The Medium is the Message

Marshall McCluhan made famous the phrase, "The medium is the message," meaning that the way by which a message is sent is as important, if not more important, than the message itself. In the news media, for example, a headline article "above the fold" on the front page of a newspaper is deemed to be more important than if that same article were buried in the B section on page 9. How often a topic is covered also contributes to how important we perceive it to be.

A study called Medicine in the Popular Press: The Influence of the Media on the Perception of Disease demonstrated that students consistently ranked diseases that had media exposure as more severe than lesser-known diseases with similar symptoms. Students ranked Lyme disease as more severe than babesiosis, even though they are both tick-borne and were described with similar symptoms.

The researchers wrote:

...individuals will consider high media frequency disorders to be more serious and pose more of a threat than equally serious underrepresented infectious diseases.... Given the results presented in this paper, it is imperative that we fully understand the effects of the media on public perceptions of disasters and disease epidemics. In this age of television and internet media it is important to consider the impact of media reporting on public perception of risk, and public health in general...

West Nile Virus strikes fear when it is mentioned, but Lyme often does not. Yet West Nile Virus occurs much less often than does Lyme, and both can be severe or even fatal. Does that mean that West Nile should not be mentioned? No, but by keeping Lyme in the public eye, people may take it more seriously, seek treatment sooner, and pay attention to prevention strategies.