Deborah Lupton

• PhD
• Professor at UNSW Sydney

Risk is a concept with multiple meanings and is ideologically loaded. The author reviews the literature on risk perception and risk as a sociocultural construct, with particular reference to the domain of public health. Pertinent examples of the political and moral function of risk discourse in public health are given. The author concludes that ris...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the dominant symbolic elements, themes, and discourses used in drug advertisements published in a weekly magazine directed toward physicians. The discussion is concerned with both the visual signs and textual format of the advertisements, analyzing their attempts to create images around the drugs that ap...

The majority of research studies analysing the types of information and messages disseminated about health issues in the entertainment and news media employ quantitative methods to identify surface patterns in coverage. This article introduces a further, ideological, dimension to the analysis of the portrayal of health issues in the news media. It...

Discourse analysis is an interdisciplinary field of inquiry which has been little employed by public health practitioners. The methodology involves a focus upon the sociocultural and political context in which text and talk occur. Discourse analysis is, above all, concerned with a critical analysis of the use of language and the reproduction of dom...

The provision of mass mammographic screening programs for all women over the age of 50 years in Australia has received widespread support from the popular press, politicians and society in general. However health professionals have expressed doubts about the desirability of implementing such programs before their broader efficacy has been properly...

AIDS is a disease which has received a great deal of attention from the popular media, which in turn has attracted the interests of those who analyse media. The health information conveyed to the general public by the popular press is a topic of special interest to health educators. This paper documents the Australian press' coverage of the AIDS th...

The notion that consumerist behaviour is, or should be, prevalent amongst individuals seeking health care has underlain recent United States and British governmental policy directives. Consumer groups make similar assumptions when exhorting individuals to treat health care like any other service. This paper enquires to what extent patients conceive...

Recent policy initiatives in Australia have continued the debate concerning the appropriate model of health care for this country. A market economy model, predicated on the existence of true consumerism, has been promoted by influential organisations to replace the current system. To test the validity of this perception and to explore the level of...

Despite acceptance of many of the principles justifying government intervention in health care provision and financing, much recent market-based policy in Australia, the USA and the UK has been based on the assumption that patients have the potential to behave as 'good consumers'. Good consumers are patients with the ability and desire to seek out...