TV: Transmitting Knowledge

Believe or not, last October 8^th, the Dr. Oz Show delivered an episode that severely impacted the lives of many people as he talked about one of the most important topics in this century: Artificial Sweeteners.

He started off by saying:

“Today I am talking about the choices you make every single day in your desire to get healthy. You cut out the butter and you cut out the sugar and you use healthy substitutes instead. Today I have brand new information. These butter and sugar alternatives may be linked to cancer, weight gain and even Alzheimer’s. Are you at risk?

Today you’ll get answers.”

These truly effective words catch the audience’s attention and engage them to keep watching that segment.

But first of all, why should we trust Dr. Oz?

He is a well-known doctor, who graduated from one of the most prestigious universities in USA, Harvard University. He received his MBA degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and was awarded the Captain’s Athletic Award in College for leadership having been class president and student body president during medical school.

After watching the episode online from doctoroz.com, I happened to look at the comments from Facebook left below the video, and realized that this video has reached the top 10 most commented videos.

In addition to compliments about Dr. Oz’s work, the comments in the video included questions concerning specific problems related with artificial sweeteners and daily consumption as well as the use of Stevia, since it was the main substance talked about in that section.

Dr. Oz specialty is general medicine, however to be more helpful to the audience he has special guests like in todays show, dietician, Ashley Koff, who participated as a topic consultant; her purpose consisted of helping educate people on the effects of Artificial Sweeteners and she suggested Stevia as the natural sweetener replacement. She also answered questions from an invited guest who talked about her own health problems regarding the consumptions of these chemicals.

The show’s incorporation of getting free consultation from a specialized doctor as well as the sharing of specific problems happens to make the show the most successful one on Mondays at 2 p.m.

This schedule makes it beneficial for the transmission of knowledge because it corresponds to the timing where mothers happen to be free after lunch and begin to watch TV. Thanks to their free time, this creates an effect because mothers are able to retain the information and then use it for the benefit of her family.

The idea of contacting people who suffer from diseases talked during the show and making them share their pains in public is very effective. The best help Dr. Oz Show can do is raise awareness, not only for the audience watching but also for the guests that come to the show to share their story. The best way to stop the problem is by acquiring greater knowledge on the illness.

Thanks to the fact that this show is televised it is able to reach a far greater amount of viewers than other medias. This creates two effects, which would be less expenditure of money from the viewers and a better transmission of knowledge.

The “Hands-on-Activities” and animations become great tools used during the program; they create a greater impact on the audience in the studio.

The “Hands-on-Activities” help transmit the idea of self-awareness of the problem in order to treat or cure it. This helps because once the root cause of the problem is known, and then precaution actions can take place to make the person take care of their body in order to cure their problem and not to experience any pain.

Dr. Oz makes use of animations in order to explain the disease to the guests who are dealing with it in an easier way.  Normally, when doctors explain the disease in their own jargon, it is very difficult to comprehend.

I encountered a similar experience last year. One day, all of a sudden I woke up with a pain in my right eye and I thought that I hit myself during my sleep. As time progressed the pain grew stronger every time I would touch it. I decided to venture to the doctor. While I was there he examined my eye and told me I had a Stye, since I’ve never experienced one before I didn’t know what it was.

While the doctor explained what it was, I zoned out. He was using technical terms to describe the infection as well as the treatment for it. I didn’t understand what he was saying, so when he said to just pour some drop into my eye, that’s what I took from it. As if my luck wasn’t bad enough, I got another Stye infection. Due to the fact that I zoned out while the doctor was speaking I had to go back again to his office and get another explanation. After that happened, I started to learn about my infection for future precautions.

Have you ever gone through this moment in your life?

Going back to the Artificial Sweeteners’ episode, I can personally say that this fragment had an impact on me; I suffer from high sugar in my blood, so I could relate to what Dr. Oz was saying. I was able to understand the problems that arise from the consumption of artificial sweetener and the effect they can have on my body and health in the long run.

 Can you relate to the problem of consuming Artificial Sweeteners?

I can honestly say that Dr. Oz has helped me in many of the problems I have experienced, as I am pretty sure it has helped many Americans. Thanks to media, dedicated people like Dr. Oz can expand their own support to communities and societies because they can share some knowledge at a much quicker pace. And that is what growth and evolution is all about.