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Correspondence and reprint requests to: Brandon E. Gavett. School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Perth, WA 6009, Australia. Email: [email protected]
INTRODUCTION
The general public’s interest in the topic of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is increasing while scientific knowledge about mTBI is advancing, yet still requires a great deal of clarity. Either independently or in response to the public’s interest, many media programs have sensationalized unsubstantiated dangers of mTBI (DiFazio, Silverberg, Kirkwood, Bernier, & Iverson, 2015). Indeed, the media has been accused in the past of purposely instilling undue fear in the public to raise the amount of media attention (Klemm, Das, & Hartmann, 2014).
In the context of science journalism, framing theory is the idea that information is both conveyed and understood through frames or schemas (Goffman, 1974, p. 21–26; Scheufele, 1999). Varying how an issue is framed in the media can influence how the audience thinks about the topic (Scheufele & Tewksbury, 2007), including health topics (Coleman, Thorson & Wilkens, 2011). Often, adults rely on news media for health information (Van Slooten, Friedman, & Tanner, 2013). Health literacy is defined in part as “the degree to which individuals can obtain, process, and understand the basic health information and services they need to make appropriate health decisions” (Institute of Medicine, 2004, p. 1). Televised media programs have discussed, with certainty, aspects of the effects of mTBI that have little or no scientific support (Block, West, & Goldin, 2016).
Studies have revealed that a patient’s negative beliefs about the timeline, consequences, and personal control after an mTBI can significantly affect the patient’s prospect of achieving a full recovery (Hou et al., 2012; Roth & Spencer, 2013). The effect of televised media on mTBI symptoms has not yet been researched. However, research has shown that televised media can influence participants’ symptomology and attribution beliefs about the adverse effects of other sources of potential harm, such as WiFi (Witthöft & Rubin, 2013). It has also been suggested that negative or positive beliefs about recovery from mTBI can be instilled in participants through mediums such as informational literature in a waiting room (Waldron-Perrine, Tree, Spencer, Suhr, & Bieliauskas, 2015).
Approximately 70–90% of treated head injuries are mTBIs (Cassidy et al., 2004). It...