Drug Promotion in the Media

Drug Promotion in the Media THE GHANAIAN MEDIA AND CONSUMER PROTECTION: THE CASE OF THE (TRADITIONAL) MEDICINE INDUSTRY The issue of consumer protection has been widely discussed in many countries across the world and especially in the advanced countries. In recent times, this discussion has diffused into developing countries, especially in Africa and most particularly in Ghana. Also, the media’s integrity and ethics of Journalism has been extensively debated. The subject matter of using the media to promote drugs and drug related products to consumers directly has undergone much scrutiny lately. The literature on these issues is profuse, yet some notable ones will be reviewed in the subsequent paragraphs. To begin with, Julie Donohue in her article, â€Å"A History of Drug Advertising: The Evolving Roles of Consumers and Consumer Protection† (2006) queried the importance of direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) on drugs. Although she agreed on the fact that â€Å"the main tool of consumer protection laws is the disclosure of information in order to level the playing field between buyers and sellers† (p662), to her, this phenomenon actually encourages â€Å"self-diagnosis† and is therefore detrimental to consumer’s health. She blamed this problem on the legal and cultural changes in health care. In her own words, she argued that the â€Å"legal and cultural changes in health care brought about by the patients’ and consumers’ rights movements laid the groundwork for the DTCA of prescription drugs. DTCA was surely an unintended consequence of these social movements and may, paradoxically, serve to frustrate future efforts to protect patients and consumers† (p691). She further argued that the use of mass media advertising for prescription drugs misleads consumers into taking costly prescription drugs that they do not need. She opined that mass media advertisements were only intended to be a â€Å"vehicle for pharmaceutical manufacturers to tell end users about their products’and ‘not to help businesses market their products† (p662). According to her, drugs that advertised to consumers had the advantage of established brand recognition, and this is what has accounted for most pharmaceutical companies pushing their products to the mass media to be advertised. Also, in the book The Truth About the Drug Companies (2004), Angell Marcia, apprised us thoroughly on underpinnings of drug companies. Tracing their eruption from 1980, Angell, lamented the manner in which the pharmaceutical industry has not been innovative. To him, â€Å"only a handful of truly important drugs have been brought to market in recent years, and they were mostly based on taxpayer-funded research at academic institutions, small biotechnology companies or the National Institutes of Health. The majority of ‘new’ drugs are not new at all but merely variations of older drugs already on the market. These are called ‘me-too’ drugs†. (p3). He explained that the thinking behind these â€Å"me-too† drugs is to grab a share of an established, lucrative market and make profit. Thus, to him, drug companies spring up almost every day, not because they intend to bring any new product onto the market, but only to reproduce drugs which are already in existence, and with the motive of making profit. This motive informs their resort to the mass media for direct-to-consumer advertisements (DTCA) so as to gain advantage over their competitors. He thus advocates that the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) must stiffen their approval of new drugs coming unto the market. Thus, to him, â€Å"the me-too market would collapse virtually overnight if the FDA made approval of new drugs contingent on their being better in some important way than older drugs already on the market† (p12). He is of the view that this measure would make drug companies focus on finding truly innovative drugs and also reduce the incessant and enormously expensive marketing necessary to jockey for position in the me-too market. Furthermore, in their article â€Å"Media Credibility and Informativeness of Direct-to-Consumer Prescription Drug Advertising†(2004), Huh et al evaluated consumer perceptions of the media credibility and informativeness of direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertisement and examined how those perceptions were influenced by consumer predispositions and demographic characteristics. To them, DTC advertisements are targeted mostly at â€Å"older consumers’’a segment that is particularly susceptible and vulnerable to commercial persuasion† (p29). This is because, to them studies have documented â€Å"various physical, psychological and social changes that accompany aging, including reduced sensory abilitiescognitive impairmentsthat can alter the communication process and result in decision-making difficulties and decreased resistance to persuasion† (p34). This trend, they argue is what has necessitated the insistence on media credibility because †Å"audience tend to rely on media they consider credible and informative† (p29) in choosing which drug to buy or not to buy. They argued that, in recent times, the basic objective of DTC advertisements are to â€Å"inform, persuade and remind consumers to take prescribed actions toward advertised drugs-to learn, to prefer, to ask for, and to ask for again† (p30). This, to them, is a significant departure from the original form of advertising, which concentrated on â€Å"influencing and maintaining demand for prescription drugs through the use of the push promotion strategy† and which took the form of â€Å"trade advertising directed at physicians and was used to deliver information that would work with other promotional tools to educate, persuade and help sell advertised drugs to physicians† (p29). Notable among their findings was the fact that â€Å"consumers place greater value on the information utility of the media of DTC drug advertising than its credibility as an information source about prescription drugs† (p53). Moreover, Burke et al in their article â€Å"Deception by Implication: An Experimental Investigation† (1988) set out to, among other things, measure the â€Å"misleading of two common types of advertising claims and their relative effectiveness for increasing consumer brand preference and purchase likelihood† (p484). These types of