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Media Influences on Health
Traditional forms of media, including television, newspapers, and radio, are primary sources of health information for many American adults (Ye & Ward, 2010). Popular entertainment media has proven to be a useful method of conveying medical 11
information and technological developments to lay audiences, and helps to shape people’s health-related beliefs, affects, and behaviors, thereby enhancing health conditions of the public and promoting a healthier society (Hestroni, 2009; Park & Reber, 2010). Bouman (2009) presented three international trends that are fueling the ever-expanding use of entertainment media for health education, including the unparalleled growth of entertainment media over the last two decades, the expansion of technological and communication systems on a global scale, and an increasingly blurred line concerning what programs serve as entertainment and what programs serve as educational.
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