MCLIN 480 - MEDIA AND MEDICINE

[152 Hours]

The goal of this elective is to give the medical student the opportunity to be actively involved in the newly burgeoning field of health media in the forms of print, television, radio and digital. Some travel will be necessary for the elective due to multiple sites where instruction and evaluation will take place. The student will be mentored by professionals where the student will be studying how to better the quality of health and medical information which is disseminated to the general public. The course sites will be LSUHSC and I-SU BR campus, WDSU television studios and Dillard University. Instruction will consist of the history of medical topics in the media and the evolution of the medical expert/correspondent. It will also include instruction on the makeup of media companies and social media outlets and how they contribute to the social construct of the medical landscape. Students will learn the skill set of effective interviewing or being interviewed on a variety of media platforms. Dr. Corey Hebert will be the primary instructor. Students who have completed this clerkship should be able to: 1. understand the history and evolution of the medical correspondent. 2. use their knowledge of the principles of medicine and ethics to clearly discuss, and elaborate on, a specific medical topic while on camera with and without a teleprompter and be able to perform an effective interview and be interviewed on any platform e.g. television, radio, print, digital. 2. disseminate straightforward medical/health information essential to a healthy community by using their understanding of the medical audience to write an effective grammatically sound medical article appropriate for publication in a mainstream print, or digital, medium. 3. perform a distillation exercise researching a medical topic and writing a brief effective script for publication or on camera delivery about a breaking medical news story from a mock national medical event. Students will be evaluated at the end of the course by their performance on the following: 1. An interview of a medical subject on camera 2. Submitting to a mock on camera interview by a reporter 3. Generation of a medical article suitable for publication on a mainstream media digital platform