Quick, B. L. (2009). The effects of viewing Greys Anatomy on perceptions of doctors and patient satisfaction. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 53(1), 38-55

From Digital Culture & Society

B. L. (2009). The effects of viewing Grey's Anatomy on perceptions of doctors and patient satisfaction. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 53(1), 38-55

Megan Johnson

With the rise of the ever so popular medical television drama, cultivation theory is becoming a much more relied upon theory when discussing current media effects. Cultivation theory argues, “mass production and rapid distribution of messages create new symbolic environments that reflect the structure and functions of the institutions that transmit them”(Potter, 2014). When choosing a profession, Gen Z and Millennials can be influenced by what they are viewing on television. Gaining popularity, Netflix binging may have a heavy impact on their decision whether to enter a profession or not. Heavy consumption of a television drama may alter a viewer’s perception to what a profession is truly like in the real world. This can pose a large issue as when they actually enter this profession - it is nothing like what they have viewed on their favourite television program. This article looks at the way that viewers of Grey’s Anatomy perceive the medical profession. It examines the effects of heavy consumption of this television program, and how viewing this medical drama does shift the way that these consumers view the real world of medicine. First off, the author found that heavy consumption of this medical drama leads to consumers believing Grey’s Anatomy is a credible program to depict the medical profession. If you’ve ever seen an episode of this program, then you know this can be an issue to anyone coming in to the medical profession who believes this to be true. Students will be in for a shock when they come to realize that their career does not involve daily on-call room hookups and performing CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) every 7 minutes only to have e v e r y one of their patients survive.

What this study aimed to do was examine those who have had exposure to the medical television drama, specifically season 2 and the first 5 episodes of season 3. These two seasons happen to be the two most viewed seasons in the programs history, with an average 19.9 million viewers per episode. It goes out to disseminate whether or not consumption of this television program cultivates and changes their perception of real-world doctors. It starts off with quite a positive take on the drama – something I found to be unique, as most articles like this critique the subject immediately. The author starts off by expressing that Grey’s Anatomy is different than most mainstream medical dramas, as they depict a wide range of ethic diversity, which most of these programs tend to not do. The article then goes on to explain what theory they will be using when conducting their research – cultivation theory. I think this was a fabulous idea as many others reading this may not be from a program/area of study that has learned about theories such as this. This allows readers to be more informed about the study and may make it easier to understand and follow the article. His first hypothesis – “The viewing of Grey’s Anatomy is positively associated with perceived credibility of this program.” This is a great first hypothesis in my opinion, as many of my friends who watch this program have been persuaded that this is what the real world of medicine looks like, therefore it is relatable. I am lucky to have family members in the medical profession, so I may come from a bias when watching this program, though others, who do not, are shown to be easily persuaded by Grey’s Anatomy. Something that may be viewed as both a strength and weakness of this article would be his sources.

The author uses a plethora amount of scholarly articles to support his hypotheses, though some that he uses are extremely dated, dating back to the 1950’s. The author also includes many tables that he used to display his findings. Another thing that may have hindered his research was his sample size – 269. His sample was also from a Midwestern Univeristy, I believe what would have made his article stronger, would have been to spread out the survey across the country. I completely understand that it may be unrealistic to get students from across the country to complete a pen and paper survey. His main finding was that heavy consumption of the program Grey’s Anatomy, will lead viewers to perceive this content as credible and realistic, therefore leading them into the assumption that all doctors are courageous at all times. Which in turn, may persuade viewers into this profession, leading them to believe that this is what the medical world is about – being courageous and cutting your patients LVAD wires and sleeping with your co-workers in the on-call rooms. All in all, I believe this article was very well done; the author could have used more up-to-date articles to support his hypotheses, and tweaked his sample size/demographic a little, though everything else was more than adequate enough to support his findings.