scholarly journals Reducing Violence against Health Professionals

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Indranil Chakravorty

There is a rising trend of violence against healthcare professionals across the world, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Many countries report between 43-75% of professionals experiencing at least one incident in any annual survey. The most recent incident of doctors and healthcare staff in a Manchester City General Practice raised alarms. As the healthcare infrastructure and services are severely stretched following the disruption of 2020, there are more reasons for disquiet and frustration from the public. The media and political portrayal of primary care physicians as not caring enough to provide face-to-face appointments in the UK is believed to increase the public angst. There are protests from professional organisations but this is not heard by the public. In any violence prevention strategy, a multi-system approach is critical. While tackling misinformation is essential, so is the tackling the root causes, the waiting lists and a balanced information to the public. Political and organisational leaders need to be visible and vocal in explaining why the healthcare infrastructure is beyond breaking point. This will justify the additional resources needed and reduce the frustrations of the public, in need of care. There is also a vital need to help new doctors and nurses as well as all frontline staff in violence dissipation techniques, self-preservation. The Voluntary community organisations including those that support professional groups have a vital role to play. The NHS People Plan has recommended that VSCEs should join robust and reliable partnerships with Integrated Care Organisations in developing strategies and interventions. There is more work to be done. This article is a call for action and invites all VSCEs interested in the reduction of violence against staff to join with employing organisations to set up collaborative working groups with specific actions to implement. This is essential to reduce harm and reduce the demoralisation of an already burnt-out healthcare workforce.

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirjam Vossen ◽  
Lau Schulpen

Abstract This study investigates the relationship between media frames and public perceptions of global poverty. Building on a frame analysis, the paper reconstructs prevailing poverty narratives in British news articles and non-governmental organizations’ (NGO’s) advertisements between 2011 and 2013. Following this, these narratives are compared with the narratives that emerge from public opinion studies. The findings suggest that there is a strong connection between media frames and public knowledge and perceptions of global poverty. Both the media and the public define poverty in developing countries’ terms of destitute victims, lack of development and bad governance. Both suggest that the causes of poverty are internal to developing countries and imply that there has been little progress in reducing global poverty.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shereen Fernandez

AbstractThe Prevent Duty is part of the UK’s counter-extremism strategy, which aims to prevent individuals from becoming involved in ‘extremism’ and ‘radicalisation’. As a pre-crime measure, the duty is now enforced in public institutions in the UK, from schools to healthcare provisions, and relies on frontline staff to monitor and report on ‘signs’ of extremism and radicalisation. The discussion around Prevent has focused on its implementation and impacts in the public sphere, notably in schools. However, this article aims to disrupt the imagined boundaries of the Prevent Duty and demonstrate how, as a result of this policy, the home—primarily the Muslim home—is treated as a pre-crime space, thus broadening the reach of counter-extremism measures into the private sphere.


Author(s):  
Gabrielle Samuel ◽  
Rosie Sims

The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) COVID-19 contact tracing app was announced to the British public on 12th April 2020. The UK government endorsed the app as a public health intervention that would improve public health, protect the NHS and ‘save lives’. On 5th May 2020 the technology was released for trial on the Isle of Wight. However, the trial was halted in June 2020, reportedly due to technological issues. The app was later remodelled and launched to the public in September 2020. The rapid development, trial and discontinuation of the app over a short period of a few months meant that the mobilisation and effect of the discourses associated with the app could be traced relatively easily. In this paper we aimed to explore how these discourses were constructed in the media, and their effect on actors – in particular, those who developed and those who trialled the app. Promissory discourses were prevalent, the trajectory of which aligned with theories developed in the sociology of expectations. We describe this trajectory, and then interpret its implications in terms of infectious disease public health practices and responsibilities.


Author(s):  
Philip Schlesinger

This chapter illustrates how ‘most of the Holyrood political class has been reluctant to explore the boundaries between the devolved and the reserved’, even on less life-and-death issues such as broadcasting. Conversely, it also tells of at least one post-devolution success story for classic informal pre-devolution-style ‘Scottish lobbying’ in Westminster. Scotland is presently one of the UK's leading audiovisual production centres, with Glasgow as the linchpin. The capacity of the Scottish Parliament to debate questions of media concentration but also its incapacity to act legislatively has been observed. There are both political and economic calculations behind the refusal to devolve powers over the media via the Communications Act 2003. Ofcom now has a key role in policing the terms of trade for regional production that falls within a public service broadcaster's target across the UK. The BBC's position as the principal vehicle of public service broadcasting has come increasingly under question. The Gaelic Media Service set up under the Communications Act 2003 has a line of responsibility to Ofcom in London. Scottish Advisory Committee on Telecommunications (SACOT) determined four key regulatory issues needing future attention by Ofcom.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 255-275
Author(s):  
Yiqin Ruan ◽  
Jing Yang ◽  
Jianbin Jin

Biotechnology, as an emerging technology, has drawn much attention from the public and elicited hot debates in countries around the world and among various stakeholders. Due to the public's limited access to front-line scientific information and scientists, as well as the difficulty of processing complex scientific knowledge, the media have become one of the most important channels for the public to get news about scientific issues such as genetically modified organisms (GMOs). According to framing theory, how the media portray GMO issues may influence audiences’ perceptions of those issues. Moreover, different countries and societies have various GMO regulations, policies and public opinion, which also affect the way media cover GMO issues. Thus, it is necessary to investigate how GMO issues are covered in different media outlets across different countries. We conducted a comparative content analysis of media coverage of GMO issues in China, the US and the UK. One mainstream news portal in each of the three countries was chosen ( People's Daily for China, The New York Times for the US, and The Guardian for the UK). We collected coverage over eight years, from 2008 to 2015, which yielded 749 pieces of news in total. We examined the sentiments expressed and the generic frames used in coverage of GMO issues. We found that the factual, human interest, conflict and regulation frames were the most common frames used on the three portals, while the sentiments expressed under those frames varied across the media outlets, indicating differences in the state of GMO development, promotion and regulation among the three countries.


