New superheroes. The media relationship between children and doctors

Abstract

The article introduces an ongoing research realized by the Lab Center for Generative Communication (CfGC), directed by Luca Toschi. The aim of this study is to define the impact of media in the evolution of imagery of children and young people regarding doctors. Today, in relation to COVID-19 emergency, doctors appear - through media exposition - as heroic figures, with peculiar characteristics in comparison to the classic superhero: from the various information and awareness campaigns to the street-Banksy’s art, in the media an idea of abstract super-heroism is abandoned, preferring a more concrete and real doctor-hero model.

The first resultats that emerge from this study show how doctors were represented across the years: when medicine was still an uncertain science, the arrival of the doctor at home represented an unusual moment and, at the same time, crucial for the survival of the youngest and most fragile people. The seriousness and respectability  of his role was often represented in pictures and illustrations in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries and it changes progressively. In fact, later  the doctor starts to show a nuance of attitudes between the vulnerable and the swindler and he relates to young people in precarious health conditions, and leaves from their presence/absence in pictures - such as "The Doctor" by Luke Fildes (1891) or "The Sick Girl" by Edvard Munch (1885-1927) - to its uselessness in critical situations such as in Carlo Collodi’s "The Adventures of Pinocchio" (1881-1883).

In more recent times, the figure of the doctor seems to come out of the juvenile imagery, given the scientific advances that have taken place over the years and that have allowed us to eradicate lethal diseases. While there were serious problems related to the health of young people and the limited availability of health professionals, the presence of the doctor was seen as an unusual event and, in the solution of a serious health problem, his intervention left indelible marks in children's perception. 

Therefore, the study will explore the ways in which, from the last century to the present, doctors are always more “human” and show empathy, changing the role of young patients and their families. Finally, the research introduces some information about the impact of COVID-19 in the perception of doctors, who become heroes in the imagery of children and young people.