Who or what has agency in the discussion of antimicrobial resistance in UK news media (2010-2015)?: a transitivity analysis

Collins, Luke Curtis; Jaspal, Rusi; Nerlich, Brigitte

Abstract

The increase of infections resistant to existing antimicrobial medicines has become a topic of concern for health professionals, policy makers and publics across the globe, however among the public there is a sense that this is an issue beyond their control. Research has shown that the news media can have a significant role to play in the public’s understanding of science and medicine. In this article, we respond to a call by research councils in the UK to study antibiotic or antimicrobial resistance as a social phenomenon by providing a linguistic analysis of reporting on this issue in the UK press. We combine transitivity analysis with a Social Representations framework in order to determine who and what the social actors are in discussions of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the UK press (2010-2015), as well as which of those social actors are characterised as having agency in the processes around AMR. Findings show that antibiotics and the infections they are designed to treat are instilled with agency; that there is a tension between allocating responsibility to either doctors-as-prescribers or patients-as-users; and collectivisation of the general public as an unspecified ‘we’: marginalising live-stock farming and pharmaceutical industry responsibilities.

Citation

Collins, L. C., Jaspal, R., & Nerlich, B. (in press). Who or what has agency in the discussion of antimicrobial resistance in UK news media (2010-2015)?: a transitivity analysis. Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459317715777

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 30, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Jun 21, 2017
• Deposit Date: Jun 23, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 23, 2017
• Journal: Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine
• Print ISSN: 1363-4593
• Electronic ISSN: 1461-7196
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459317715777
• Keywords: Antimicrobial resistance, antibiotic resistance, media, social representations, transitivity
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/866994
• Related Public URLs: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1363459317715777
• Contract Date: Jun 23, 2017