Prompt #1 Portrayal of Doctors in Media Over the Past Few Decades

Recently I've noticed something interesting about the way the medical field is portrayed in the media. After watching several medical dramas from recent years and older shows I've found that the overall composition of the cast of these shows has changed. Most apparent is the change in the cast of the shows. Older productions cast almost exclusively white men as doctors while newer shows include a much more diverse cast in terms of race and gender. I wondered whether this was just a product of social progress in Hollywood or if this change was a trend mirrored by the real medical field. I found that, based on the 2010 census, the medical field has become much more diverse over the past few decades. Men are still the dominant gender in the medical field, however, the ratio of men to women has shrunk significantly. On the other hand, the majority of doctors are still white but there has been quite a bit of growth in the number doctors that are part of minority groups. Social progress seems to have had a large effect on the composition of the medical field and this is reflected in the way the media portrays them on television.  

Another interesting trend is the way the role of a doctor was played on television and how it is played now. In older shows, the doctors are played as perfect humans with all the answers. The shift to a more flawed doctor that feels more human to the viewer is quite apparent. This is slightly different from the actual trend in doctors because, even though the doctors of today are definitely flawed and most certainly human, the amount of education and expertise that doctors have in the modern day is much greater than that of doctors from several decades ago. This is most likely a product of the way television and media has evolved rather than learning more about how doctors really are as people. I personally enjoy the more recent medical dramas because it is easier to relate to the characters and this is likely the case for most people. It is interesting to look back and see how our perception of the medical field has changed over the years as the field has evolved along with social progress.

-Alex Wallace

"TV Doctors' Portrayal Evolves From Saintly to Human," AMEDnews, 17 Sept. 2016, www.amednews.com/article/20121119/profession/311199949/4/ 

Castillo-Page, Laura. "Diversity in the Physician Workforce," AAMC, members.aamc.org/eweb/upload/Diversity%20in%20the%20Physician%20Workforce%20Facts%20and%20Figures%202010.pdf, 17 Sept. 2016.