advertising claims include, those â€Å"that might lead the consumer to have a false impression of a product not by literal interpretation, but by implication† (ibid). To them, there is a need for consumer protection for products such as â€Å"pain relievers, where brands offer similar or identical performance and consumers lack a rigorous reality test of the truthfulness of ad claims† (p492). This is because, they found out that â€Å"expanded and qualified claims can enhance consumers’ images of advertised brand and related purchase intentions† (ibid). They then proffered that in view of the potential of these ad vertisements to â€Å"mislead consumers in cases where the advertised brand has no real competitive differentiation, advertisers are advised to use such claims judiciously† (ibid). To add to, in his article â€Å"Self Regulation and Television Advertising: A Replication and Extension† (2001), Abernethy Avery opined that â€Å"although television stations have the right to reject almost any advertisement submitted for broadcast, exercising that power to protect consumers from potentially false or misleading claims can directly lower station revenues† (p1). Thus to him, because of the possibility of television stations, like other media platforms, of losing revenue or not making much profit, these media outlets accept any advertisement from advertisers and air them on their platforms, without recourse to whether or not the advertisement can harm or mislead the consumer. Though he agrees that there are state and federal laws regulating the advertising of certain products such as tobacco, and also specific punitive measures for false and misleading or defamatory advertisements, he is of the view that much responsibility rests on media houses to engage in â€Å"self-regulation† (p2) or â€Å"clearance process† (p3) to sieve advertisements before putting them out for the public’s consumption. In his own words, â€Å"owners and managers of media vehicles have great power to determine the type of advertising they carry’’and determine if it is acceptable for their audience† (p2). He believes this process has the potential to â€Å"provide considerable consumer protection from false, misleading, or, inappropriate advertising† (p3). He found out through his research that â€Å"only 3% of stations substantiate the claims of every submitted advertisement and 2.5% of stations reject 10% or more of advertisements submitted for broadcast† (p9). These results to him, indicate that the â€Å"consumer protection provided by television advertisingis uneven† (ibid). As part of measures to curb this anomaly, he posits that the Federal Communications Commission must â€Å"require stations to submit their advertising review policies during license renewal and that those policies be part of public record† (p10). He believed that this measure would improve consumer protection since media houses and advertisers will be under obligation to put out true information about products. REFERENCES: Donohue, J., (2006) â€Å"A History of Drug Advertising: The Evolving Roles of Consumers and Consumer Protection† in Milbank Quarterly, Vol. 84, Issue 4, pp 659-699 Marcia, A., (2004) â€Å"The Truth about the Drug Companies†. Huh et al., (2004) â€Å"Media Credibility and Informativeness of Direct-to-Consumer Prescription Drug Advertising† in Health Marketing Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 3, pp 27-61 Burke et al., (1988) â€Å"Deception by Implication: An Experimental Investigation† in Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 14, No. 4, pp 483-494 Abernethy et al., (2001) â€Å"Self-regulation and Television Advertising: A Replication and Extension† in Journal of Adertising Research, Vol. 41, Issue 3, pp 31-37

South Africa

Sindy Veritus March 9, 2013 Global Studies: Argumentative Essay South African Apartheid Apartheid in South Africa was a system of racial segregation enforced through legislation by the National Party government from 1948 to 1994 of South Africa. Racial segregation in South Africa began in colonial times by the Dutch and British. Apartheid as an official policy was introduced following the general election in 1948. Apartheid was developed after War World II by the Afrikaner-dominated National Party and was first colonized by the Dutch and then the English came in and took most of it away.The population of South Africa was classified into four groups which was the Black, White, Indian, and Colored. The Colored group included people regarded as being of mixed descent including people of Bantu, and European ancestry and much more. Knowing that Apartheid was a system of laws created to keep the white population in control. The Group Areas act of 1951 controlled people where they could of live. The black where driven far away from their city, although their jobs were still in the cities in the white neighborhood.The Bantu education Act meant that the black students were disadvantaged with their education. â€Å"Bus fares were expensive and catching public transport everyday was expensive and caused hardship and depression for the black people. † (Wikipedia) The apartheid policy was highly effective of achieving its goal of privileged conduct for whites. On the other hand, the white population supported apartheid because they felt it was there to own the land of South Africa.There were many white pro apartheid people because of the much larger population of black South Africans causing the white people to believe that if the black were given rights and freedom, they would of no longer have political power. The white people were worried because they thought that their race would be taken over and they would lose the control that they always had. As a final point , In February 1990 President FW de Klerk announced the release of Nelson Mandela and began the exclusion of the Apartheid system.In 1992 a white council approved the reform process and on April 27, 1994 the first democratic elections were held in South Africa with people of all different races being able to vote. After the Apartheid came to an end in South Africa, people had more freedom. The Africans now have a little more money now that it’s not all going to the white. South Africa is now peaceful and the anniversary of the elections, which was held on April 27, is celebrated as a public holiday in South Africa known as Freedom Day.

