Week 6

As internet spreads the world, people are able to do whatever they expect online. Internet transmits entertainment, recreation, education, news, public legislation, business opportunities and health information online. For health issue would be the most hot concerns, they have various ways to get such health information. Lewis (2006) claims that public health has undergone a shift towards encouraging individuals to take responsibility for and manage their own health, a shift which has seen health increasingly package as a “lifestyle” issue, particularly in the popular media. People treat health issue is not as something external to or outside of the control of individual but instead is embraced as part of a broader linking of ideas of the body, self and lifestyle. So if people have some problem with their health, they would like to search online and immediately get their expected answers. Internet provides a self-managing health for citizen.

However, the answers people got online is a risk. According to Wyatt, Harris and Wathen (2008) “we are primarily interested in mediators and mediation because, as health information is rarely, if ever, intermediated in simple straightforward way”. The myriad of information is from all aspects. Whether or not is from a professional specialist is not clear. It could be from a lay user upload based on its opinions. Misinformation could be spread among internet as discriminating health consumers actively accessing health information but as a health receipt. People should pay a attention to the information where they get, whether or not a professional answers online.

Reference list:

Lewis, T. 2006. Media, Culture & Society: Seeking health information on the internet: lifestyle choice or bad attack of cyberchondria? SAGE: http://mcs.sagepub.com/content/28/4/521 (Accessed 10 Apr 2011)

Wyatt, S., R. Harris, and N. Wathen, 2008. The Go-Betweens: Health, Technology and Info(r)mediation. In Mediating Health Information: The Go-Betweens in a Changing Socio-Technical Landscape. Sally Wyatt, Nadine Wathen and Roma Harris New York: Palgrave Macmillan