Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Representation Of Addiction In The Media, Lauren Gallup

Scholars Week

Presenting the story of addiction in news and entertainment media presents an ethical dilemma for those doing the storytelling. This dilemma faces the ethical paradigm of Right vs. Wrong. In this research project, I focused on how addiction is presented in the media. Media representation of addiction shapes how people think about this disease and can affect legislation to support assistance for recovering addicts. This led me to determine that media has an important place in shaping how we think about addiction. In this paper, I identified how media can do a public good by accurately and ethically covering stories …