coveney_2009_modafinil_in_the_media.pdf (325.28 kB)
Modafinil in the media: metaphors, medicalisation and the body
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 17:53 authored by Catherine Coveney, Brigitte Brigitte Nerlich, Paul MartinThis paper uses UK media coverage of the sleep drug modafinil to investigate the medicalisation of sleep at a conceptual level. Using metaphorical frame analysis we investigate the conceptual links created in media discourse between sleep and health, and the body and technology in the UK. Using this novel analytical tool we explore under what circumstances modafinil is constructed as a necessary medical treatment or a (il)legitimate performance enhancement and, how in this process, various images of the body are constructed. We found that media discourse on modafinil was structured through four types of sleep discourse: patient, sports, recreational, and occupational. Each discourse was built up around the specific deployment of three central metaphorical frames ‘war’, ‘commodity’ and ‘competition’ that acted to construct the biological body in a particular way. How the body was framed in each discourse impacted upon how modafinil use was portrayed in terms of therapy or enhancement and the level of engagement with a medical rhetoric. This had distinct normative implications strongly influencing the legitimacy afforded to modafinil use in each domain. We argue that medical authority acts to legitimise modafinil use for repair, restoration and relief of suffering, whilst being deployed to pass judgment on its use in bodies already perceived as functioning normally. This leads us to conclude that conceptually, the acceptability of ‘enhancement’ is strongly tied to context of use and intricately related to medical social control.
Funding
WT080528MA; The Wellcome Trust
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Published version
Journal
Social Science and MedicineExternal DOI
Issue
3Volume
68Page range
487-495Department affiliated with
- International Relations Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2014-07-21First Open Access (FOA) Date
2014-07-21First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2014-07-21Usage metrics
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