2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Bithell

SummaryThe media offers opportunities for psychiatrists to communicate with a wide and varied audience, thereby influencing the views of the public and policy makers on mental health issues. There are many different types of media outlet, including daily news media, documentary makers, specialist media, features and comment, and new media. The Science Media Centre is an independent press office that aims to help ensure that the views of scientists, clinicians and researchers are heard in the UK national news media when their area of expertise hits the headlines. In the news media, journalists work to tight time frames and often focus on sensational and controversial topics, presenting challenges for those wanting to engage. For experts to work effectively with the news media it helps to understand more about the way the media works and how to develop necessary skills. Psychiatrists who do work successfully with the media can help ensure that the public receive accurate information about mental health problems, and gain an appreciation of the importance of research in the field and a better understanding of the role of the psychiatrist.


Until recently, higher education in the United Kingdom has largely failed to recognise gender based violence (GBV) on campus, but following the UK government task force set up in 2015, universities are becoming more aware of the issue. And recent cases in the media about the sexualised abuse of power in institutions such as universities, Parliament and Hollywood highlight the prevalence and damaging impact of GBV. This book provides the first in-depth overview of research and practice in GBV in universities. The book sets out the international context of ideologies, politics and institutional structures that underlie responses to GBV and sexual violence elsewhere in Europe, in the United States, and in Australia, and considers the implications of implementing related policy and practice. Presenting examples of innovative British approaches to engagement with the issue, the book also considers UK, EU and UN legislation to give an international perspective, making it of direct use to discussions of ‘what works’ in preventing GBV.


2003 ◽  
Vol 27 (9) ◽  
pp. 331-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatrice Huang ◽  
Stefan Priebe

Aims and MethodWe aimed to assess the contents and tone of articles on mental health care in the UK print media by comparing them with reporting in the USA and Australia. Two broadsheets from each country were analysed using the Internet for a random 4 months over a 1-year period. The number of articles, their content and the views expressed in them were identified and compared.ResultsA total of 118 articles on mental health care issues were found. The predominant tone of the articles in all three countries was negative, though there were slightly more positive articles in the USA and Australian media. Positive articles highlighted in the UK media covered mostly medical conferences and research findings.Clinical ImplicationsEfforts to achieve a more positive attitude towards people with mental illnesses in the public, such as anti-stigma campaigns, operate against a background of predominantly negative coverage of mental health care issues in broadsheets. The coverage in the UK may tend to be even less positive than in the USA and Australia. Medical conferences and research findings can, however, be used to promote positive views of mental health care in the media.


2021 ◽  
Vol 188 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 4-14
Author(s):  
Leyli Ali Allakhverdieva ◽  

The author measures the degree of of the public regulation of the information services provision via media (media liberalism degree), namely via printed media, and television and radio broadcasting. The methodology of measurement of media liberalism degree (media freedom subindex) is part of the index of liberalism (or dirigisme in opposite) of information services, prepared according to Professor N. Muzaffarli’s assessment of the degree of the government intervention in the economy. In order to measure the media freedom subindex, the following indicators are used: the VAT index on printed publications, the VAT index on television and radio broadcasting, the index of license fee for watching TV, the VAT index of license fee for watching TV, the index of penalty for late VAT payment, the corporate tax index, the ratio of private and the state TV channels subindex. Measuring those indices in the studied group of countries made it possible to establish that: 1) Azerbaijan and Georgia are the most liberal countries with regard to the VAT index on printed publications, Bulgaria is the most dirigiste country; 2) the minimal VAT index on television and radio broadcasting is observed in Malta, the maximal - in Hungary; 3) in most countries the index of license fee for watching TV is lowest, with Austria having the highest indicator; 4) in Azerbaijan, the Russian Federation, Georgia and Armenia there is no concept of license fee for watching TV, respectively there is no related VAT; in the UK, Ireland, Malta, the Netherlands and Sweden this type of tax is not levied either; 5) the most liberal country in terms of the index of penalty for late VAT payment is Hungary, whereas Slovenia is the most dirigiste; 6) the most liberal country with regard to the corporate tax index is Hungary, while the most dirigiste is Malta; 7) in most countries the ratio of the private and state-owned TV channels subindex is equal to zero (there are no local public TV channels), with France being the most dirigiste country in terms of the subindex mentioned above. It can be noted that the most liberal media belong to Cyprus, the most dirigiste - to France. In most of the researched countries the media are more liberal than the relative center shows. It has been found that most countries with a higher level of economic development adhere to less dirigiste media policies, and vice versa. Also, there are countries that do not lend themselves to this pattern, for example, Ireland.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Kapil Kumar Joshi ◽  

This paper attempts to highlight all the forest, wildlife and environmental laws prevailing in India with their brief introduction and the genesis. It portrays a consolidated picture of all such regulatory measures being implemented since the colonial rule in India. Under today’s circumstances, media also plays a vital role in shaping the public opinion over any social, economic and political issue. Media is supposed to be the fourth and a strong pillar of the society and is entrusted with the responsibility of bringing real facts and figures before the public in general and the policy makers and implementers in particular. This paper also aims in educating the media with the prevailing rules, regulations, acts, guidelines and policies related to natural resource management in India and analyzing a symbiotic relationship with the implementers for a wider cause of conservation and sustainable development.


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