information flow of male cancer was nonexistent. Their featured articles were, "How to eat like a (cave)man" (this articles subheading was, "Did cavemen have abs"), "10 ways to find more energy", and "7 foods for better sex". The focus on MSN's page, like that of the majority of Men's Health, is to promote a sexy approach to being healthy, and not to address major health concerns. Apparently sex sells. Who knew?
In contrast to MSN, Men's Health health news section held 204 stories on hand. The first article for the second biggest killer of US men was sixty-three articles into the list. Sixty-Three. The title of the article was, "How Exercise can Help Cure Cancer". The article didn't make any claims that exercise could cure cancer alone or use extreme sources, but it was, and you'll have to excuse me, sixty-third on the list. It wasn't about how to prevent cancer, or about what might cause cancer that you could avoid, but that exercise might boost your system enough to help fight cancer. It was actually a good article, but I asked myself, "Self, how far down the list is an article that actually promotes not getting cancer through being informed?"
I delved on and got bored at story One hundred and twenty and searched their site. Seriously, who even goes that far on their site? The first story was titled "Cancer-Proof Your Body". The article was based on the research of Gary Stoner, Ph.D from THE Ohio State University medical center. The basis of the information was this, don't go to smoking establishments (second hand smoke is bad for you), and eat/drink a lot of fruit. This information was well informed and well represented. Steve Mazzucchi gave tips about how to apply the research to the common man's life as well. The fact hangs though, that Men's cancer is a very underrepresented subject in men's health news, as these two sources go at least.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Man Slayer: Heart Disease
Man Slayer: Heart Disease
Today's biggest headlines on the Men's Health News page are: How Being Fat Makes You Stupid, Hurricane Sandy: Your Netflix Survival Guide, 5 Ways to Ride Out Hurricane Sandy, 3 Steps to the Perfect Handshake, 10 Things You Can Learn from Twitter, Are You a Sex Addict?, The Best and Worst Kids' Fast Food Meals, 7 Crazy Things Testosterone Does to Your Body, Predict the Future - Instantly, and Why Tyson Chandler's Photos Started a Bidding War. Only one of these ten articles has a bearing on the physical health of men and that article is How Being Fat Makes You Stupid. What about the testosterone article you may ask. Six of the seven crazy things that testosterone does are about sex and money, and not really health. It is noted that higher testosterone levels decrease the risk of heart disease however, which makes sense as a man with higher testosterone will most likely be more competitive and more athletic.
On the CDC's website the number one killer for men might surprise you: heart disease. One might think it was kidney failure or cancer, but no, our biggest killer is our heart. Men's Health site writes that one in three men currently have heart disease and that it killed 390,000 men in 2007. A government site (http://www.doh.state.fl.us/chdokaloosa/CHIP/CHSR/CHSR_11_Heart.pdf) pins that number closer to 310,000, however; Men's Health sites the American Heart Association for that number so it might be estimated high to garner more attention to the problem. I couldn't verify the number on the American Heart Association's site because it is at the moment under construction.
The first article that pops up when you search for heart disease on Men's Health, and as there was nothing on the first page search I did, is about the danger of heart disease and a quiz you can take to see if you are emotionally at risk for heart disease. The questions ask pertinent questions about stress and the ability to cope as life throws you curve balls, and in general those are signposts that can lead to heart disease. Certainly stress and feeling a lack of control in your life are attributing factors. This article is followed by an article on heart disease prevention. The prevention article gives five different ways to prevent heart disease. As someone who has been warned about my cholesterol from my doctor and given advice on how to reduce my risk of heart disease I can vouch for most of the things on the list. I had to look into lowering blood pressure but that too was reported accurately.
Men's Health doesn't strive to be a place of end all information in the articles I've seen it serves as more of a overview of what they view as important pieces of information. More than once in the articles I read I was advised to talk to my doctor about testing for heart disease. Men's Health does a good job of giving enough information to make you interested in a topic, a few small things that you can do to help yourself, and to admit that you can't fix everything by reading their magazine. You still have to go see the guy in the white coat.
Today's biggest headlines on the Men's Health News page are: How Being Fat Makes You Stupid, Hurricane Sandy: Your Netflix Survival Guide, 5 Ways to Ride Out Hurricane Sandy, 3 Steps to the Perfect Handshake, 10 Things You Can Learn from Twitter, Are You a Sex Addict?, The Best and Worst Kids' Fast Food Meals, 7 Crazy Things Testosterone Does to Your Body, Predict the Future - Instantly, and Why Tyson Chandler's Photos Started a Bidding War. Only one of these ten articles has a bearing on the physical health of men and that article is How Being Fat Makes You Stupid. What about the testosterone article you may ask. Six of the seven crazy things that testosterone does are about sex and money, and not really health. It is noted that higher testosterone levels decrease the risk of heart disease however, which makes sense as a man with higher testosterone will most likely be more competitive and more athletic.
On the CDC's website the number one killer for men might surprise you: heart disease. One might think it was kidney failure or cancer, but no, our biggest killer is our heart. Men's Health site writes that one in three men currently have heart disease and that it killed 390,000 men in 2007. A government site (http://www.doh.state.fl.us/chdokaloosa/CHIP/CHSR/CHSR_11_Heart.pdf) pins that number closer to 310,000, however; Men's Health sites the American Heart Association for that number so it might be estimated high to garner more attention to the problem. I couldn't verify the number on the American Heart Association's site because it is at the moment under construction.
The first article that pops up when you search for heart disease on Men's Health, and as there was nothing on the first page search I did, is about the danger of heart disease and a quiz you can take to see if you are emotionally at risk for heart disease. The questions ask pertinent questions about stress and the ability to cope as life throws you curve balls, and in general those are signposts that can lead to heart disease. Certainly stress and feeling a lack of control in your life are attributing factors. This article is followed by an article on heart disease prevention. The prevention article gives five different ways to prevent heart disease. As someone who has been warned about my cholesterol from my doctor and given advice on how to reduce my risk of heart disease I can vouch for most of the things on the list. I had to look into lowering blood pressure but that too was reported accurately.
Men's Health doesn't strive to be a place of end all information in the articles I've seen it serves as more of a overview of what they view as important pieces of information. More than once in the articles I read I was advised to talk to my doctor about testing for heart disease. Men's Health does a good job of giving enough information to make you interested in a topic, a few small things that you can do to help yourself, and to admit that you can't fix everything by reading their magazine. You still have to go see the guy in the white coat.
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