Pharmaceutical companies are writing the script for health consumerism

Scott A. Mogull; Deborah Balzhiser

doi:10.1145/2826972.2826976

Communication Design Quarterly Sep 2015 Open Access

Pharmaceutical companies are writing the script for health consumerism

Scott A. Mogull ; Deborah Balzhiser

Abstract

In this rhetorical analysis based on the Foucaultian constructs of power in medicine, specifically the docile body, the medical gaze, and health consumerism, the authors examine ways the pharmaceutical industry used web-based direct-to-consumer advertising, from 2007-2010, to craft interactions between U.S. consumers and physicians in ways that changed the traditional patient-physician relationship in order to drive sales of brand-name therapeutic drugs. We demonstrate how the pharmaceutical industry uses its websites to script power relationships between patients and physicians in order to undermined physician authority and empower patients to become healthcare consumers. We speculate that this shift minimizes or even erases dialogue, diagnosis, and consideration of medical expertise. We suggest that if it is important to uphold values of the modern version of the hippocratic oath, it may be necessary to provide physicians and patients additional parts in the script so that medical decisions are made based on sound science, knowledge, and experience.

Journal: Communication Design Quarterly
Published: 2015-09-17
DOI: 10.1145/2826972.2826976
CompPile: Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access: OA PDF Gold
Topics: rhetorical criticism
Export: BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (62) · 3 in this index

10.1111/joca.12028

↗
Angell M. (2005)

The truth about the drug companies: How they deceive us and what to do about it
10.1080/02650487.2004.11072871

↗
Bates M. J. (1989)

The design of browsing and berrypicking techniques for the online search interface

On-Line Review
10.1016/0306-4573(90)90103-9

↗

Show all 62 →

10.1177/1049732304272916

↗
10.3200/HTPS.83.4.32-36

↗
Cooke L. (2008)

How do users search Web home pages? An eye-tracking study of multiple navigation menus

Technical Communication
10.1111/j.1467-9566.2008.01092.x

↗
Score (2008)

Search Engine Rankings. Retrieved
10.1080/10810730490523197

↗
10.1111/j.1468-0009.2006.00464.x

↗
10.1080/02650487.2004.11072873

↗
Emmons K. K.

Depression and Gender in the Age of Self-Care
Foucault M. (1972)

Trans.).
Foucault M. (1973)

Trans.).
10.22439/fs.v0i1.562

↗
10.1016/j.amjmed.2006.09.030

↗
10.1136/qshc.2004.012781

↗
Google (2007)

Retrieved
Guthrie J. R. (1995)

Selling technology in technical advertisements: A case study

Technical Communication
10.1080/10496490802353790

↗
10.1108/17511870710745411

↗
10.1108/03090560610680961

↗
10.1177/107769900408100405

↗
10.1200/JCO.2006.08.7122

↗
Jenkins H. (2006)

Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century
Kalyanaraman S. (2007)

Enhanced scent or selective discounting: Informative versus persuasive information in sea…
10.1080/10810730.2011.561909

↗
Lasagna L. C. (1964)

Hippocratic oath, modern version. Retrieved
10.2753/JOA0091-3367360108

↗
10.1136/bmj.326.7400.1167

↗
10.1001/jama.2011.203

↗
Longwell L. (2007)

IMS Health. Retrieved
Marsh (2007)

Aristotelian Causal Analysis and Creativity in Copywriting: Toward a Rapprochem…

Written Communication
Mogull S. A. (2008)

Chronology of direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising regulation in the United States

American Medical Writing Association Journal
Morville P. (2005)

Ambient Findability
MOTES et al. (1992)

Reactions to Lexical, Syntactical, and Text Layout Variations of a Print Advert…

Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Palumbo F. B. (2002)

The development of direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising regulation

Food and Drug Law Journal
10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00351.x

↗
10.1177/2156869310397959

↗
Peyrot M. (1998)

Direct-to-consumer ads can influence behavior

Marketing Health Services
10.1037/0033-295X.106.4.643

↗
10.2196/jmir.1600

↗
10.1056/NEJMsa012075

↗
Rubin P. H. (2001)

Pharmaceutical advertising as a consumer empowerment device

Journal of BioLaw and Business
Scott J. B. (2003)

Risky rhetoric: AIDS and the cultural practices of HIV testing
Segal J. Z. (2005)

Health and the rhetoric of medicine
Segal J. Z. (2011)

J. Leach & D
10.1371/journal.pmed.0020138

↗
Spoel (2008)

Communicating Values, Valuing Community through Health-Care Websites: Midwifery…

Technical Communication Quarterly
Spyridakis J. H. (2000)

Guidelines for authoring comprehensible Web pages and evaluating their success

Technical Communication
10.7326/0003-4819-145-4-200608150-00008

↗
Stokes A. Q. (2008)

H. Zoller & M
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2004)

Patient and physician attitudes and behaviors associated with DTC promotion of prescripti…
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2008)

Retrieved
USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future. (2009, April).

The digital future project 2009: Surveying the digital future year eight
Web MD. (2007)

Migraine and headache symptoms. Retrieved
10.1377/hlthaff.19.2.110

↗
Williams T. R. (2000)

Guidelines for designing and evaluating the display of information on the Web

Technical Communication
Williams T. (2005)

Does isolating a visual element call attention to it? Results of an eye-tracking investig…

Technical Communication
10.1145/1297144.1297198

↗

CrossRef global citation count: 7 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Pharmaceutical companies are writing the script for health consumerism

Abstract

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

References (62) · 3 in this index

Related Articles