Analysis Of China Media’s Reports About The Doctor-patient Relationship

Nowadays,This paper, discovers the tense doctor-patient relationship under media ecology. In recent years, the incidents of doctors getting hurt by patients are increasing, due to patients’radicalness, doctors’lack of empathy and inadequate mental counseling. Such phenomena arouse wide public attention and bring about a comprehensive discussion in the academic circle on the existing issues of doctor-patient relationship, such as news bias, receivers’comprehension and doctors’image in the media. On account of previous researches, the author analyzes nine major elements, which can affect the news reports:information source, geographical distribution, the changing of time, major media, genre, form, title’s keywords, topic setting, attitude tendency. The samples of the study are some news reports from Baidu News search engine under the search term "the doctor-patient relationship", among which the author sample410valid articles and study these articles quantitatively and qualitatively. Thus, trends of the changing doctor-patient relationship in recent ten years’media reports have been concluded. Also, as the the finding shows that some of the mass media may guide public opinion, the author proposes the following views to resolve social conflicts and harmonize doctor-patient relationship:the media’s timely attention is a good start to guide public opinion; the integration of multi medias’information is necessary to guide public opinion; the precising of media expression is the key point of public opinion’s guidance; the help of experts and professional websites guarantees the guidance of public opinion; the media’s response speed determines the direction of guidance of public opinion; humane care and harmony are the goal of public opinion guidance. After analyzing those news reports, the author finds eight major problems existing in news reports:improper agenda-setting, equivocal position on emergent events, transmission of false information, one-sided media coverage of the doctors’image, excess catering to the audience’s feelings and needs, lacking humane care for both doctors and patients, dissemination of knowledge about public health and medical care, and a lack of guidance in negative media reports. News reports exert negative effects on doctors’image due to certain value orientation, distinct viewpoints and different uses of language. Such media environment has impact on the doctor-patient relationship in real life as well. Therefore, it is concluded that the news reports should reduce reporting bias, to ensure news’ objectivity and authenticity, to improve the accuracy of news reports, to supply authentic news with relevant content. These will help implement prevailing health care reform, maintain doctors’and patients’interests, and harmonize doctor-patient relationship.