The document discusses the interplay between media and culture, arguing that media both reflects and shapes societal values and behaviors. It highlights how media influences individual health decisions and cultural practices while also addressing issues like media sexism and manipulation of information. Additionally, advancements in health informatics are examined, showcasing their potential benefits in patient empowerment and healthcare accessibility, yet also raising concerns about the digital divide.

1. Running head: DOES MEDIA REFLECT CULTURE OR DOES
IT CREATE CULTURE?
1
DOES MEDIA REFLECT CULTURE OR DOES IT CREATE
CULTURE? 4
Title:
Student’s name:
Instructor:
Course:
Date:
DOES MEDIA REFLECT CULTURE OR DOES IT CREATE
CULTURE?
Both media and culture are connected and they are inseparable.
Various levels of understanding influence the contents of the
media; on the other hand, platforms and contents of the media

2. have a big impact on the day to day and cultural practices. One
of the practices influenced by the media is the health-related
decisions of individuals (Georgiou, 2017). Therefore, media has
measurable effects which come as a result of the messages given
by the media. We can, therefore, say that media both reflects
society and shapes the culture.
Media reflect culture
Taking legacy media for instance, for a magazine dealing with
fashion, in determining what ladies should and should not dress,
they need first of all to mirror the present-day society so that
they will be able to establish what the women want. Without
doing this, the magazine will be nothing than common sense
within a typical mind of the woman. This, therefore, means that
the media has to establish certain things to do or not do which
means they are reflecting the society (Berger, 2017).
Secondly, Legacy media depend more on society than society
depends on them. Even if without the mass media the society
would struggle getting news broadcast and entertainment, the
society will still be alive but without the society, the media will
not be there. They, therefore, have to reflect what the culture of
the society wants.
For instance, there is this radio show which conducted a
publicity stunt which shocked the audience, what followed was
unanimous public reactions of condemnation from the public.
The culprits engineered the stunt which was to push the
boundaries of acceptable decency, but the reactions of
condemnation caught them by surprise. This is simply because
they failed to realize that society is much more conservative
than they expected. The stunt itself as something of a mirror,
but the society did not like what they saw. They believed that
the stunt crossed the lie and the society cried out. The line that
marks out the acceptable and unacceptable things is still clear to
society, and the media just reflects it.
Media create culture
In another sense, the media pushes the boundaries of values,
therefore, contributing to the shaping of the culture. The media

3. is capable of controlling a whole nation if the media barons or
political parties manipulate it (Fiske, & Hancock, 2016). The
media sometimes cannot be trusted in giving out facts without
slanting them in one specific direction of interpretation. The
reporting offered is based on some hidden agendas as they try
shaping the people’s thinking, beliefs, and behaviors.
Everything that is reported on TV news or appears on
newspapers does not necessarily mean that all facts have been
given out about that particular story.
Another way that media has shaped our culture is through media
sexism which is constantly referenced to in almost every
advertisement made. These advertisements perceive a woman as
inferior to men, the women; on the other hand, replicate the
image created by the media. Men have also been pressured into
fitting into the image of masculinity through various
advertisements such as those of health and fitness.
Lastly, the media has caused people to change their way of
dressing, speaking, as well as their overall look so that they can
represent their role models of choice. The reasons for doing this
are to impress friends and strangers as well.
In conclusion, I have a feeling that media reflects upon the
society in the determination of how it shapes certain parts of it.
the whole society is not shaped by the media but rather most are
affected making them change the way they act, speak or dress as
part of their lie.
References
Berger, A. A. (2017). Manufacturing desire: Media, popular
culture, and everyday life. Routledge.
Fiske, J., & Hancock, B. H. (2016). Media Matters: Race &
gender in US politics. Routledge.
Georgiou, M. (2017). Mapping diasporic media cultures: A
transnational cultural approach to exclusion. In Media,
Technology and Everyday Life in Europe (pp. 51-70).
Routledge.

