Health and Medicine on Television

Abstract

IN recent years, the medical community has become increasingly aware of the role of sociocultural influences — "life-style factors" — in shaping healthrelated conceptions and behavior. Our ongoing research project, called Cultural Indicators, has investigated the role of television in this process. The results indicate that television has become the mainstream of culture in the United States, bringing otherwise disparate and divergent styles of life closer together. The conceptions, values, and behavior that television cultivates in viewers appear to reflect the most recurrent patterns of representation found in its dramatic entertainment programs.Americans spend more time watching television than doing . . .