MEDIA, HEALTH AND HEALTH POLICY.

Representation of topics related to health, health, health policy and public health messages, and medical issues in general, the mass media - the rise. Information on new discoveries in medicine, improving health care, statutory health system reform and other issues related to health care, are constantly present in the print and electronic media, and increasingly on the Internet, which significantly changes the relationship between doctor and patient. For many citizens, the mass media, the interpersonal, but idiosyncratic networks are one of the most important sources of information on medical problems. However, more information does not necessarily mean an increase of knowledge, but, on the contrary, can lead to greater confusion or disinformation. In the context of this perspective, opens up a few questions. The media have the power to establish publicly relevant topics and are an important source of creation and reproduction of meaning, and can greatly influence the public perception of media relevant topics in the field of medicine and health policy. Also, the media may help providing health and create a personal or corporate branding. On the other hand, the effects of which involves manipulating the media have the power to, according to McLuhan 's (McLuhan) interpretations, neglect or hide certain topics. Therefore, in this paper, attention is paid to the qualitative and quantitative aspects of media messages in the mainstream media that are related to health and medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]