Integrated and multi-agency working Essay

1.1 Explain the importance of multi-agency working and integrated working. Multi-agency working allows practitioners from different sectors and professions to work together to support children, young people and families. It makes sure that the child has the best support it can have. It has amazing benefits for the child and early identification and intervention allows that child to have tailor made support, thus allowing the child to reach his/her full potential either in their learning or development. It is important that young children and their families have support as a holistic approach which is part of the government framework. For example.ECM Every Child Matters, the five outcomes of ECM is that we should be working together to achieve the best possible outcomes for the children. The five aims are as follows. 1. be healthy. 2. Stay safe 3 Enjoy and achieve 4Make a Positive contribution 5Achieve economic well-being. A very effect part of multi agency working is inclusion and so they will encourage the child to be a part of whole class learning and will plan and adapt lessons accordingly. So the individual agencies provide different areas of expertise and the child will have the benefit of the holistic approach. 1.2. Analyse how integrated working practices and multi-agency working in partnership deliver better outcomes for children and young people. There are many outcomes for children that will be positive if the professionals working with the children and their families can share and agree upon the way they might assess, plan and implement for the child. Both the children and their parents can be involved in any plans to ensure that a child can achieve their potential both educationally and developmental. It is far more beneficial for the child to have a group of people who are skilled in different areas working with them and their families rather than to have help in only one area. It is equally important that all professionals involved share information on progress because failure to do so may lead to that child not receiving the best advice or help possible., they also need to meet up on a regular basis with the parents, teachers or any adult that are working on a daily basis with that child to have current idea on their progress. It is also important that if they are working with a child who is culturally different to gain as much information and understanding of their culture and communities. Although sometimes the school cannot support all issues surrounding the child such as housing they can provide an important point of contact and organise other professional help thus giving the child a very good start in life. 1.3. Describe the functions of external agencies with whom your work setting or service interacts. In our setting we have several different agencies that come into the school to give extra support to children. Speech and language therapists come in to initially assess the child, they will then either give us a set programme to follow to enable us to work on a 1-1 basis or with a small group of children, and the programme can include things like listening to / following instructions, pronunciation of certain letters /words. The same programme will be sent home to parents and they will be encouraged to follow it to enable the child to have as much help as possible. The Childs GP may have made the referral to the speech and language therapist if they thought that the child had difficulty in communicating effectively. Social workers will work with the child’s family to help them improve many things such as housing issues, poverty or any health needs of if there has been a bereavement that the parents or child are having difficulty coming to terms with. Educational psychologists will work with a child who has specific learning needs or psychological needs; they are usually brought in by the setting and will usually work with the child in the setting. TAC (team around the child) This is 2 or more professionals from different areas who come in to support the child and their families, this is done by offering parenting classes and helping the parent cope with day to day situations that they find stressful, for example this could be arranging childcare or advising on budgeting. School nurse comes in to weigh child, do hearing, dental and sight tests and will inform parent of any specific problems which may arise once these tests are completed. 1.4 Explain common barriers to integrated working and multi-agency working and how these can be overcome. Some professionals use their own abbreviated language when talking about their areas of expertise which is only recognised by their profession and so other professionals from different fields may not understand what is being said or meant. Other professional people may be used to working on their own so may find it difficult to share knowledge or accept advice given to them on how to deal with a situation. Different professions may have a different way of dealing with risks and may have different views and priorities on how to deal with children; they may feel threatened or upset when they are asked to find new ways of working. In order to work together successfully it is important that each profession is respected and made aware that their knowledge is seen as a valuable contribution to the multi-agency working†¦ it is also important for the individual professions to open t heir minds and consider a different approach and to communicate with each other and remember that every profession is working towards the benefit of the child. The key to a multi-agency running smoothly is to have a lead professional who will act as a point of contact for the child and their families and who will then take responsibility for the other agencies involved and communicate between all of the professionals thus hopefully preventing any barriers. 