Navigating health communication: The effects of mediatization on responsibility in complex decision-making

This article investigates the mediatization of responsibility in the context of
health care decision-making and biological citizenship. The analyzes how Danish parents
navigate the pervasiveness, polysemy, and media logic of health communication, and how
the authority and legitimacy of certain types of health communication play into their sense
of responsibility. The study consists of interviews with 18 Danish parents who were in the
process of deciding or had recently decided on whether to give their child the human papil-
lomavirus (HPV) vaccine. This study draws on mediatization theory, sociological theory of
responsibility, and research on health communication to illustrate the media-centered con-
ditions that shape parents’ decision-making processes. We find that the pervasiveness and
polysemic nature of the information available about the vaccine creates an imperative to
understand the information while parents also have to navigate the media logic regarding
media’s motivation for presenting information about HPV vaccines in certain ways. As a
consequence, parents’ decision-making responsibility as biological citizens is undergoing
significant changes that place increasing responsibility on the parents in this study