Hyping the Market for 'Anti-Ageing' in the News: From Medical Failure to Success in Self-Transformation

Casimir MacGregor; Alan Petersen; Christine Parker

Journal article

Hyping the Market for 'Anti-Ageing' in the News: From Medical Failure to Success in Self-Transformation

Casimir MacGregor, Alan Petersen, Christine Parker

BioSocieties | Palgrave Macmillan (part of Springer Nature) | Published : 2018

DOI: 10.1057/s41292-017-0052-5

Abstract

Over the last two decades, a vast and diverse market of commodities labelled ‘anti-ageing treatments’ has evolved. However, the establishment of this market has been far from smooth and uncontested. This article examines the news media as a crucial site for contestation over the meaning and legitimacy of ‘anti-ageing treatments’ during the period of the market’s maturation. Using ideas from media theory and health sociology, and drawing on the ﬁndings from a content analysis of news articles published between 1995 and 2013, we identify critical phases in the public portrayals of ‘anti-ageing treatments’ over this formative period: ﬁrstly, contestation regarding the scientiﬁc legitimacy for t..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Christine Parker Author

Related Projects (1)

A SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE ANTI-AGEING TREATMENT MARKET: THE DYNAMICS OF EXPECTATIONS

Public expectations of new medical treatments are often high, indeed higher than warranted by medical evidence. This project will reveal how..

Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [grant number DP140100484]. All work contained within this manuscript is original and our own, unless otherwise acknowledged, and is not under publication or review elsewhere. The authors have no financial or other conflict of interest. This research contains no human research.