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The ER Effect: How Medical Television Creates Knowledge for American Audiences

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Teaching Medicine and Medical Ethics Using Popular Culture

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Science and Popular Culture ((PSSPC))

Abstract

This research presents a new way of thinking about how medical information is both created and distributed to audiences on medical fictional television. Based on the accepted idea of the CSI Effect, this chapter proposes the creation of the ER Effect. The ER Effect posits that since the mid-1990s, when ER was created, medical television has included more technical jargon, medical graphic realism and more bloody, gory scenes from which audiences are watching and drawing knowledge. Using medical journal reports about the effects of ER’s medical knowledge, as well as interviews with actors, producers, writers, consultants, physicians and nurses on staff, and directors of ER and other medical shows, will show the knowledge processes through which audiences learn from medical fictional television.

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Correspondence to Jessica Bodoh-Creed .

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Bodoh-Creed, J. (2017). The ER Effect: How Medical Television Creates Knowledge for American Audiences. In: Kendal, E., Diug, B. (eds) Teaching Medicine and Medical Ethics Using Popular Culture. Palgrave Studies in Science and Popular Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65451-5_3

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