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Healthy Bodies Matter: Analysis of the Disclosure of Race and Health Care on WebMD.com

McGriff, Aisha Kamilah
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6243-4520
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1447584802

Abstract Details

2015, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, American Culture Studies.
Offline racial health and health care disparities have been well documented and researched. However there has not been as much research into how these offline disparities have translated into online environments. Specifically, this study examines health websites, with a focus primarily on WebMD.com, that have become ubiquitous to the process of obtaining health information which has become self-propelled by the consumer. The model of health care where by the medical professional serves a patient their knowledge in a one-way model has largely been phased out in favor of a fluid exchange in which patients also bring medical knowledge and information to the table. Overwhelmingly, the information that the patient contributes comes from cyber research from websites such as WebMD.com. The Health 2.0 movement has furthered the expectation of patients to be proactive members of their health care who should research their conditions, symptoms, and treatments in addition to seeking medical professionals advice. Health 2.0 is predicated on users data input into online health care environments. Users interact with each other to exchange information and provide medical support to each other in what seems to be a radical departure from a traditional paternalistic model of health care that helps to reinforce institutional racism that perpetuates racial health and health care disparities. However examining a health website such as WebMD.com reveals that not only has cyberspace not created a radical egalitarian arena for health information exchange, health care websites have largely perpetuated the same model of health care information exchange that information exchange in cyberspace in general and Health 2.0 specifically attempts to circumvent. Using Michel Foucault’s idea of the medical gaze, I analyzed WebMD.com as a site in which patients can learn the medical gaze and thus procure medical knowledge the same way that was previously limited to those entering medical school. As such this project shows how offline racial health care disparities are perpetuated through discourses of race and health on WebMD.com and how these discourses become a precursor to the Health 2.0 movement.
Radhika Gajjala (Advisor)
Ellen Berry (Committee Member)
Angela Nelson (Committee Member)
Lessie Cochran (Other)
132 p.
African American Studies; American Studies; Ethnic Studies
discourse analysis; health care; medicine; racial health care disparities; racial health disparities; diabetes; HIV; cyberspace; racial representation; WebMD

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • McGriff, A. K. (2015). Healthy Bodies Matter: Analysis of the Disclosure of Race and Health Care on WebMD.com [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1447584802

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • McGriff, Aisha. Healthy Bodies Matter: Analysis of the Disclosure of Race and Health Care on WebMD.com. 2015. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1447584802.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • McGriff, Aisha. "Healthy Bodies Matter: Analysis of the Disclosure of Race and Health Care on WebMD.com." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1447584802

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1447584802
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© 2015, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Healthy Bodies Matter: Analysis of the Disclosure of Race and Health Care on WebMD.com by Aisha Kamilah McGriff is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.