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Constructing the outbreak : epidemics in media and collective memory / Katherine A. Foss

Author
Foss, Katherine A., 1980-
Published
Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, [2020]
Physical Description
xii, 275 pages ; 24 cm

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Contents
Epidemics in media: telling the story of disease -- Inoculating the speckled monster: The Boston Press in the 1721 Smallpox Epidemic -- Philadelphia 1793: Yellow Fever Shapes the Town and Nation -- To healthy seeker to stigmatized: the recognition of TB as Contagious -- Blaming the healthy carrier: typhoid cever and the Case of Mary Mallon -- "The kaiser laughs when you spread disease": Influenza and the "Great War" in Lawrence, Kansas -- Racing "The strangler": The Nome Diphtheria Outbreak of 1925 -- Funding the "Polio Pledge": The March of Dimes and the forgotten epidemic of 1952 -- Conclusion: who lives? who dies? who tells the story: concluding thoughts on media and epidemics.
Summary
"When an epidemic strikes, media outlets are central to how an outbreak is framed and understood. While reporters construct stories intended to inform the public and convey essential information from doctors and politicians, news narratives also serve as historical records, capturing sentiments, responses, and fears throughout the course of the epidemic. Constructing the Outbreak demonstrates how news reporting on epidemics communicates more than just information about pathogens; rather, prejudices, political agendas, religious beliefs, and theories of disease also shape the message. Analyzing seven epidemics spanning more than two hundred years-from Boston's smallpox epidemic and Philadelphia's yellow fever epidemic in the eighteenth century to outbreaks of diphtheria, influenza, and typhoid in the early twentieth century-Katherine A. Foss discusses how shifts in journalism and medicine influenced the coverage, preservation, and fictionalization of different disease outbreaks. Each case study highlights facets of this interplay, delving into topics such as colonization, tourism, war, and politics. Through this investigation into what has been preserved and forgotten in the collective memory of disease, Foss sheds light on current health care debates, like vaccine hesitancy"--
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Genre(s)
ISBN
9781625345271 hardcover
1625345275 hardcover
9781625345288 paperback
1625345283 paperback
Bibliography Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
View MARC record | catkey: 32894323