4. The project instruction wants the student to pick 1 issue in the
health care field and discuss how informatics will help that one
issue.
1. How does the issue impact healthcare informatics?
2. Will this issue have a long-term effect?
3. Will this effect be positive or negative? Why?
HEALTH INFORMATICS
1
HEALTH INFORMATICS
2
Health Informatics
University of Saint Augustine for Health Sciences
IPE7400B900: Healthcare Informatics and Technology
Management
February 15, 2019
Health informatics
Health informatics refers to the medical field that focuses on
data processing, therapeutic activities communication, research,
and study. There have been advancements in the recent past that
have contributed a great deal to health informatics. Among the
improvements is the technological growth in the medical field

5. (Nelson & Staggers, 2018).
The health informatics field emerged as a result of computer
technology advancements especially when it involved managing
huge amounts of data. It led to innovation of the first electronic
medical record soon after the new-fangled nomenclature for
specified areas of study of biological information. With further
advancements, health informatics increased the global standards
with a variety of medical formats to the point that clinical
information systems professionals were challenged in attaining
interoperability between the formats (Nelson.et.al, 2018).
According to the recent health technological trends, there is
integration between client health informatics and information
technology as shares of the contemporary thought of community
well-being and policies related to public healthcare. Patients are
also adapting and using current systems, aimed at healthcare
experts, at home. Electronic medical records of the patients are
also accessible to the patients, which is useful in empowering
the patients. Medical experts are also able to intervene
whenever patients need help in making informed decisions, by
the use of software designed for computer-based decision aids.
Due to the positive impacts that information technological
advancements have had on health informatics, there is
subsequent development of many initiatives with the intention
of improving the value of healthiness info. The efforts focus on
patient education, encouragement of self-classification, and
self-control of healthcare workers. It helps in the evaluation and
rating of data and therefore enhances enforcement of
compliance with the criterion.
Advancements within health informatics field have enabled
reduction of treatment costs. Through the use of computers,
clients can make informed choices regarding their health and
therefore do not have to see a healthcare expert. It gets
attributed to increased access to interactive data that can easily
be made available to clients through the use of internet and
other related technologies, which coincides with the desire of
many clients to be responsible for their healthiness. The

6. changes could also get attributed to the emphasis on the health
of the population and even preventive measures of various
ailments (myPHR, 2016).
Advancement in information technology has enabled easy access
to health records to clients. The primary purpose of health
informatics is to empower clients by making their health records
more accessible to them, comprising of their medical service
activities such as diagnosis, results, individual risk factors as
well as prescribed drugs. Use of information technology has
expanded the means through which clients can access their
health records. It could be over the internet, implementation of
smart cards, or even implementation of both. The use of
smartcards goes further to protect patient’s data security by
ensuring private access to patients’ health information
(Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society,
2016).
Also, electronic record keeping has played a significant role in
tailoring health information to patients. Through the use of the
internet, it is possible for any patient to link their health data
with knowledge attained from other databases and websites such
as Medline. With the advancements that have come up, it is
possible for any patient to access information regarding their
medical trends through their phones and computers. The tailored
information is essential even during instigation of changes as
far as health mannerisms, and knowledge increment is
concerned.
Computer-based applications have also helped the clinicians in
integrating their clients’ preferences with scientific evidence,
their history as well as local constraints. The applications are
also helpful to clients while making decisions regarding
treatment or screening based on their first choice for diverse
results. The decision aids are desirable even more in a situation
when the optimum administration policy hangs on the strong
suit of the client’s preferences for the diverse healthcare results
that could get obtained from the choice.
The improvement in information technology assists a great deal

7. in controlling the value of healthcare info through the internet.
There are four mainstays on which quality control lies on the
web: encouragement of self-control of healthcare experts,
patients’ training, evaluation of health data by third parties, and
enforcement of sanctions when there is the dissemination of
fraud. There are significant advancements in all the pillars that
have come up in the recent past. Currently, there is an
undergoing project that aims at establishing an institution that
permits people, societies, associations, and organizations to
measure the value of published healthcare data that is available
online through the use of standardized vocabulary. The project
is known as medCERTAIN. It also aims at creating various
stages of authorization for healthcare experts who broadcast
online health data via the internet. The steps will vary from the
simplest of ethical standards to that of the best rules
(AHIMAonDEMAND, 2010).
Although the technological advancements have a significant
impact on the reduction of the knowledge difference between
medical experts and patients, it has also created a vast
difference between those who can easily access the internet and
computer and those who cannot (HealthIT, 2016). For this
reason, I believe that technological advancements will have a
long-term effect on society. Those who can easily access online
data will be at an advantage. However, those who cannot access
it will be left uninformed and somehow ignored in the society.
One issue that could be helped by informatics is the use of the
advancements to discover new types of medicines that could
help in curbing the main killer diseases such as HIV/AIDS and
cancer. Different machinery should get invented to formulate a
cure to such diseases.
I believe that technological advancements have more positive
impacts as far as health informatics are concerned that the
adverse effects, even though they could bring about the
knowledge gap between the haves and the have-nots. More
improvements will, therefore, be recommendable.

