PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Evie Kendal
TI  - Public health crises in popular media: how viral outbreak films affect the public’s health literacy
AID  - 10.1136/medhum-2018-011446
DP  - 2019 Jan 19
TA  - Medical Humanities
PG  - medhum-2018-011446
4099  - http://mh.bmj.com/content/early/2019/01/19/medhum-2018-011446.short
4100  - http://mh.bmj.com/content/early/2019/01/19/medhum-2018-011446.full
AB  - Infectious disease epidemics are widely recognised as a serious global threat. The need to educate the public regarding health and safety during an epidemic is particularly apparent when considering that behavioural changes can have a profound impact on disease spread. While there is a large body of literature focused on the opportunities and pitfalls of engaging mass news media during an epidemic, given the pervasiveness of popular film in modern society there is a relative lack of research regarding the potential role of fictional media in educating the public about epidemics. There is a growing collection of viral outbreak films that might serve as a source of information about epidemics for popular culture consumers that warrants critical examination. As such, this paper considers the motivating factors behind engaging preventive behaviours during a disease outbreak, and the role news and popular media may have in influencing these behaviours.