Medicine on British television: a content analysis.

Fifty-four British television programs on medical topics were viewed and analyzed during a four-month period in the winter of 1988-89. Medical programs of a nonfictional, nondramatic variety were represented on all four channels of British television with 75% appearing on the BBC. The primary format was that of a documentary; most offerings were during peak television viewing hours and were 30-50 minutes in length. Principal settings were within the realm of clinical medicine or health care delivery. The location of filming was in hospitals rather than outpatient areas. Doctors were presented as experts, but general practitioners were infrequently represented. The health care team was generally treated in a sympathetic manner. Psychiatric/behavioral and neurologic topics appeared frequently, with common medical problems and preventive medicine rarely emphasized.