1.5 Explain how and why referrals are made between agencies. If the class teacher has any concerns about a Childs development or progress and think that that child may have an underlying problem that is stopping them from reaching their full potential such as a hearing, speech or any SEN (Special Educational Needs) then they inform the SENCO (Special Educational Co- Coordinator), they will come and observe the child and then if they think along the same lines then they will decide on which professional to make a referral to. The parent can also ask to be referred to a professional agency if they think their child is having specific difficulties. The professional then comes in and do their observations and will decide whether that child will need to be involved with several different agencies or with one specific one, such as speech and language. The parents will always be informed and will be involved in any referral process. It is essential that the Childs needs are identified and assessed quickly so that the proper provision can be put in place as soon as possible and the child can participate and be included in mainstream school and reach their full potential. 1.6 Explain the assessment frameworks that are used in own UK Home Nation. As a way of providing early intervention for a child before their situation reaches crisis point the Children’s Act (2004) and Every Child matters (DFES 2003) outlined a Common Assessment framework (CAF). It is a shared assessment and planning framework. This consists of a form which is filled in by the school (At my setting this is usually completed by the child protection officer) and the parent and can. take between 1 and 1.30 hours to complete. It can include concerns about Childs health and safety within the family, learning and developmental needs, any concerns about poverty within the family or behavioural issues. Once completed the form is sent to the CAF admin who will decide which professionals need to be involved, this could be a single agency such as a support worker who will work closely with the family or a multi-agency (TAC team around the child). By intervening early hopefully this will stop the child being referred to social services and being taken away from their families. 3.3a Analyse the potential tension between maintaining confidentiality with the need to disclose information. Where abuse of a child or young person is suspected. If a child/young person confides in us and discloses information where I suspect they maybe being abused I cannot promise to keep it a secret because I will have to disclose the information given in order to protect them. I would tell them that I have to inform others and that they will not be in trouble, as a main feature of sexual abuse is that the abuser asks the child to keep this a secret and tell them that they will be in trouble if they say something. I would write down exactly what the child said and date and sign the form and discuss the issue with the child protection officer. Potential tension could occur between myself and that child as they may think that I have let them down and abused their trust and may be reluctant to reveal any more, also if the abuser is a family member then once they have been informed of the disclosure they may be angry and could come to the school and threaten me or my family members, they may also remove the child from the setting and that child would be terrified and feel that everything is their fault. The suspected abuser could also make allegations against me saying that I am making up the whole story in order to protect themselves and until the abuse is proven they may try to instigate a group of parents to be little me every day which would cause a very stressful and intimidating situation. For an older child they may decide to withhold some of the information and so I would make it clear to them that they have different options such as the NSPCC, Child line, if they felt they could not talk to me. 3.3b when it is suspected that a crime has been/ may be committed. Firstly it is important to define what the crime is and how serious the crime is, as crime can cover a wide range of things from things like DVD Piracy right through to murder. If I felt the crime would not harm the child or others such as the DVD piracy then I would keep the disclosure confidential because it is important that the trust between child, parent and school be maintained in order for the families to share other information with us. If a child is being hurt or their parents are involved in more serious crime such as abuse, violence, drug trafficking or burglary then it would be obvious that you have to break confidentiality to ensure that the child that you are looking after is not in any significant harm and is safe and protected, and although my reporting the crime to others and the police would cause considerable tension within the family which may even result in a prison sentence and there may be significant repercussions made to me, my duty of care is to that child and I have to protect them at all times. If it were an older child and they were committing serious crimes themselves then I would inform them that I would have to involve the police and break confidentiality , this would cause considerable tension between the child/ young person and myself as they would inevitably get into serious trouble and they may want to hurt me or my family, they may even find out where I live and burgle my house . If the child was taking or selling illegal substances then I would try to find out why they were doing so and then try to persuade them to seek advice from a drug counsellor or their GP, hopefully my early intervention may cause them to realise that what they are doing is wrong and they may see the error in their ways and change their approach to life and breaking confidentiality would be the right thing to do in order to support the young person in getting the best help available.

