Author: Vanessa Roger-Monzo – ESIC Business & Marketing School, Spain

Co-authors:
Yolanda Cabrera Garcia-Ochoa – University of Valencia
Lorena Cano-Oron – University of Valencia
Myriam Marti-Sanchez – ESIC Business & Marketing School

The objective of this communication is to analyze the use of the youtube channel Alternative Therapies and Natural Remedies (in its Spanish version) as a platform for the dissemination of content around issues of apparent scientific interest.

A corpus of 40 videos has been compiled to carry out the study, the 20 most popular ones and the 20 less watched, obtained on July 14, 2017. The results confirm the use of the channel as a platform to position itself in favour of alternative therapies, but, above all, to generate marketing-oriented content to attract web traffic for commercial purposes. Besides, we verified that this channel contributes to the social spread of pseudoscientific topics with a total lack of precision in the information and the subsequent risks that this entails for the society.

The method of analysis has been based on the download, viewing and recording of the most relevant data for the investigation.

After analysing the audiovisual production and the quality of the videos, we found common characteristics that are repeated in the treatment of the information and its audiovisual production.

And we found that 100% of the sample are videos of amateur production with impersonal direction, low-resolution images, non-professional voiceover and, in short, unappealing results.

Furthermore, we examine what the motivation of the creators of these videos is: if they try to influence, report or take positions on the open debate concerning the efficiency of these therapies. Additionally, we analyse ideas and images they transmit to the social imaginary through different communication strategies.

Presentation type: Visual talk
Theme: Society
Area of interest: Investigating science communication practices

Author: Vanessa Roger-Monzo – ESIC Business & Marketing School, Spain

Co-authors:
Yolanda Cabrera Garcia-Ochoa – University of Valencia
Myriam Marti-Sanchez – ESIC Business & Marketing School
Isabel Mendoza-Poudereux – University of Valencia

The model of idealising women frequently includes physical, attitudinal and behavioral factors. They can vary according to age and the personal moment where women find themselves. In order to reach that perfection, women’s magazines recommend that their target readership follow anything that sounds “natural”, obtaining in this way the cherished balance between body and soul and their total realization as women.

In 2011, the Spanish Ministry of Health published a report on natural therapies with the aim of classifying these techniques and compile the scientific evidence hitherto. The study included 139 types of practices with scarce scientific evidence beyond the placebo effect. Although most therapies are harmless, they are not absolutely exempt from risks.

This study aims to analyse and assess the treatment of alternative therapies that Spanish women’s monthly magazines offer. The research will analyse a content analysis of the ten most read magazines in Spain, according to Spain’s Estudio General de Medios (Media General Studies): 3,530,000 monthly readers between October 2016 to March 2017: Vogue, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Divinity, Glamour, Telva, AR, Woman, Clara and Marie Claire. The corpus includes the content of natural therapies between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2016. The search, after 90% of the scrutiny, has resulted in 498 units.

The results of the research demonstrate the role of yoga as the most frequent alternative therapy appearing in women’s magazines, with 35% of results, followed by meditation (20%) and Pilates (11%). The use of CAM is mainly related to stress. Regarding the sources of information, the scarce use of documentary sources to elaborate contents on the CAM is verified and the use of unauthorized personal sources or with conflict of interests (celebrities and CAM experts) is verified to support this type of content.

Presentation type: Individual paper
Theme: Society
Area of interest: Investigating science communication practices