Media Presentation of Violence that Occurs Due to Dissatisfaction and Communication Difficulties between Health Personnel and Patients and/or their Relatives

Abstract

The rise in Turkish people's violent behaviors has extended to health workers as well and news on physical assaults and fatalities has begun to be reported occasionally by the media. Yet -as it always does- because of the dramatization and tabloidization of violence by media, the violence problem has been trivialized by digressing from the heart of the matter. This study is about how violence news about health workers is reported in newspapers. For this purpose, 34 news reports related to health area in two internet sites were analyzed. News was analyzed with the dimensions of the actors, news sources, places where violence happened, the reason of the violence and the metaphors used. According to the results; news texts are prepared with the information collected by correspondents. No expert opinions were cited in one third (35,2 %) of the news, and the only information source about the violence was the doctor who had been subject to violence. The violence occurred mostly in state hospitals (50%), followed by112 Emergency Ambulance Service (32,3%). The main reason of the violence was dissatisfaction with the doctor's diagnosis and his/her clinical interventions. The reporting style was sensational and tabloidized. Many metaphors were used in the news.