Health advocates
are hoping to take advantage of the enormous popularity
of medical-based television programs like E.R.,
Scrubs, and CSI to deliver important
messages about AIDS and other diseases to viewers, the
San Jose Mercury News reports. Government
officials are even contacting scriptwriters at the various
TV production companies and sending advisors to
Hollywood to educate producers on the importance of
addressing a number of serious diseases on their programs.
The impact of
television in the health arena is significant, according to
a 2001 federal government survey of more than 3,700
Americans. More than half of those surveyed said they
learned something about a disease, its warning
signals, or how to prevent it from watching television
programs.
"Research shows
that people pay attention to health information in TV
story lines, and they even take action sometimes,"
Vicki Beck, director of Hollywood, Health, and
Society, a joint project of the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, the National Cancer Institute, the
University of Southern California's Norman Lear Center, and
others, told the Mercury News. (Advocate.com)