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Medicalization and beyond: the social construction of insomnia and snoring in the news

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Williams, Simon J. (Simon Johnson), 1961-, Seale, Clive, Boden, Sharon, Lowe, Pam and Steinberg, Deborah Lynn. (2008) Medicalization and beyond: the social construction of insomnia and snoring in the news. Health, Vol.12 (No.2). pp. 251-268. ISSN 1363-4593

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1363459307086846

Abstract

What role do the media play in the medicalization of sleep problems? This article, based on a British Academy funded project, uses qualitative textual analysis to examine representations of insomnia and snoring in a large representative sample of newspaper articles taken from the UK national press from the mid-1980s to the present day. Constructed as `common problems' in the population at large, insomnia and snoring we show are differentially located in terms of medicalizing—healthicizing discourses and debates. Our findings also suggest important differences in the gendered construction of these problems and in terms of tabloid and `broadsheet' newspaper coverage of these issues. Newspaper constructions of sleep, it is concluded, are complex, depending on both the `problem' and the paper in question.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Insomnia, Snoring, Mass media, Social medicine
Journal or Publication Title:	Health
Publisher:	Sage Publications Ltd.
ISSN:	1363-4593
Date:	2008
Volume:	Vol.12
Number:	No.2
Page Range:	pp. 251-268
Identification Number:	10.1177/1363459307086846
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
Funder:	British Academy (BA)
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URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/487