8. References
AHIMAonDEMAND (2010). What a PHR can do for you
[Video file]. Retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQJVceBNXFY
Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.
(2015). mHealth app essentials: Patient engagement,
considerations, and implementation. Retrieved
from:http://www.himss.org/mhealth-app-essentials-patient-
engagement-considerations-and-implementation
myPHR https://www.myphr.com/
HealthIT. (n.d.). The guide to getting & using your health
records. Retrieved from https://www.healthit.gov/how-to-get-
your-health-record/
Nelson, R., & Staggers, N. (2018). Health informatics (Second
edition ed.). St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier.
Running head: DOES MEDIA REFLECT CULTURE OR DOES
IT CREATE CULTURE?
1
DOES MEDIA REFLECT CULTURE OR DOES IT CREATE
CULTURE? 4
Title:

9. Student’s name:
Instructor:
Course:
Date:
DOES MEDIA REFLECT CULTURE OR DOES IT CREATE
CULTURE?
Both media and culture are connected and they are inseparable.
Various levels of understanding influence the contents of the
media; on the other hand, platforms and contents of the media
have a big impact on the day to day and cultural practices. One
of the practices influenced by the media is the health-related
decisions of individuals (Georgiou, 2017). Therefore, media has
measurable effects which come as a result of the messages given
by the media. We can, therefore, say that media both reflects
society and shapes the culture.
Media reflect culture
Taking legacy media for instance, for a magazine dealing with
fashion, in determining what ladies should and should not dress,
they need first of all to mirror the present-day society so that
they will be able to establish what the women want. Without
doing this, the magazine will be nothing than common sense
within a typical mind of the woman. This, therefore, means that
the media has to establish certain things to do or not do which
means they are reflecting the society (Berger, 2017).
Secondly, Legacy media depend more on society than society
depends on them. Even if without the mass media the society
would struggle getting news broadcast and entertainment, the
society will still be alive but without the society, the media will

10. not be there. They, therefore, have to reflect what the culture of
the society wants.
For instance, there is this radio show which conducted a
publicity stunt which shocked the audience, what followed was
unanimous public reactions of condemnation from the public.
The culprits engineered the stunt which was to push the
boundaries of acceptable decency, but the reactions of
condemnation caught them by surprise. This is simply because
they failed to realize that society is much more conservative
than they expected. The stunt itself as something of a mirror,
but the society did not like what they saw. They believed that
the stunt crossed the lie and the society cried out. The line that
marks out the acceptable and unacceptable things is still clear to
society, and the media just reflects it.
Media create culture
In another sense, the media pushes the boundaries of values,
therefore, contributing to the shaping of the culture. The media
is capable of controlling a whole nation if the media barons or
political parties manipulate it (Fiske, & Hancock, 2016). The
media sometimes cannot be trusted in giving out facts without
slanting them in one specific direction of interpretation. The
reporting offered is based on some hidden agendas as they try
shaping the people’s thinking, beliefs, and behaviors.
Everything that is reported on TV news or appears on
newspapers does not necessarily mean that all facts have been
given out about that particular story.
Another way that media has shaped our culture is through media
sexism which is constantly referenced to in almost every
advertisement made. These advertisements perceive a woman as
inferior to men, the women; on the other hand, replicate the
image created by the media. Men have also been pressured into
fitting into the image of masculinity through various
advertisements such as those of health and fitness.
Lastly, the media has caused people to change their way of
dressing, speaking, as well as their overall look so that they can
represent their role models of choice. The reasons for doing this

11. are to impress friends and strangers as well.
In conclusion, I have a feeling that media reflects upon the
society in the determination of how it shapes certain parts of it.
the whole society is not shaped by the media but rather most are
affected making them change the way they act, speak or dress as
part of their lie.
References
Berger, A. A. (2017). Manufacturing desire: Media, popular
culture, and everyday life. Routledge.
Fiske, J., & Hancock, B. H. (2016). Media Matters: Race &
gender in US politics. Routledge.
Georgiou, M. (2017). Mapping diasporic media cultures: A
transnational cultural approach to exclusion. In Media,
Technology and Everyday Life in Europe (pp. 51-70).
Routledge.