TY - JOUR
T1 - Distortion and the politics of pain relief
T2 - A habermasian analysis of medicine in the media
AU - Koerber, Amy
AU - Arnett, E. Jonathan
AU - Cumbie, Tamra
PY - 2008/7
Y1 - 2008/7
N2 - This article invokes Habermas's ideal speech situation to analyze the controversy surrounding a recent study of pain relief for women in labor. Using Habermas's concepts, the authors argue that distortion of scientific and medical information originated in the New England Journal of Medicine article that first reported the study's results. Thus, their analysis aims to complicate the assumption that such distortion starts only with public reporting and to expose the ways that scientific or medical research from the beginning can be reported to either facilitate or preclude public debate and understanding of complex issues.
AB - This article invokes Habermas's ideal speech situation to analyze the controversy surrounding a recent study of pain relief for women in labor. Using Habermas's concepts, the authors argue that distortion of scientific and medical information originated in the New England Journal of Medicine article that first reported the study's results. Thus, their analysis aims to complicate the assumption that such distortion starts only with public reporting and to expose the ways that scientific or medical research from the beginning can be reported to either facilitate or preclude public debate and understanding of complex issues.
KW - Communication ethics
KW - Habermas
KW - Media coverage of science and health
KW - Media studies
KW - Medical research
KW - Rhetoric of science and medicine
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=44849137190&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1050651908315985
DO - 10.1177/1050651908315985
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:44849137190
VL - 22
SP - 364
EP - 391
JO - Journal of Business and Technical Communication
JF - Journal of Business and Technical Communication
SN - 1050-6519
IS - 3
ER -