Characteristics Of A Good Leader - 916 Words

To Be a Leader In the world today, there are leaders everywhere, such as Parents, Pastors, The President, CEO of Companies, Supervisors, and World Leaders just to name a few. These Leaders can be good or bad, for you or against you. A leader is a person that sees things through in order to make changes either in the mental growing aspect of one’s life, the economics of the world, or spiritual belief. The characteristics of a good leader are the leaders’ ability to inspire others, willingness to lead and integrity. The most important attribute of people is to be able to inspire others to do things out of their normality by making one feel needed, and wanted. Furthermore, using tactics such as incentives and rewards can be offered. For instance, when you need people to contribute to a project, sometimes an incentive needs to be presented in order for them to consider the offer. The tool available to do this is called a bonus payout. (Thurman, M. 2015). The other thing that can inspire others is the end of the year bonus, this will allow others to work hard in hopes to reap the benefits of a large employee bonus, for all the hard work that was contributed to the company that year. (Thurman, M. 2015). A good leader can inspire others with his or her words. This is tactic is used by Pastors, Preacher, Rabbi, Priest and other Spiritual leaders. There words are used to give you a since of fortitude, that everything will be okay just trust in god and he help you see everythingShow MoreRelatedCharac teristics Of A Good Leader905 Words   |  4 PagesIn the world today, there are leaders everywhere, such as parents, Pastors, The President, CEO’s of companies, supervisors, and World Leaders just to name a few. A Leader can be good, bad, for or against an individual. A leader is also a person that sees projects and life through in order to make changes either in the mental growing aspect of one’s life, the economics of the world, or spiritual belief. The characteristics of a good leader are the leaders’ ability to inspire others, willingnessRead MoreCharacteristics Of A Good Leader1727 Words   |  7 Pages Characteristics a Good Leader Should Possess BU430 Leadership Christine Troglen June 28, 2015 Miller-Motte College Characteristics a Good Leader Should Possess The traits or characteristics of a good leader play an integral part in how that leader decides, acts and leads. The actions of a good leader also play a role in how they affect the rest of those they lead. That leadership, for example, impacts the ultimate goals of the group or the company. A good leader must haveRead MoreCharacteristics Of A Good Leader1655 Words   |  7 PagesIndividuals are all defined by certain behaviors and characteristics. Specifically from a management standpoint, it is important to understand these behaviors and characteristics so that the manager can demonstrate a certain leadership style that will work best within their own organization. There is a common saying within most organizations, stating that all leaders should be managers, but not all managers should be leaders (Sun). Aspiring leaders need to identify the various types of leadership stylesRead MoreCharacteristics Of A Good Leader912 Words   |  4 Pageswhat traits a leader should contain. W ithin the development of surveys people are able to decided what characteristics they believe are those of a good leader. Surveys are not just used to see the good they are also used as a form of improvement where people can assess a person’s trait to help them better themselves. Having a standard for what a good leader is, is not necessarily used the same in each position or job field. Some places of employment look for particular characteristic that others mayRead MoreCharacteristics Of A Good Leader869 Words   |  4 Pagesworld today, there are leaders everywhere such as Parents, Pastors, The President, CEO of Companies, Supervisors and World leaders just to name a few, these individuals can be good or bad, for you or against you. A leader is a person that sees things through in order to make change either in the mental growing aspect of one’s life, the economics of the world, or spiritual belief. The characteristics of a good leader are the leaders’ abil ity to inspire others willingness to leader and integrity. TheRead MoreCharacteristics Of A Good Leader2712 Words   |  11 PagesThe description of a leader is a person that leads a group of people. A leader that has positive traits is a valuable asset in today’s society. A good leader will be honest and caring with a desire to make a positive outcome by encouraging followers and work toward a goal for the organization they are a part of. This paper will discuss the traits of a good leader as well as emphasize on past leadership experiences. Leadership theories can come from people closely involved with an individual, andRead MoreCharacteristics of a Good Leader2287 Words   |  9 Pagesinfluence, another definition by Peter Drucker in his foundation The Leader of the Future says the leader is someone who has followers. A good leader always tries to develop the working methods so as to achieve the set goals and keeps constantly tries to improve his functional skills in various fields, also the good leader challenge the process, have a vision and share it with others and encourage others to act. 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Forty-four percent of businesses believe they will be increasing the amount of money spent on leadership development (The 10 defining traits of an amazing leader, n.d.). Could they save money if research could determine what traits and characteristics are imperative for a good and effective leader? This paper willRead MoreEssay about Characteristics of a Good Leader526 Words   |  3 Pages A good leader needs to have many particular characteristics. Some of these are obvious, such as that they care about what you are doing and always puts you before themselves. Also another trait of a good leader is that they always keep promises they make. Some of the subtle attributes of a good leader are that they do not hide behind bad news. Moreover, they are easy people to talk to and they have a good if not excellent sense of humor. In my opinion, the best leader would be one that enjoys