Public Awareness of Concussions/CTEs Over Time Within Major Publications

Abstract

American culture is pushed by multiple media outlets, and based off what these sources are sharing shapes how people look at certain things. This capstone project's focus will examine the public awareness of concussions/CTEs over time through the lenses of major publications. To gain a better understanding of what is being distributed to the public, we will look at two publications that are from different platforms. One publication will come from a sports background while the other will have a focus in health. With that in mind, the chosen publications for this analysis will be ESPN and Men's Health. An important part of this analysis is selecting a specific period of time in which this issue can be exposed or display change the most. The selected time range for the chosen publication issues take place between 2010 and present day. With the combination of both of these publications we can compare them side by side and see how the issue of concussions has been seen over time. The manner in which the sources share their information is everything to both the targeted audience and the game of football. Something else that will be discovered when viewing both sources is how they have changed in the way that they are tackling this issue. A lot of events and actions occur over time, and it is up to the media to take the information they gather and create a story worth sharing.